140 THE AMERICAN BOTANIST 



is, for the labyrinth of chambers far back in the. bowels of the 

 earth has long since caved in. Long ago, after a brief period 

 of operation, the mine was given up as unprofitable, or it be- 

 came "worn out," and the green grass of years grows about 

 its mouth, while from the dripping roof of the entrance the 

 strong roots of forest trees are hanging. Perchance the 

 forest gods dwell within the cave that echoes back the wood 

 pewee's complaining call and mistake the grotto wrought by 

 the hands of restless men for one of Nature's own. 



It may be that the natural historian will find nothing of 

 very great value or interest here in the way of fossils. But 

 to sit .upon this mossy bank and gaze upon that seam that 

 marks where the layer of drift material rests unconformably 

 upon the shale of the Carboniferous system, that mere line 

 that represents untold and nameless ages — thus to sit and 

 gaze and to reflect upon the roll of the mighty waves in the 

 vast ocean of time, is well worth a whole library of ordinary 

 lore. After a little while, however, we begin to look around 

 us — the wailing cry of a great crested flycatcher arouses us 

 out of our reverie — and we espy in a heap of crumbled lime- 

 stone a number of small bead-like objects, also of lime, they 

 are not common in the neighborhood of every mine, however, 

 for frequently we search for them in vain. Concerning them, 

 hereabouts at any rate and among children, there is an inter- 

 esting piece of folk-lore. They are called "luck stones" and 

 "lucky stones," and to find one or more will bring good for- 

 tune to the finder, so it is said. Very few, I opine, know 

 what their nature really is. Some there are, who do not be- 

 long to the school of lucky stone philosophers, that consider 

 them to be beads manufactured by the American aborigines 

 and in this connection we recall "St. Cuthbert's Beads" in Sir 

 Walter Scott's "Marmion," which were no other than these 

 small, wheel shaped bodies before us. But he that has a mere 

 smattering, even of paleontological knowledge, recognizes them 



