TWO MONTHS IN THE SOUTHERN CATSKILLS 
By OLIVER P. MEDsGER 
Lincoln High School, Jersey City 
During the summer of 1914, the writer spent ten days at 
Woodland, New York, as the guest of Mr. H. W. Little, the director 
of “Сатр Wake Robin," one of the oldest and best known of the 
boys' camps in the East. Much of the time was spent in getting 
acquainted with the flora of the region. This year (1917) he 
accepted the position as councilor and director of nature study in the 
camp and spent from June 30 to August 30 there. Although some 
attention was given to birds and insects, yet ample time was 
available for a further study of the flora. 
e writer was not the first Torreyite to collect and study in 
this region. We find in the register of the Roxmor hotel at 
Woodland a record of a field meeting of the Torrey Botanical 
Club, June 2, 1901. Members who stopped at the hotel were 
Fanny A. Mulford, Heloise G. Esterly, N. L. Britton, Mrs. 
Britton, Anna Murray Vail, Alexandrina Taylor, E. P. Bicknell, 
and C. L. Pollard. It is not often that so many distinguished 
botanists attend a field meeting of the Torrey or any other botan- 
ical club. Mr. Edward Miller, the proprietor of the hotel at 
Woodland, is a former member of the Torrey Club and took 
much interest in our botanical work. Mr. Bicknell must be very 
familiar with the region, for it was in 1880, on Slide Mountain, 
that he discovered the thrush that bears his name. To me it 
was a great pleasure while camping on Slide Mountain to listen to 
the fine flute-like strains of this bird. 
Woodland is situated in Ulster County, about four miles south 
of Phoenicia, in the heart of the southern Catskills. It has an 
altitude of about 1,000 feet. Many of the highest peaks are in 
full view. Inthe narrow valley flows Woodland Brook, one of the 
finest and most beautiful of all the streams in the Catskill region. 
The eminent naturalist, John Burroughs, on returning from a 
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