156 
BULLETIN OF THE UNITED STATES FISH COMMISSION. 
Of course there are numerous little irregularities in the shore line, but they are 
scarcely noticeable to the observer standing at either end of the lake or looking down 
upon it from the mountain ridge to the northwest. 
The setting of Alturas Lake is extremely beautiful. On the right side is a 
heavily wooded ridge rising gently from the water’s edge to a height of 400 to 600 
feet. In some places the shore is comparatively level for some rods back from the 
,ake; in two or three places there are small, level meadows, and a fairly good trail 
extends the entire length of the lake on the left side. The immediate shore is, 
throughout most of its extent on the right side, covered with a heavy growth of 
bushes, chieliy alder, but with a good many willows and a few cottonwoods. 
The trees nearest the water are nearly all iMurray pine, but there are a few 
Douglas hr {PHctuJoisucia <lou(jlasii) and spruce {Picea engehnanni), and an occasional 
small pinon {Pinns alhicmdis). There are also a few small, stunted junipers. In the 
more level, moist places, lirs and spruce are abundant, often growing to a height of 100 
feet or more and a diameter of 2 or 3 feet, but the usual size is much smaller. 
On the more sandy, drier portions of the shore and on the sides and toi) of the 
ridge the Murray pine is the i)rincipal tree. It is usually a tall, slender tree, less 
than a foot in diameter, exceedingly straight, and 25 to 100 feet high. In the moist 
places on the hillside, where the ground is springy or where a small stream comes 
down, there are often considerable clumps of cottonwoods or (juaking asps. Beneath 
the trees are grasses and numerous species of flowering plants and shrubs. On the 
drier, more open places the scraggy, aromatic sage {Artemisia tridcntata) and the rich, 
pleasing blue of the lupine {lAtpinus argenteus) are seen in abundance; where it is 
more moist and somewhat shaded the rank and gorgeous EpiJohmm is the most con- 
spicuous plant in early autumn, while in the yet more shaded and damper tangle 
are found the dark-blue aconite (Aconitum cohmhianmn) and brilliant patches of the 
beautiful shooting star {Dodecatheon jefreyi), whose delicate flowers wither and die 
early in July or August. And among the grasses in the level, marshy meadow places 
the large, deep-blue gentian {Gentiana affinis), with its short stem, can be seen in 
profusion and perfection long after the frosts and the first snows have come. 
Among the shrubs the service-berry {Amelanchier alnifoUa)^ the small, red whortle- 
berry ( Vaccinnm myrtilloides microphyllnm), ami the curious Xoh teem involiicrata were 
the most interesting. The first of these is rarest of all and, though growing to a 
height of 6 to 10 feet, its fruit rarely ripens in this locality, the summers being too 
slant. The most abundant is the little whortleberry, with its pale-red berries, which 
ripen in early August and upon which the fool-hens, robins, and bear delight to feed. 
On the northwest side of the lake is a rugged, granite mountain ridge, rising 
1,000 to 1,500 feet above the lake. This originally formed the left shore of the large 
glacier which, coming down from the Atlanta summit, i)lowed out this valley and 
formed Alturas Lake. This mountain is rocky and iirecipitous, and has but little 
timber upon the side toward the lake. Immense snowslides have from time to time 
come down the side of this mountain, carrying everything before them into the lake. 
Down several rocky gulches flow small but turbulent streams during times of rain or 
melting snows. But once the rains have ceased or the snows have melted, all but two 
or three of these streams dry up entirely. There are two or three which are fed partly 
by springs, and they continue to flow throughout the dry summer. Along this side of 
the lake there is but little timber, except near the lower end, where there is a broad, 
