Viewing page 42 of 75

This transcription has been completed. Contact us with corrections.

[[left page blank]]
[[end page]]
[[start page]]

Picea engelmani & Pinus flexilis form timberline P. murryana stops lower down. Pseudotsuga douglasii reaches the edge of timberline as a dwarfed shrub. I never saw it at timberline before though the altitude is not too great for it. The other timberline trees are as dwarfed & depressed as usual but if the altitude registered by the aneroid is correct the timberline & snow line are abnormal.

The north face of the mountains is abrupt & they slope off gradually to the south in great grassy slopes. A few small groves of spruce stand on top. From the summit we could look all over the Bighorn Basin & see the Cañon of the Bighorn. Could see the Bighorn Mts. & Owl Creek as a continuous ridge joining the high Mts. to the west of the Basin.

Apparently a wide gap of low country lies between the Pryor Mts. & the Beartooth & connects the Basin with the Clarks Fork Valley. Much of the basin in sight is badlands, but green strips show where the stream valleys are fertile. A giant mass of mountains rises west of the Bighorn Basin. Thousands of feet of snow stretches above timberline in dense masses. The high mountains of the Park are in plain view & run off to the south into the Wind Rivers and snowy peaks reach far to the north. I never saw a grander mass of mountains.

Saw 4 antelope on top of the mountain. but no signs of elk, sheep or deer. Horses & cattle range over the top. [[strikethrough]] of [[/strikethrough]] Saw 2 Arctomys but failed to get one. Otocoris is common & in pairs over the summit.