Ocr., 1899,] EFFECTS OF SCANTY MOISTURE. 19 
EFFECTS OF SCANTY MOISTURK, 
The flora of Shasta, contrasted with that of moister mountains imme- 
diately north and immediately south, is poor in species and individuals; 
and the same is true in less degree of the fauna, At least nineteen 
characteristic genera aud uumerous additional species of plants com- 
mon to the Sierra and the Cascades, are unknown (p. 80); and to these 
must be added the distinctive species of each range which fail to reach 
Shasta. The luxuriant mountain meadows and flower beds that form 
Such conspicuous features of the timberline region in the Cascades, the 
Olympics, the High Sierra, and the Rocky Mountains are wholly 
absent, and the only areas that in any way resemble them are the 
Fic. 8.—Heather meadow bordering Squaw Creek. Shasta peak in distance covered with fresh snow, 
September 22, 1898. 
insignificant patches of mountain heather and accompanying plants 
that carpet the moist bottoms of the glacier basins and form narrow 
beds along the tiny streams, where they are concentrated by the local 
distribution of soil moisture. The ouly real soil above timberline is 
restricted to the borders of the streamlets, where the decomposing 
heather has left a shallow covering. Everywhere else are pumice, 
broken lava, and barren cliffs. 
The summer rainfall amounts to little or nothing, and when rains 
occur they sink and vanish in the thirsty pumice sand. The streams 
from melting snows are exceedingly small, averaging hardly more than 
a foot or two in width, and most of them disappear before reaching the 
base of the mountain. The turbid streams from the glaciers are larger, 
