During the month we received from Mr. Floyd Schmoe, Secretary of the Puget Sound Academy of Science and former Park Naturalist of Mt. Rainier Nat'l Park, a copy of his recent book, "Wilderness Tales". Many of the short articles of which it is composed were written and illustrated by Mr. Schmoe while he was Naturalist here and the breath of the spirit of "The Mountain" and the interesting region about us here. It will be a welcome addition to our library. The trail to Van Trump Park, always interesting in summer, retains that interest throughout other seasons -- as exemplified by a recent hike up there. Much of the route was overlaid with deep drifts or slides of snow for it is still winter at the higher elevations. To my mind no region in the Park offers as great a variety of interest for the amount of time and effort and effort expended. Van Trump Park is less than three miles over a good trail from the road at Christine Falls. Hardly do we leave the road but the solemn-visaged, evergreen clad slopes seem to creep in upon us as if to cut off our retreat while the dull roar of the creek in its narrow walled canyon echoes and reverberates from the nearby mountainsides. No other point in the park so easily reached promotes the same feeling of isolation as does this narrow Van Trump Canyon. Scenically the high point is Comet Falls where glacial waters from above pour over the perpendicular face of an ancient glacial cirque but other than that the trail is saturated with interest. There are deep forests, steep cliffs, rock slides, basaltic ramparts and alpine meadows -- all sorts of conditions and habitats which have their characteristic plant and animal life and which give us various chapters in the geological story of the Park.

The "back porch pirates" are at is again! On several occasions we have opened the back door to find a bear in the act of making away with our dinner. But all we can do is grin and "bear" it.

Striking the wrong key in cutting a stencil for Nature Notes might not seem like it amounts to much. However it caused us to state in the last issue that Washington was admitted as a state in 1899 when what we wanted to say was 1889. So in the language of the phone girl -- "Excuse it please".