BIOLOGICAL RECONNOISSANCE AT FLATHEAD LAKE. 163 
The Swan Range of the Kootenai Mountains. 
Several excursions have been made into the Swan range in different 
years. In 1901, Dr. MacDougal, Mr. Harris, Mr. Ricker, Mr. Silloway and 
the writer shouldered packs and started over the trail to Haystack. We 
passed along the south face of this about third way up, and northeast to 
Silloway mountain. The second day Mr. Ricker and Mr. Silloway return- 
ed to camp. The remaining three passed entirely around the head of 
Wolf creek, ascended Craig mountain, followed its long ridge to the north- 
ern end, and descended through the woods to camp the third day without 
mishap. 
The trail thinned out and disappeared early in the day. The slope 
was steep. The blazing July sun on the south side of the mountain was 
blistering hot. The way was almost barred by dense growth of rock 
maple, alder, mountain ash, New Jersey tea and Menziesii scrub. This 
growth was bent downward by many heavy and sliding snows. In its 
effort to straighten the shrubby vegetation had become a tangled mass, 
exceedingly difficult to penetrate. 
From nine in the morning, when this scrub growth was first en- 
countered, until six in the evening we worried through this dense and 
tangled shrubbery. Excessive thirst drove us to a descent to the creek 
at this time, as our canteens. were long since empty. After a cool and 
refreshing draught the brush was again entered. It was worse than ever. 
It was impossible to see more than a few feet ahead, and it was often 
necessary to crawl on hands and knees to get through. Most of the 
timie the head man was poking his gun between bent bushes with one hand 
and with the other trying to force the stems apart so as to slip through. 
Of course the others followed. The lead man was soon tired out with 
the threshing round he received and was relieved by another, and so on. 
It was the most trying, soul stirring, temper distracting and abominable 
place the writer has ever had the bad fortune to be in. Guns, packs, 
and other paraphernalia made progress so slow as to be very dishearten- 
ing. Some of the boys wanted to stop and sleep on the brush. But 
we pushed on. About nine in the evening we stopped on a large flat 
rock, fifty feet above the stream, and 1,600 feet below the ridge we 
hoped to reach by night. So tired were we that we threw ourselves 
down to rest without removing the packs. After a meal remembered 
not by the abundance or variety of food, but by the fact that it was very 
good, we crawled into our sleeping bags around the campfire for a 
night’s rest. 
The next morning we were off before half past six. The slope was 
steep, and smoothed annually by spring avalanches. We reached the 
ridge summit at 9, prospected the three ridges to the mountain, as also 
the lake. As stated, two of the party returned from here to camp. The 
other three followed the ridge southward, skirted Actomys on the west, 
passed over some rocky cliffs into the pass of faulted rock between Arc- 
tomys and Craig, spending the night between huge snowbanks. Our 
