The Aftermath of a Club Outing. 163 



mountain grass, nourished on abundant rains and dews. 

 Soon the view of the cirque began to open up, with 

 snow on its sides and beautiful bare granite. From the 

 talus-piles a marmot saluted us, piercing the silence. 

 I have heard these little beasts answer the ear-splitting 

 whistle made with an empty cartridge-shell, and on one 

 occasion a more than usually enterprising individual ran 

 a long way, quite across an intervening valley, to ascer- 

 tain what in the world caused such an unearthly scream. 

 Plainly his curiosity was bigger than he was, and he 

 arrived quite breathless and with eager eyes. 



A fern-like rue, with leaves very similar to the maiden- 

 hair fern, grew here, a yellow wall-flower, pink phlox, and 

 sheep-laurel, which the herders have to guard their flocks 

 against, since to eat of it is fatal, and no saving instinct 

 protects the animal; on the contrary, its taste seems 

 to be irresistibly attractive, and the herder's duty is to 

 mark its presence and to keep his flock at a safe distance. 

 The ground in moist places was almost a mat of waxlike 

 white flowers (Hesperochiron Calif orhicus) , the blossoms 

 not unlike those of the old-fashioned "wax-flower," be- 

 loved of country householders and suggestive of one's 

 youth ; I have seen this flourishing mightily in a New 

 England sitting-room when I was a boy, its flowers the 

 pride of the countryside. It seemed as if the Milky Way 

 had become entangled here in the grass beneath our feet, 

 hiding by day, but faintly glimmering, as if remember- 

 ing dark skies, or like a host of fireflies beaten down 

 into the grass after a shower. At 10,300 feet we 

 found the pink bryanthus, the first sight of which is 

 always thrilling to a mountaineer. We were now well 

 within the cirque, with the jagged ridge ahead of us, only 

 a little more than two thousand feet above, which con- 

 nects Mt. Brewer and the North Guard. Near a tamarack 

 pine close at hand, marked with two stars, a double aster- 

 isk, in the manner of a Baedeker guide-book, as if to 

 emphasize the excellence of the view, there was a pile of 

 cyclamen leaves cut by the mountain beaver (Aplodon- 



