THE BOTANISTS OF PHILADELPHIA. 115 



But, ill tracing his steps by his collections and by other 

 indications, it appears he did not reach the western borders 

 of Virginia, nor cross its southern boundaries into the 

 mountains of North Carolina. The peaks of Otter and 

 Salt Pond Mountain (now Mountain Lake), were the highest 

 elevations which he attained. The following season he 

 went, in like manner, over the Northern states, beginning 

 with the mountains of Pennsylvania, and extending to 

 those in New Hampshire (in which tract he traversed the 

 extensive and highly interesting country, of the lesser and 

 greater lakes) and returning, as before, by the sea-coast. 



The diary * of this expedition, found among Dr. 

 Barton's papers and collections'in possession of the American 

 Philosophical Society, was printed by Thomas Potts James. 

 It shows that the journey was not as extended, or as 

 thorough, as would be supposed ; that it was from Phila- 

 delphia directly north to the Pocono Mountains, thence to 

 Onondaga, and to Oswego — the only point on the Great 

 Lakes reached — thence back to Utica, down the Mohawk 

 Valley to Saratoga, and north to the upper part of Lake 

 Champlain and to the lesser green mountains in the vicinity 

 of Eutland, but not beyond. Discouraged by the lateness 

 of the season, and disheartened, as he had all along been, 

 by the failure and insufficiency of remittances from his 

 patron, Pursh turned back from Rutland on the 2 2d of 

 September, reached New York on the 1st of October, and 

 Philadelphia on the 5th. The next year (1807) Pursh took 

 charge of the botanic garden, which Dr. Hosack had 

 formed at New York and afterward sold to the State, which 



* Journal of a Botanical Excursion in the Northern Parts of the Slates of 

 Pennsulvania and New York, during the year 1807. Philadelphia, 1869. Edited by- 

 Thomas P. James. Also see The Gardener^ s Monthly (Meehan), X and XI. 



