164 OUR NATIONAL PARKS 



the dead sloppy sod appear, gradually increasing 

 in size until they are free and warm again, face 

 to face with the sky ; myriads of growing points 

 push through the steaming mould, frogs sing 

 cheeringly, soon joined by the birds, and the 

 merry insects come back as if suddenly raised 

 from the dead. Soon the ground is green with 

 mosses and liverworts and dotted with small 

 fungi, making the first crop of the season. Then 

 the grass leaves weave a new sod, and the ex- 

 ceedingly slender panicles rise above it like a 

 purple mist, speedily followed by potentilla, 

 ivesia, bossy orthocarpus, yellow and purple, and 

 a few pentstemons. Later come the daisies and 

 goldenrods, asters and gentians. Of the last 

 there are three species, small and fine, with vary- 

 ing tones of blue, and in glorious abundance, 

 coloring extensive patches where the sod is shal- 

 lowest. Through the midst flows a stream only 

 two or three feet wide, silently gliding as if care- 

 ful not to disturb the hushed calm of the solitude, 

 its banks embossed by the common sod bent 

 down to the water's edge, and trimmed with mosses 

 and violets ; slender grass panicles lean over like 

 miniature pine trees, and here and there on the 

 driest places small mats of heathworts are neatly 

 spread, enriching without roughening the bossy 

 down-curling sod. In spring and summer the 

 weather is mostly crisp, exhilarating sunshine, 

 though magnificent mountain ranges of cumuli 



