Page:The Selkirk mountains (1912).djvu/193

Rh bright green leaves and an offensive odor. It is the staple food of the bears in early spring. Alders, Willows and young Birch, bent by the snow avalanches and the weight of soft snow from the heavy precipitation, lie about breast high and obstruct the ascent. When wet they are very slippery and dangerous along the line of descent. Professor Macoun warns the unwary scrambler in a single sentence: "It is best not to investigate the shrubs of the ravines too closely."

Of flowering shrubs and plants within the Big Bead of the Columbia the Professor found over 1500 species. It is only possible to name a few outstanding ones for beauty of bloom, using his own text chiefly. The White flowered Rhododendron (Rhododendron albiflorium), mountain heather (Bryanthus empetriformis) with pink flowers and Bryanthus glamlulifera with yellowish flowers; and the low-growing Cassiope tetragona with little white bells, often called heather, are beautiful and prolific in l>loom. Larger flowering shrubs bearing berries include mountain elder (Sambucus melanocarpa) with bunches of white flowers and black fruit; honeysuckle (Lonicera Douglasii) with purplish flowers and large, juicy black berries; and many species of blueberries (Vaccinium) that furnish fruit for man and beast. Currants and goose-berries are occasionally found but raspberries grow and bear fruit plentifully on the sunny slopes.

The procession of flowers begins as soon as the snow melts in the lower altitudes, and continues throughout summer, many following the melting snows upward. A flower named Spring Beauty (Claytonia sessilifolia) was found in flower on the site of Revelstoke in May, and at Glacier in August of the same year, the difference in altitude being 2.500 feet. The Dog-tooth Violet ('Erythronium giganteum) sometimes called Avalanche Lily, a delicately lovely yellow flower, was found in prolific bloom at Sicamous in early April, and by the edge of the Asulkan Glacier in late August. In this case the difference in altitude would be nearer 4000 feet. It is exceedingly interesting to follow the flowers throughout the season, as they follow their summer upward by degrees from the level of the railway to the alplands above timber-line. Bordering the same brooklets coming from the snow are many species of beautiful spring flowers blooming from early June to late August, according to altitude. Two species of Monkey Flower are noted: the large Yellow-flowered Mimulus luteus and the taller, hardier Mimulus Lewisii, both growing near water. Wandering one August in the Gold Range above Griffin Lake at an altitude of 7000 feet. Professor Macoun came to a murmuring little brook bordered with this flower. Following its course, by and by he noticed that the music stopped, and upon examination found a ledge of rock only a few inches high protruding into the stream and upon its extreme edge a large bunch of Mimulus growing. On this the water flowed and pausing, divided into two streamlets, part falling down into Eagle River and on to the ocean by the Thompson and the Fraser; and part joining the Columbia to seek the sea by that single great river flowing south.

Professor Macoun enumerates with their scientific names and with descriptive touches many flowers according to tneir families. The Crowfoot family is found in all altitudes. There are two species of Columbine, Aquilegia breuistylis (Blue-flowered) and Aquilegia flavescens (red or yellow). Anemones are in three or more species, the Western