1901] Churchill, — A Botanical Excursionto Mt. Katahdin. 151 
The camp comprised a two-story frame house with a barn, and at 
a little distance a sylvan dormitory or hunters’ lodge of two stories, 
built of logs placed perpendicularly and containing eight or ten rooms. 
. The woods were cleared away and a green but “stumpy” lawn 
sloped gently from the house to the river bank a few rods below. 
The thick forest bordering the opposite bank of the river was reflected 
in the smooth dark water, though above and below were rapids, and 
the picture was not there so restful. A wire cable with its primitive 
ferry-boat, connecting the banks, added a picturesque feature to the 
landscape. While Katahdin, as Thoreau said, was not visible from 
the river, yet from the little observatory upon the roof there was a 
good view, though much obstructed by clouds about its head, and 
(it must be confessed) by other clouds about ours ; for there we found 
that the black flies were particularly numerous and aggressive. So 
we did not much frequent the roof-top, but made ourselves busy com- 
fortable and at home in many ways below. — 
The next day, July 4th, we transferred almost all the contents of 
our neatly packed trunks to large rubber or canvas bags and in 
other ways mobilized our forces. We watched the swallows building 
their nests along the eaves of the low piazza, quite within reach. 
In a canoe ride up the pretty river at sunset we made our first 
acquaintance with a moose who was feeding in a wet meadow. 
He soon made off into the woods, however, looking upon us undoubt- 
edly, in common with all mankind, as his foe. He could not know 
that we were not collecting moose! We walked back down the river 
road to Hunt’s again, and along the bank collected Carex torta, 
C. arcta and C. tribuloides, vars. turbata and reducta. In the woods 
we found Habenaria Hookeriana, Viola Selkirkii, Pyrola chlorantha, 
and P. asarifolia. 
Tuesday evening, July 5, brought Collins, Fernald and Williams. 
Our party was now complete; and, after they had gone through the 
same demoralizing process of dumping blankets and clothes from 
the open and luxurious trunks to the dark cavernous recesses of 
canvas bags, we were ready for the start the next morning. 
The Wassataquoik River drains the Northeast slope of Katahdin 
and empties into the East Branch above Hunt's. It is at this season 
a shallow, brawling mountain stream, and before the despoiling hand 
of the lumberman, followed by the usual visitation of forest fires, it 
and the valley through which it flows, must have been a scene of 
