1901] Churchill, — A Botanical Excursion to Mt. Katahdin. 149 
East Branch of the Penobscot, which, eight miles away, flows peace- 
fully southward past * Lunksoos," the camp on its hither shore 
which we should reach by night, and where we should await the 
arrival of the rest of our party. In all our trip I recall no other view 
of or from the mountain equal in beauty to this one from the edge 
of Stacyville. Here they pointed out to us the great abyss in the 
Eastern slopes of the mountain, into which above debouched 
the * North Basin" and the * South Basin," the latter our destina- 
tion and ten-days' camping site. From the south end of the range 
there extended toward us the long gaunt and rocky spur tipped by 
Pomola, the whole spur curving about and embracing the South 
Basin much as Cape Cod surrounds Massachusetts Bay. Here we 
saw the southeastern exposure. At our camp we were upon the 
other, or inner, side. Of course we were much interested in making 
out these points, and in observing the great patches of snow that 
still lay there upon the steep slopes. 
Our guide, Capt. Rogers, met us at the station with a two-seated 
buck-board, to take us with our baggage to Lunksoos. No summer 
boarding-house affair was this buck-board. It was built for sub- 
stantial service over roads the roughness of which we were now to` 
experience, but which accurately to describe requires that this sketch 
shall be illustrated with one of the views of a sample passage en 
route (pl. 26) taken by the artist to the expedition. 
Outside the town, at the foot of the long hill I have mentioned, 
beside a stream where recently had been the inevitable saw-mill, we 
had our noontide lunch amid Mitella nuda, Ranunculus septentrion- 
alis, a profusion of Linnaea, and other plants common enough here, 
but very welcome to the unaccustomed eyes of Bostonians. Here 
also we made our first collection from the Maine soil, a tall Gera- 
nium which proved to be the G. pratense, L., of Northern Europe. 
We had noticed it by the roadsides as we rode through Stacyville, 
where it is evidently well established. It is like our G. maculatum, 
but much larger and coarser; the flowers are deep blue-purple and 
the leaves are cut into very narrow pointed lobes like those of Xan- 
unculus acris. The upper parts of the plant are glandular-hairy. 
Mr. Fernald has also observed it elsewhere in the State, and it is 
doubtless entitled to recognition in future editions of the Manual. 
Just beyond this stream, where the fields come to the forest, a turn- 
pike gate is appropriately set across the road ; and as we closed it be- 
