1924] Swarth: Birds and Mammals of the Skeena River Region 319

Nrine-Mine Mountain

This mountain les a short distance northeast of Hazelton; its
southern base is skirted by the Babine trail, leading from the town.
Our camp near the summit was about twenty miles, by road and by
trail, northeast of Hazelton. In ascending the mountain, the poplar
belt is left behind almost at the very base, and a forest of spruce,
intermingled with cedar, is entered. At an altitude of about 2000 feet
the lower edge of hemlock (Tsuga heterophylla) is reached; at about
2500 feet the forest is practically all hemlock, large trees, with little
or no underbrush beneath. Just below timber line (about 4500 feet
altitude) the forest. is largely composed of white fir (Abies grandis),
though some hemlock persists to the upper limit of tree growth.

We camped at timber line in a cabin precariously clinging to a
little niche on the steep hillside. The slope was part of a huge amphi-
theater, the outstanding ridges on either side perhaps a mile apart,
and the crest of the mountain about five hundred feet above. Immedi-
ately below was the dark hemlock and fir forest, its upper edge as
sharply defined as though the open slopes above had been cleared
by man. Much of this amphitheater was covered with tall grass,
veratrum, and lupine; in places there were extensive thickets of alder.
Wide rock slides extended down from the divide in several places,
sometimes into the forests below. The trail to the top passed through

‘a notch in the ridge at an altitude of about 5000 feet ; rounded summits
arose on either side about 500 feet higher. The summit of the moun-
tain is composed of two converging ridges, each five or six miles long
at least; we did not cover their entire area. Between these ridges is
enclosed a broad, steeply sloping valley.

The country above timber line, covering many miles along the
higher ridges, is open and park-like, very attractive to the view.
White fir and mountain hemlock (7’suga mertensiana) occur, dwarfed
and prostrate, forming scattered thickets over ground that otherwise
is mostly grass covered. Snow banks persist through the summer, and
below the melting snow are occasional little lakes, sometimes an acre
or more in extent. On damp slopes grass is replaced by false heather
(Cassiope mertensiana), luxuriant growths that cover extensive areas.
Below the ridges the grass became much higher and was intermingled

with lupine.
An interesting feature of the Nine-mile Mountain avifauna is the
unusual number of genera and species of grouse that occur there. At