ess, on account of the great depth of snow
which accumulates in them during the winter. On the steep, smooth upper
inclines the snow banks frequently slip and form slides which acquire
momentum as they rush down the mountain side and break and carry away
large trees. Repeated snowslides in the same place keep the slopes
nonforested, and their track is marked by light green strips of brush
and herbage.

The transition of the forest from its lowland to its extreme alpine type
is one of the most interesting features of a visit to the mountain.
Entering the park at the western boundary close to the Nisqually River
the road skirts the base of the lightly timbered spurs and passes into a
forest of large and old Douglas fir and western hemlock. Red cedars grow
along the streams that cross the road. Little yew trees and vine maples
mingle with the young conifers that form the undergrowth; the gloom of
the forest is occasionally relieved by the white bark of alders and the
smooth gray stems of the cottonwoods that grow on the sandy bank of the
Nisqually. After the road crosses the Rainier Fork, noble fir and
amabilis fir appear, but the Douglas fir and western hemlock are still
the prevailing species.

Above Longmire Springs the noble and amabilis fir, mixed with western
hemlock, become the dominant type. The trees are shorter and the
branches heavier. Mountain ash and yellow cypress grow on the margin of
the mountain streams. Huckleberry bushes take the place of the taller
undergrowth of the valley.

Above Narada Falls the forest is more open, and the trees are still
smaller. Mountain hemlock and alpine fir succeed the trees of the lower
slope. Little glades and mountain meadows are seen. They become larger
and more numerous and the traveler soon enters the open park of Paradise
Valley, in which are but scattered groves of trees. The same successive
altitudinal types are met in ascending to Moraine and Grand Parks by way
of the Carbon Valley, and in following the Mowich watershed, Crater
Lake, and Spray Park routes.

Approaching the park from the east the routes pass through open western
yellow pine forests and western larch stands. Since Mount Rainier is
west of and apart from the summit line, these species which are peculiar
to the eastern slope are not found within the limits of the park.

EFFECTS OF FIRE.

[Illustration: FIG. 1.--Whitened spectral monuments of a former forest
which was swept by a severe forest