1922] SMITH, BOTANY IN SOUTHWESTERN WISCONSIN 119 



Frost's Amanita (A. frostiana) and the edible Sheathed Amanitopsis 

 (A. vaginata). We saw a host of small Agarics which were unknown 

 to us, and which we did not have the time to determine. There were 

 several of the Hedgehog fungi group to be seen in the boggy woods. 

 In retrospect, we would say that Jackson county was the richest spot 

 for fungi that we encountered on the trip. 



One afternoon we went to the big Hayward Dam, placed there on 

 Black river by the government. It is said to be the highest dam east of 

 the Rockies. Here we saw a few Winnebago Indians, as we were get- 

 ting close to Neillsville. New things were beginning to be hard to find 

 by Saturday night, and as we had collected 876 sheets, we decided to 

 move to Fountain City, Buiifalo county. 



Monday, the 3rd of July, we packed and shipped our plant collec- 

 tions to Milwaukee, and at one o'clock hit trail 52 through Irving, North 

 Bend, and Marshland to Galesville, shooting the new sights with both 

 cameras enroute. We were much tempted to stay in Galesville, Trem- 

 pealeau county, a quaint, old-fashioned town with hills on every side, 

 one of the most scenic locations we found. 



But our longing to see the Mississippi bluffs conquered, and after 

 our sixty mile downhill trip, we wound into Fountain City about six 

 o'clock, where we found a real hotel. The Eagle, with eats family style, 

 for seven dollars apiece a week. Earl Gerlich was truly an ideal host 

 and furnished us a barn to store our machine and dry our plants. Just 

 outside the barn was a fine spring piped down to an old watering trough. 

 Fountain City is a quaint old town of nine hundred inhabitants, re- 

 minding us of hilly towns in France, clinging to the edge of the bluff. 

 From the second story of the hotel, we could see into the basement of 

 the house next door. Here we found many congenial spirits, wanting 

 to help us further our work. Ed Baffe, the Italian fisherman, offered 

 his boat to explore the bayous and sloughs. Dr. Reinhard brought us 

 in a variant ,of the common bull thistle. Road patrolman Hallbrecht 

 directed us to peculiar spots. John Smoker, who managed a wild life 

 preserve of five thousand acres on an island in the Mississippi, was a 

 great help. Chas. G. Weyl, who has been a government engineer for 

 thirty-two years, dredging the Mississippi, knew the history, flora and 

 fauna of the neighborhood like a book. Mr. Weyl took us over the 

 government boat yard there, and also over the dredge, Vesuvius, which 

 is stationed on this stretch of the river. He showed us how the willow 

 twig mats were woven and sunk to form the wing dams to keep the 

 channel clear and deep, and altogether made our stay a happy one. 



