A study has been made of the pulse heights obtained from &agr; particles in a gas scintillation counter using argon, krypton, and xenon. Measurements were made with an RCA‐6342 photomultiplier viewing the scintillations directly and also with the aid of a quaterphenyl wavelength shifter. Pulse heights from xenon were about 10 times as great as those from argon and 3.6 times those from krypton. The gain in pulse height with a wavelength shifter was about a factor of 15 for each gas. The rise time of the light pulses was of the order of one m&mgr;sec or less. Pulse height was found to be a linear function of energy for protons, deuterons, and helium ions in a xenon counter with a wavelength shifter. The pulse height was independent of the type of particle producing the scintillations and depended only on the energy lost in the counter.