120 YEARBOOK, PUBLIC MUSEUM, MILWAUKEE [Vol. II. 



At John Smoker's request, we went to see a peculiar tree on highway 

 25, a couple of miles south of town. Many of the inhabitants knew 

 about these trees, though none knew what they were. Two forest rang- 

 ers from St. Paul gave them up, so our curiosity was aroused. These 

 trees, standing in a little grove, the largest about sixteen inches in diam- 

 eter, were our old friend, the Kentucky Coffee tree (Gymnocladus 

 dioicus). We suspect that this is close to the northern hmit for this 

 species to occur naturally. 



Our largest day's collecting was done here, we taking 372 sheets .on 

 a Friday. We found such an accumulation of material that our lan- 

 tern would not dry them all in twenty- four hours, so we trekked to 

 Winona, Minnesota, and bought a Kamp Kook stove for gasoline, 

 which turned out a very hot flame with two burners and solved the 

 drying problem for the rest of the trip. 



We strayed away as far north as Buffalo City and Cochrane, with 

 Paul Riediger and John Smoker, covering only, by plan, the immediate 

 vicinity of the Mississippi river bottoms. We found plenty of climbing 

 around Fountain City, where the bluffs are very steep. Scrambling 

 over the bluffs was said to be a dangerous pastime, because of the 

 many rattlesnakes around the rocks. However, we did not find any. 

 We saw two snakes, each seven or eight feet long, and each with eleven 

 pairs or more of rattles. They had been killed and brought in, to ex- 

 hibit in a store window. Two brothers killed 174 of them in two 

 months. There is a county bounty of fifty cents apiece on rattlesnakes, 

 so they were well paid for their trouble. We have never seen them so 

 plentiful in any place, except the sea islands in southern Georgia. 

 There, on Sapelo Island, in 1909, we saw about six hundred on a couple 

 of acres, where the brush fire had caught them unawares and killed 

 them. It was on this island that we had our first taste of rattlesnake 

 steak. A fine one nearly nine feet long and possibly six inches in 

 diameter yielded a round steak quite comparable to the best halibut. 



Fountain City's environs are still under the influence of the north, 

 and the ridge flora is similar to the north, while the river bottom flora 

 has more of the southern character. The scenery hereabout is wonder- 

 ful. Having seen the Mississippi clear to its mouth, we know that 

 these bluffs make it the prettiest part of the river. From om* experi- 

 ence, we should say that the entire river from St. Paul to past Du- 

 buque, Iowa, is of this same character. 



Much as we should have liked to stay at Fountain City and enjoy 

 the cuisine, we found that we had collected all the plants that could be 



