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water (at Schultz's Ferry) the canon is 2,000 feet deep and the 

 sides arc very sleep. From the Ferry to Mussel ("reek, at the 

 west base of the mountains, there is a broken country, at first 

 sparsely covered with 'yellow pines' [Pinus ponderosa Dougl.], 2 

 then more densely with firs; and at the creek and all over the 

 wist side of the mountains there is a very dense forest of magnifi- 

 cent firs [Abies grand is Lindl.], arbor vitae [Thuja plicata Don.] 

 and white pines [Pi?ius monticola Dougl. J. 



"The party of 1866 camped at the west base of these moun- 

 tains on Mussel Creek, from the 5th to the 26th of June, and it 

 rained 17 out of the 21 days. In passing the mountains the party 

 found the snows seven feet deep in the woods where it had not 

 drifted; so did Lewis and Clarke, who crossed the mountains 

 just 60 years before at the same time of the year. The snows had 

 been much deeper during the winter. Now they were coarsely 

 granulated and so compacted that they bore the horses very 

 well except at the sides of the underlying logs. The heat reflected 

 from the trees had thawed basins around their trunks and some- 

 times completely to the ground. No frozen ground was seen. 

 Flowers seemed in haste to spring up. A trillium [Trillium ova- 

 turn Pursh.] was gathered in blossom, the stem of which had 

 forced itself up through three and a half inches of granulated 

 snow. 



"The fir trees began to grow, forming new wood and leaves 

 at the ends of the branches while the snow was seven feet deep 

 between the trees. It is probable that the snow, beginning to fall 

 in September or the first of October, protects the ground so 

 completely that it never freezes. 



"The University Herbarium contains one hundred and fifty 

 species of plants collected on this expedition, and most of them 

 were collected in the mountain region. These plants have been 

 studied by Dr. Vasey, botanist to the U. S. Department of 

 Agriculture, and also by Dr. Gray. Perhaps the most rare plant 

 in the collection is the Wulfenia reniformis Hook. It was found 

 at an altitude of six thousand feet, June 28, in bloom, near 

 the snow. 



"The Caliha leptosepala was found in circumstances very 

 interesting to the botanist. Coming down from a peak to a sag 



2 Data within the brackets has been added by the writer. 



