1901] Churchill, — A Botanical Excursion to Mt. Katahdin. 153 
equally comfortable log floor, we went through a most salutary and 
disciplinary exercise in recovering from the depths of those bags. 
just the few things that we needed for the night, while the others. 
slid to the bottom. The sense of touch was the only one involved 
in the transaction, but at these times a feeling akin to despair took 
possession of us, wondering how many of our worldly possessions 
there would remain to us the next night and the next. 
Here, early the next morning, Saturday, July 7, we crossed and left 
the Wassataquoik, and ascended a narrow valley through which 
flows a tributary brook. After an astonishing ford of the rocky rush- 
ing river by the horses and buck-boards, our camp equipage was 
transferred to a “jumper,” or rough lumber sled, which, drawn by 
two horses, followed us to the * McLeod” Camp, two miles beyond. 
Here one of the mountain thunder storms, which were afterwards of 
almost daily occurrence, overtook us, and we were glad to get under 
cover of the rude cabin. 
Striped squirrels, “ chipmunks,” ran about in the cabin and upon 
me as I sat in the open doorway. We were grieved to hear after- 
wards that they had all been slaughtered. Poor tame little crea- 
tures! They get in the way of man, the bigger animal; they eat 
some of his pork and beans; straightway they are classed as pests, 
and become a target for the revolvers of cruel hunters and guides, 
who indeed seldom wait even for this excuse for gratifying the pas- 
sion for slaughter. We saw many deer throughout the trip and: 
wondered how men could get pleasure in slaying the beautiful and 
harmless creatures. 
At McLeod’s began the real ascent. Even the horses and the 
jumper stopped here. To our camp in the South Basin, there was 
only a “ trail” through the forest, with the blazedtrees by which to 
follow it, with care. Our lithe and sturdy guides made the climb 
more easily I think than we, though they carried most of the baggage, 
sometimes eighty pounds apiece, on their backs. The length of this 
stage was fully five miles, though I have an impression that these 
same guides diplomatically assured us that it was but three. When 
we reached Depot Pond after many hours of climbing, we fondly 
imagined that we were near the top, but when we came down over 
the same trail, we found this pond a long way from camp! 
It was now again raining ; we were wet, and the air and the mossy 
earth and forest and everything about us was drenched ; yet when at 
