28 



Sierra Club Bulletm. 



snow line came the lovely pride of the mountains (the 

 magenta pentstemon), the rosy alpine heather or bryan- 

 thus, and the lilac-tinted alpine phlox. These cheery 

 mountain blossoms were not disclosed in great patches 

 and fields of bloom like the eschscholtzia, the orthocarpus, 

 the iris, and the godetia of the lowlands, but occasional, 

 secluded and unexpected like the deer, the bears and the 

 mountain quail, and so the more attractive and appreciated. 



I enjoyed wild currants, thimbleberries, elderberries 

 and a few strawberries, and I peered into every pool for 

 trout. In this latter search, however, I was disappointed. 



Except for a chance case-making caddis worm lumbering 

 along the bottom, or a water strider darting about on the 

 surface, the crystal snow water was as devoid of life as 

 if it had just come from under a glacier. 



While resting in a field of barren talus I suddenly 

 became conscious of being stared at. About twenty feet 

 away I spied a native looking at me in open-eyed amaze- 

 ment. His head was about the size of a domestic caf s, 

 but with short erect ears and a long nose like a fox's or a 

 weasel's. His coat was reddish above from the nostrils 

 back and yellow below. I saw only this little fox's head 

 and shoulders and saw them only as long as I remained 

 motionless. 



It was one of those balmy, sunny Sierra days, and back 

 and forth as the wild goats on Santa Catalina Island taught 

 me twenty years ago, I zigzagged up the steep, heavily 

 timbered ridge between Gray Creek and Red Creek, al- 

 most always in the shade of grand yellow pines, mountain 

 pines, or silver firs. The cones on the silver firs stood 

 erect on the topmost limbs like little barrels, contrasting 

 sharply with the long pointed cones of the sugar-pine 

 seen suspended from the tip ends of the branches. 

 Higher up I met old, thick set junipers, lost the yellow 

 pines, and at the timber line found the tough dwarf or 

 white-barked pine last of all. 



Having had such a good time botanizing, taking notes, 

 studying the geological quadrangle, and exchanging 



