CHARLES HORTON PECK 



Stewart H. Burnham 



" Lift the veil of interception between your vision and the most 

 lonely spot in the heart of the Adirondack wilderness on some 

 fair day, and you may see a man examining a vine his sharp eye 

 h^s dectected in the tangled undergrowth. The man's figure is 

 sparse and lithe and a little stooped. His hair is partially gray, 

 his eyes glow with delight. ' A new species ! ' he breathes half 

 audibly. Charles H. Peck, state botanist, has added another 

 specimen to his long list of the various members of the New York 

 state flora, and it will soon be placed among his treasures in the 

 state herbarium." 



Again we will lift the veil and go back eighty-five years. 

 Charles Horton Peck, son of Joel B. and Pameha Horton Peck, 

 of English descent, was born in the northeastern part of the town 

 of Sand Lake, March 30, 1833. " Sand Lake, Rensselaer county, 

 was just a few clearings less than an unbroken forest then." 

 About 1794, " his great grandfather, Eleazer Peck, removed from 

 Farmington, Conn., to Sand Lake, N. Y., being attracted there 

 by the oak timber, from which were manufactured staves for the 

 Albany market." 



As soon as Dr. Peck wa^ old enough to be of assistance in his 

 father's sawmill, at the foot of Larnard hill, his schooldays were 

 limited to the winter season. " The schoolhouse that provided 

 shelter for the master and a few children from the nearest homes 

 was built of logs. The seats were made of saw-log slabs turned 

 flat side up." 



Speaking of the abundance of passenger pigeons in Sand Lake 

 when he was a boy, he remarked that they were fond of red and 

 black elderberries and buckwheat. He recalled going one time 

 with his grandfather, who enjoyed fishing and hunting, to catch 

 pigeons with a net, using a decoy and working the net from a 

 brush hut nearby. During the morning the pigeons came down, 



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