The alpine region contains the flowery glacier meadows, and countless small gardens in all sorts of places full of potentilla of several species, spraguea, ivesia, epilobium, and goldenrod, with beds of bryanthus and the charming cassiope covered with sweet bells.

Even the tops of the mountains are blessed with flowers,--dwarf phlox, polemonium, ribes, hulsea, etc.

I have seen wild bees and butterflies feeding at a height of 13,000 feet above the sea.

Many, however, that go up these dangerous heights never come down again.

Some, undoubtedly, perish in storms, and I have found thousands lying dead or benumbed on the surface of the glaciers, to which they had perhaps been attracted by the white glare, taking them for beds of bloom.
From swarms that escaped their owners in the lowlands, the honey-bee is now generally distributed throughout the whole length of the Sierra, up to an elevation of 8000 feet above sea-level.