beautiful and picturesque than the region of Elkhart Lake and the adjacent country. 

 The whole territory is well supplied with springs, rivulets, and lakes. The hills and 

 valleys in the days of my boyhood were covered with a primeval forest. Each valley 

 has its stream, usually a shallow brook of clear, cool water, flowing between banks 

 mostly fringed with dense shrubbery and vine-covered trees. A conspicuous feature of 

 this locality are the extensive tamarack and white-cedar swamps, especially the great 

 Sheboygan Marsh. In the latter the white cedar had attained immense proportions, but 

 that deadly enemy of all forests, the lumberman, already in the days of my youth began 

 his inroads, and the grand old trees that had resisted the storms of centuries, fell before 

 the merciless axe. As a second growth almost impenetrable masses of black sprace *, 

 alders, dogwood, viburnums, leatherwQod^, and young white cedars and tamaracks have 

 sprung up. The ground is thickly matted with sphagnum moss, from which immense 

 clumps of cypripediums emerge. Wintergreen', partridge berry, snowberry*, many 

 terrestrial orchids, dwarf cranberry bushes grow luxuriantly in this soft carpet of moss. 

 When I visited this immense swamp in the first part of June, 1895, the beautiful white 

 Labrador tea" was in full flower. The charming stemless lady's slipper °, the white and 

 the large yellow lady's slippers" were growing and flowering side by side with pitcher 

 plants ^ About the middle of June the exquisite moccasin flower', of which I found 

 very large clumps with fully expanded blossoms, was in full bloom. Among ferns, 

 which here find a most congenial home, the cinnamon and Clayton's feni" as well as 

 the common brackeh", and now and then a bunch of sweet-scented fern'^ were met with. 

 The outlet of Elkhart Lake, which forms the Sheboygan River, flows through this 

 swamp. During the first part of June the chorus of bird songs in this locality is inde- 

 scribably charming and varied. Indeed I have rarely heard so many fine songsters at 

 one time. Catbirds and Orioles, Thrashers and Towhees, Yireos and a host of Warblers, 

 all praised the beautiful month of June and its salubrious air in the serenity of these 

 w^oodlands and swamps. The most charming song, full of variety and enchanted 

 sweetness, was that of the most accomplished of our northern songsters, the 

 Veery. It sounded from far and near, and the liquid, mellow notes filled the soul 

 with gladness and delight. In the immediate vicinity of where I rested the sweetly 

 flowing strain of the Water Thrush and the characteristic ditty of the Mourning 

 Warbler came from the dense thickets of Labrador tea, red osier, and leather-wood. 

 The Winter Wren, bubbling over with joy, was at home among the ferns and moss- 

 covered prostrate logs, while Yellow Warblers, Vireos, Redstarts, Parula Warblers, 

 Black-throated Green Warblers, and Flycatchers hopped about among the branches of 

 trees over my head. 



Elkhart Lake is a beautiful sheet of blue water, still fringed with much of its 

 original forest growth, although the grand old white pines, oaks, and maples which 

 formerly covered the valleys and crested the hills, have been cut down. For almost a 

 score of years this lake has formed an attractive and popular summer resort. On the 

 hills we often meet fine specimens of red cedar, furnished vnth branches to the ground 



J Abies nigra, t Dirca palaatrls. a Gaaltheria procumbens. * Chiogenes bispidala. o Ledum latifolium. e Cypri- 

 pediam acaule. ' C. nlrale and C. pubcscens. » Sarracenia purpurea. » Cypripediuni spectabile, tii Osmunda ciaaa- 

 momea and O Claytonlana, > < Pteris acqiillloa. ' J Aspidium fragraas, ■ --■ 



