284 



Sierra Club Bulletin 



miniature El Capitans rising from dainty green meadows broi- 

 dered with flowering herbs. 



The flowering herbs in this canon are of especial interest and 

 so engross my attention that lions are quite forgotten. My 

 botanical press becomes heavy and still more heavy until I am 

 interrupted by a Mexican vaquero, of whom I inquire about 

 the trails to the peak and finally about hons. ''But where is 

 your gun?" says the Mexican. ''Oh, I never carry arms" is 

 my reply. "El Americano !" I heard him exclaim, as he turned 

 his horse down the trail. 



Hours of steady pulling over the rock-strewn bed of the up- 

 per Cottonwood brings one finally to the summit of the range, 

 and I start northward along the plateau, passing the night at 

 McAfee Meadow. The next morning the way is still northerly 

 along the axis, White Mountain Peak in full view, standing up 

 out of the range like an eagle's beak with the perpendicular 

 wall to the west. 



After reaching the face of the peak proper it is simply la- 

 borious climbing for near fifteen hundred feet up, over a wil- 

 derness of angular blocks. The United States Geological Sur- 

 vey bench-mark on the summit at the monument gives the alti- 

 tude as 14,242 feet, which is higher than any of the peaks in 

 the Yosemite group across the gorge of Owens Valley. That 

 is to say, it exceeds Mt. Dana by 1192 feet, Mt. Lyell by 1152 

 feet, and Mt. Ritter by 1086 feet. 



At the summit of the peak grows the Alpine Polemonium 

 (P. eximium), extending down the slopes to 13,500 feet. An 

 alpine Erigeron grows within one hundred feet of the summit, 

 these two species being the only plants found above 13,900 feet. 

 Between 13,200 and 13,900 feet were found a species each of 

 Hulsea,* Calyptridium, Draba, and Potentilla. In addition the 

 yellow-flowered Alpine Buttercup (Ranunculus Eschscholtzii) 

 grows on the rocky slopes at 13,700 feet. This is a remark- 

 able species, being the only truly alpine species of buttercup in 

 the high mountains of California. It extends far northward to 

 Alaska and the Aleutians. It only remains to be said that the 



* Hulsea algida, which is a characteristic alpine of the highest Sierra peaks, from 

 Mt. Whitney to Tower Peak and Mt. Rose. On Mt. Whitney it is found nearly if 

 not quite to 14,000 feet, ranging higher on that mountain than any other species of 

 flowering plant observed by the writer. 



