160 OUR NATIONAL PARKS 



from the foot of it, like stalactite and stalagmite, 

 the soil being held together by the flowery, 

 moisture-loving plants growing in it. 



Along the rocky parts of the canon bottoms 

 between lake basins, where the streams flow fast 

 over glacier-polished granite, there are rows of 

 pothole gardens full of ferns, daisies, golden- 

 rods, and other common plants of the neigh- 

 borhood nicely arranged like bouquets, and 

 standing out in telling relief on the bare shining 

 rock banks. And all the way up the canons to 

 the Summit mountains, wherever there is soil of 

 any sort, there is no lack of flowers, however 

 short the summer may be. Within eight or ten 

 feet of a snow bank lingering beneath a shadow, 

 you may see belated ferns unrolling their fronds 

 in September, and sedges hurrying up their 

 brown spikes on ground that has been free from 

 snow only eight or ten days, and likely to be 

 covered again within a few weeks ; the winter in 

 the coolest of these shadow gardens being about 

 eleven months long, while spring, summer, and 

 autumn are hurried and crowded into one month. 

 Again, under favorable conditions, alpine gar- 

 dens three or four thousand feet higher than the 

 last are in their prime in June. Between the 

 Summit peaks at the head of the canons sur- 

 prising effects are produced where the sunshine 

 falls direct on rocky slopes and reverberates 

 among boulders. Toward the end of August, in 



