TORREYA 



June, 1918 

 Vol. :8 No. 6 



THE FLORA OF INDIAN LADDER AND VICINITY: 



TOGETHER WITH DESCRIPTIVE NOTES 



ON THE SCENERY 



By Stewart H. Burxham 



"Fair Helderberg, 

 "O mountain fair, blue line against the sky! 

 Thy wooded steeps, thy cool secluded trails, 

 Th}' dells, thy caves, and laughing waterfalls, 

 All rainbow-haloed in the mellow light — 

 How fondly turn thy loyal sons to thee. 

 With, pure delight to greet thy sylvan joys!" 



May 12, igo6. We left Albany-, at noon, and \vent to Indian 

 Ladder in the Helderberg mountains, Albany county, fourteen 

 miles due west of the cit}-. We got off the train at Aleadowdale 

 (formerly known as Guilderland) on the Susquehanna division 

 of the Delaware & Hudson railroad. It was a splendid afternoon, 

 in spite of the threatening shower, and inspiring scenery. 



The walk from Meadowdale to the top of the cliffs, where the 

 wagon road passes over the site of the farrious Indian Ladder, 

 is about two miles; if one takes the private road half a mile from 

 the village, beyond a white house and a red barn. Soon the as- 

 cent of the long hill begins, the road skirting the base of the west- 

 ern clifTs, and overlooking the large amphitheater-like valley 

 in which a stream flows, formed by the confluence of two or 

 three streams from above. Two of the streams leap from the 

 cliffs in pretty waterfalls, about 100 feet in height, and a large 

 stream also issues from the base of the cliff along the Bear path. 



The valley is well wooded with deciduous trees, and the 

 eastern side has a fine growth of canoe birch, Betula papy- 



[Xo. 5, Vol. 18 of ToRREYA, Comprising pp. 81-100, was issued 4 June 1918.) 



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