1921] SMITH, BOTANY COLLECTING IN VILAS COUNTY, WIS. 49 



of the woodsman's axe. By swinging the canoe on one side of the auto, 

 we were able to make a pretty thorough exploration in the two weeks 

 at our disposal. For instance, in the space of one day. we drove eight 

 miles to High Lake, paddled across to the Devil's Lake Portage, where 

 a clearly marked trail of one mile through virgin forest appeared. Here 

 the two hundred pound bulk of the Curator won him the canoe-carrying 

 job. Devil's lake proved to be a long, narrow body of dark water hardly 

 more than fifty yards wide at any point, too deep to sound with one 

 hundred yards of line, yet supporting semi-floating islands of sphagnum 

 moss eml)edded with laurel and bluel^erries as shrubs, and pitcher plants 

 and sundews, all l)ut hidden in the moss. Above the moss were such 

 delicate orchids as Pogonia, Arethusa and Calypso. The deep, quiet and 

 dark waters gave us introspective thoughts till the far shore and shallow 

 water was encountered with its shoals of rapidly flashing small rock bass. 

 Then followed a boggy corduroy-laid trail of half a mile to Jones Lake, 

 rather more sizeable, and a trail of one-eighth of a mile to Cochran lake, 

 a small lake possibly one by two miles. From Cochran lake to Palmer 

 lake was merely a drag over into a weedy channel, filled with wild rice 

 (Zicaiiia palustris). A four-mile ])addle took us to the Palmer spring 

 for lunch. From Palmer lake up to the connecting river, a short dis- 

 tance, we are in Tenderfoot lake, which extends into ^Michigan. Palmer 

 and Tenderfoot lakes are quite dififerent from other lakes in Vilas coun- 

 ty, in that the drainage is here directed into Lake Superior, and the 

 muskie is not found north of High lake. The great northern pike is the 

 game fish of these waters. After photographing and collecting to our 

 heart's content, we retraced our steps, reaching camp before dark. 



This is just a sample day of many spent in Vilas county, and if we 

 have failed to mention the many and varied types of mushrooms, ferns 

 and mosses, trees, herbs and shrubs, it is because the physical features 

 of the country have out-weighed our attention to these. There are many 

 connecting rivers in these northern lakes, so that we might travel for 

 days in a canoe with but trifling portages and make circular trips or de- 

 scribe almost any figure desired. For the flora, we chose a favorable 

 season, since later the dryness mitigates against much growth. The 

 season is late in Vilas county, and we were almost at the end of their 

 spring, and surely at the beginning of their summer. Shipping our speci- 

 mens to the Museum, our stay in Vilas was over. 



It was with regret, that we al)andoned camp and turned our faces 

 southward, l)ut we were on another and equally interesting mission, 

 which took us to Keshena, Shawano county, Wisconsin, which we 

 reached on June 26th. 



