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55.
One can understand how high the mountains looked to us when one considers relative altitudes. Clear Lake is about 1400 feet above sea level while the mountains rise to nearly 5000 feet. The level of Fourth Lake is 1700 feet while Black Bear Mt., the highest to be seen from that lake, is only 2450. Yet the mountains about Fourth Lake make a decided impression upon one.

As yet we had not met with the flora of the high altitudes, the flowers for the most part being characteristic of the Adirondack woods and clearings in general. Along the road from North Elba we had found Spiranthes cernua and Romansoffiana, Lobelia spicata, Coralhoriza maculata, Lycopodium annotinum and several species of Silene. While endeavoring to strike the Marcy trail from Hart Lake we came across the delicate plants of Spiranthes gracilis. 

Finding that the trails around the lake varied greatly from those given on the map and recalling the prediction of our friend at Placid that we would have considerable difficulty in reaching Marcy from Clear Lake, we walked back to the sign-post and went over to South Meadows. This is a broad level strip of land, evidently the bottom of a glacial lake, surrounded by hills and containing the homes of a few lumbermen. We had planned to find some place to spend the night here as a storm was now threatening but as none appeared, we kept on after getting directions. 

A three miles' walk brought us at five o'clock to a deserted lumber camp. Deserted, desolate, forlorn - these are the words to describe such a camp, especially when you come upon it in a rainstorm. There were perhaps ten log cabins into each of which we peered, trying to find one acceptable as a sleeping place. Each one

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