XXXII] CALIFORNIA TO QUEBEC i8i 



ascended 1170 feet. On the way we had recourse to a loop, 

 the line crossing the valley winding up its side, then crossing 

 back again by a lofty viaduct and thus overcoming the greatest 

 abrupt rise in the valley, making, in fact, an aerial instead of a 

 subterranean corkscrew as they so often do under similar cir- 

 cumtances in the Alps. At Graymount we found a tolerable 

 hotel, where we stayed a few days to explore. There were 

 two valleys from here, the most northerly and larger, called 

 Grizzly Gulch, penetrated further into the mountains to the 

 north of Gray's Peak ; the smaller and steeper leading to a 

 small collection of miners' huts called Kelso's Cabin, and then 

 along a wide, upland valley just above timber-line up to the 

 very foot of Gray's Peak, whence a winding mule-track led 

 to its summit. 



On the second day, when going up Grizzly Gulch, we 

 came to a miner's cabin, and two men we saw there asked us 

 to have dinner with them. They gave us some good soup, 

 pork, and peas, with hot coffee. They told us that a little 

 higher up there was a fine place for flowers, and that they 

 were going by there to their work. So we went with them, 

 and about a quarter of a mile up we came to some patches of 

 snow at the foot of a fine alpine, rocky slope, and all around 

 it was a complete flower-garden. We remained here some 

 hours to botanize, and gathered thirty-five species of alpine 

 plants in flower. Some, as '^Mertensia alpina, Parnassia 

 fimbriata^ Phacelia sericea, and Primula angustifolia^ were 

 among the gems of the Rocky Mountain flora. Others 

 were European, as A nemone narcissiflora, Ranuncuhis nivalis, 

 Astragalus alpina, and Androsace septentrionalis ; while others, 

 again, were British, as Silene acaulis, Dryas octopetala, and the 

 rare Swertia perennis, which here dotted the grass with its 

 curious slaty-blue flowers. The scenery was just like many 

 a Swiss Alp, where snow-peaks were not in sight, and the 

 flowers, if not quite so brilliant or so numerous in species, 

 were especially charming to me from the curious mixture of 

 European and American species. 



On our second visit to Kelso's Cabin we were overtaken 

 by Mr. Thomas West, an English mining engineer, in whose 



