70 
There was little snow left at McCarthy and much less was found in 
the valley of the Chitina, the latter being known locally as a region of 
little precipitation during both winter and summer. This was born out 
later by the types of vegetation collected. 
On account of the proximity of the glaciers there was a newness and 
crude rawness about Chitina valley that doubtless greatly modified the 
types of life encountered. The flat valley floor, about 2 miles wide, was 
almost a desert; it was cut by innumerable rapid streams that braid and 
interbraid and cut new channels with every period of high water. The 
valley walls rise very steeply — commonly from 30 degrees to 45 degrees. 
The north wall is cut at short intervals, usually less than a mile, by tremend- 
dous canyons that allowed few crossings. The camp at river-level was 
at approximately 2,000 feet elevation. A good stand of white spruce and 
a little poplar cover the next 2,000 feet and beyond this is the open, bald 
slopes that rose to meet the ice-fields. Much of the valley wall is faced 
by high, rocky battlements that could be scaled in very few places. 
Various types of habitat calling for study included the desert flat, 
the jumbled moraine with its scanty beginnings of vegetation and timber, 
the spruce forest, the burned slopes, the muskegs at low elevation, the 
wooded lakelets, the canyons, the alpine woods where spruce gave place 
to stunted poplar and willow and the bald, flower-strewn upper slopes and 
summits. Although there was considerable sameness about the life of the 
area studied, there were few uninteresting spots. 
Though the Hudsonian life zone seemed mainly represented this north 
wall of the valley ran from the Arctic Alpine zone at 5,000 feet and over, 
down through the Hudsonian spruce forests to the Canadian zone at river- 
level where there was even more than a suggestion of the Transition. The 
open alpine slopes, where even as late as June 27 snow fell and lay for two 
or three days, were the home of the Arctic horned larks and pipits, the 
pika and Osgood ground squirrel. Typical Hudsonian types in the spruce 
forest were Arctic and Alaskan three-toed woodpeckers, Gam bet’s sparrow, 
junco, Hudsonian chickadee, and Canada jay. The common mammals of 
these woods were the red squirrel and varying hare. In a narrower belt 
toward river-level, where grew the bulk of the white and black poplar and 
an abundance of flowers, typical Canadian forms were spruce grouse, 
red-tailed hawk, olive-backed thrush, the greater numbers of the white- 
winged crossbills, redpolls, and pine siskins, the hairy woodpecker, and 
golden-crowmed kinglet. The bare, dry slopes toward the river, with 
their dusty sheep-trails and in their vegetation notable for their buffalo- 
berry (Shepherdia) , silverberry ( Elaeagnus ), service-berry ( Amelanchier ), 
w r ild roses and abundant legumes such as lupine, Hedysarum, Oxytropis, 
and various Crucifers, strongly favoured the Transition. There was 
much overlapping, however. Thus the red squirrel was common from 
river-level to timber-line, and Gambel’s sparrow nested from the scanty 
cover of portions of the edge of the river flat right to the last clumps of 
stunted willows beyond the highest timber. Also, in a muskeg draw 
almost at river-level were found several plants, such as Dry as octopelala, 
PotentiUa fruticosa, and Polygonum viviparum that elsewhere belonged to 
the slopes considerably above timber. 
The absence of water fowl here may be explained by the lack of marshes 
or suitable lakes or sloughs. It was plain also that the Chitina is not a 
migratory bird route in spring, and what movement was in evidence was 
