io8 Trees and Shrubs, &c, of [Sess. 



which remind one of a mole's ' hands.' There are great 

 grey kingfishers, several species of woodpeckers, and grouse, 

 and a dipper exactly like our own in his habits but lacking 

 the white waistcoat. I must not forget the two species of 

 humming-bird, which go all the way to Central America in 

 winter. The grey and red squirrels have an engaging way of 

 waking you in the morning by biting off, and letting fall on 

 your tent, the cones of Abies grandis, which grows here to its 

 greatest size. 



As one climbs up away from the river, the trees diminish 

 in size till Pinus contorta and the mountain hemlock take the 

 place of the great silver firs, hemlocks, and Douglas of the 

 valleys. The main range is not very high, no peak I think 

 exceeds 9000 feet, but they are covered all summer long 

 with snow for the last thousand feet of their height. 



The flora is little known, and I would like to think that my 

 lecture might induce some one to seek immortal fame by going 

 to the Pacific coast to write a handbook on its shrubs. We 

 gathered seed of three charming roses, two elders, the beauti- 

 ful little Cornus canadensis, and low-growing Rubus pedatus, 

 the grey-leaved Arctosta'pliylos manzanita, Amalanchier alni- 

 folia, and many gooseberries, currants, and raspberries, two 

 prunus, and a crab. Of bulbous plants, Trillium grandijlorwni, 

 Erythi^onium of three species, and Lilium columbianum are the 

 most interesting. As one would expect in a land of so much 

 rotten wood and deep humus, there are many parasitic plants, 

 and we took roots of three or four species of pyrola, including 

 P. uniflora and P. rotundifolia var. bracteata. 



Our next expedition was up Mount Rainier to Paradise 

 Valley. This splendid peak was first seen and named by 

 Vancouver in May 1792. Above timber-line, where the 

 great Nisqually glacier winds its way down the south side 

 of the mountain, are natural meadows so full of flowers that 

 they remind one of nothing so much as the pictures of the 

 Austrian Tyrol, which recur year after year in the Academy, 

 and which make one think that surely the artist exaggerates 

 the colour. A Light railway from Tacoma now takes you for 

 forty miles through dense forests up to the edge of the 

 National Park, in the midst of which this great mountain stands; 

 a drive of a dozen miles more over a splendidly engineered 



