336 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



Moosehead. The country through which we had passed had been 

 gently rolling, but with no marked eminences. Near this place 

 we saw a mountain of considerable elevation, and Mr. Hitchcock 

 determined to visit it. The mountain is on the west side of the 

 river, and overlooks a flat pine country lying to the north-east. 

 We were not able to ascend to the summit of the hill on account 

 of the icy covei-ing of the slanting, exposed rocks. Upon this 

 exposure, which very much resembles a quarry for some time 

 abandoned, I was able to find many interesting mosses and lichens. 

 One or two fresh-water algce were growing in the cold pools of 

 water in the crevices of the rocks, but these cryptogamia were 

 all I could detect upon the comparatively naked schists. The 

 quartz veins running through the schist are noticed by Mr. 

 Hitchcock in his report upon the geological features of this valley. 

 Owing to the coldness of the season we occasionally found it not 

 only expedient but comfortable to walk instead of going in the 

 birches with the morning mist clinging to their sides. While 

 walking in this neighborhood Mr. Hitchcock called my attention 

 to some splendid specimens of the charming Calypso borealis. 

 Salisb. This delicate orchid should be cultivated in a cold bed of 

 sphagnum or peat-moss. While continuing our walk after dinner, 

 we were, for the first time, lost in the woods. Wood-roads for 

 hauling lumber, and the tote roads for hauling supplies, were very 

 plenty, intersected very often, and were consequently bewildering. 

 Wandering away from the river for an hour or two, we* at last 

 found a brook which we followed down till we struck the river, 

 and we waited for the boatmen. At last the thought occurred to 

 us that they miyJU have gone ahead ! Impressed with this idea we 

 shouted till we were so hoarse that our voices could not be heard 

 a few rods off", and sat down to await events. While anxiously 

 waiting on the shore to hear the slightest noise in the water, I 

 found plenty of leisure to botanize. A viola was growing among 

 the sphagnum which seemed diflerent from any described in Gray's 

 Manual. It is a well marked variety of viola palustris, or else a 

 species, as yet undescribed. 



In the course of half an hour our guides came down the river, 

 having poled up against the current for some distance, thinking 

 that we had passed along. We camped during that night near the 

 southern line of township 5, in 18th range. There is a good deal 

 of higli land Ijing off to the north-east of the river, and this we 



