GREAT WHITE MONARCH OF THE PACIFIC COAST 
such features as hot and cold springs, 
falls, small lakes, and botanical rarities. 
High on the ridges and slopes of the 
neglected corners of the park the wild 
goats make their home. Sometimes they 
have been seen in numbers of 30 or 
more together. The deer, which are 
more abundant than any other of the 
large game, are occasionally seen from 
along the Government road. The black 
and brown bear are also seen, and at rare 
intervals the stealthy cougar or puma. 
The tourist season is generally from 
June to the last of September, and some- 
times after the first snows of autumn 
have melted favorable weather is pro- 
longed to November. In staying through 
the whole season the visitor will experi- 
ence a gradual change from the early 
summer, green with flowers and melting 
snow banks, to rich coloring in the leaf 
foliage of autumn, enveloped in hazy at- 
mosphere of purple gray. 
Between 5,000 and 8,000 feet elevation 
the botanist finds Rainier Park his para- 
dise, wherein there have already been 
found over 250 varieties of plant life, a 
•dozen or more kinds belonging to this 
region alone. The majority of the flow- 
ers are of light tint, but there are a lib- 
eral quantity of blue, red, and yellow, 
so deep and pure of color that artificial 
pigments fail to imitate them. The dis- 
tribution of several species of heather is 
a technical touch of finish in the ever- 
green, tipped in summer with clusters of 
small bells in colors purple, pink, yellow, 
and white. 
The white heather — Cassiope mcrten- 
siaiina — though not so abundant as the 
red, because of its winsome, delicate, 
pure white bells, with red sepals and fine 
stems, delicately attached to its fine ever- 
green foliage, is the general favorite of 
the heather kinds (see page 607). This 
species also grows the highest, being 
sometimes found at 8,000 feet altitude. 
\\'hile the shrub is hardy, the flowers do 
not appear until some days after snow is 
gone and last but a short season. This 
heather is also tlie choice of the Scotch- 
man, being nearer in style of flower and 
foliage to his native heather than the 
other forms here found. 
The red heather, by some people called 
purple, more accurately speaking is deep 
pink of purple tint. Its growth is abun- 
dant between 5,000 and 6,000 feet eleva- 
tion (see pages 604-5). Its thick clusters 
of bell-like flowers display pleasing con- 
trast to the rich green landscape. The 
sepals and stems of this bell have a very 
unusual color, being of a light sienna 
brown. The pollen at one stage is dark 
gray, another singular feature. The 
heathers are favorites with the bees. 
The cowslips — Caltha leptosepala — 
like several of the mountain flora, is 
scarce, especially in some localities, and 
not seen much by the vacationist in gen- 
eral (see page 593). Growing mostly in 
wet places and now and again partly 
covered with overflow from a near-by 
torrent, this flower appears to the casual 
tourist as belonging to the water-lily 
kind, but it is not so classed by the bot- 
anist. The flowers are medium size, 
with petals of dull yellow, almost white, 
harmonizing well with its stamens of 
deep yellow. This plant is very hardy 
to cold and moisture and comes early, 
ending its season before some of the 
late flowers have made their appearance. 
The mountain meadow aster — pidchcl- 
his — not noted for its great abundance 
over a large area, is thrifty and plentiful 
in patches in moist flats where grass is 
thin (see pages 614-615). Its intense 
golden yellow center, encircled with a 
liberal number of light-purple petals, is 
its special feature. The short stems are 
greenish and graded to dull dark purple 
and wine color. It has seldom more 
than one head. The perfume is very 
mild and pleasing. The flowers are sen- 
sitive to cold, moisture, and darkness, 
with great tendency to close after the 
heat of day. 
Anemones of luxuriant growth come 
early, and sometimes force their way 
through the edges of lingering snow 
beds. The blossoms appear first, but 
their carroty-like foliage is out in full 
fledge by the time the flowers are fully 
developed. The flowers are about two 
inches across, of a dull cream gray tint, 
nearly white, grading to dull purple hue 
near the lower ends of the petals as they 
