140 



THE AMERICAN BOTANIST 



the huge blocks of broken lava, where a little soil gave them a 

 precarious foothold, were some tiny blossoming plants. They 

 proved to be plants of the mustard family, Arabis Suksdordi. 

 No other species was found growing at such an elevation. It 

 must have been all of ten thousand feet above the sea. 



These high altitudes were not quite destitute of animal life 

 either. An American pipit flew out from among the broken lava 

 blocks and went skimming away across the snow. Hardy 

 little mountaineer, it must love the craggy peaks, for it makes 

 twice a year a journey of more than a thousand miles for the 

 sake of spending ten weeks on these icy summits ! 



Perhaps we need not wonder at it, for birds are home- 

 lovers, and a bird's home is where it builds its nest. Butter- 

 flies went by on the wing occasionally. I don't know what 

 they were doing away up there on top of Mount Adams, but 

 they were there. I also saw a good many spiders laying in 

 the snow stiff with cold. How did they get there? I do not 

 know, unless it be that they were taking a journey across the 

 world in those cob- web flying machines of theirs and met dis- 

 aster by being blown upon these snowy slopes above the clouds. 



I found that my Cyclopian stair did not reach the top of 

 the mountain as I had supposed. It ended in a steep snow 

 slope. I had a desperate climb before I stood on the highest 

 point of that old mountain, but I reached it at last. I was 

 twelve thousand one hundred eighty-four feet above the sea. 

 Mount Adams is unlike the other volcanic peaks which arise 

 around it. They are cone-shaped, Adams is a great knife- 

 edged ridge. It slopes up gradually on the north side and on 

 the south side, but on the east and west it falls off in awful 

 perpendicular declivities. From the summit Mount Ranier, 

 hidden before, came into view. 



Far away in the north, near the Canadian line, the triple 

 peaks of Mount Baker arose on the horizon. I looked down 



