166 SPRING AT THE CAPITAL. 



urith in the mountain sources of the Hudson or the 

 Delaware. 



One of the tributaries to Rock Creek -vvithin this 

 limit is called Piny Branch. It is a small, noisy 

 brook, flowing through a valley of great natural 

 beauty and picturesqueness, shaded nearly all the way 

 by woods of oak, chestnut, and beech, and abounding 

 in dark recesses and hidden retreats. 



I must not forget to mention the many springs with 

 which this whole region is supplied, each the centre 

 of some wild nook, perhaps the head of a little valley 

 one or two hundred yards long, through which one 

 catches <* glimpse, or hears the voice of the main crbok 

 rushino- alonoj below. 



My walks tend in this direction more frequently 

 than in any other. Here the boys go too, troops of 

 them, of a Sunday, to bathe and prowl around, and 

 indulge the semi-barbarous instincts that still lurk 

 within them. Life, in all its forms, is most abundant 

 near water. The rank vegetation nurtures the in- 

 sects, and the insects draw the birds. The first week 

 in March, on some southern slope where the sunshin 

 lies warm and long, I usually find the hepatica 

 bloom, though with scarcely an inch of stalk. In the 

 spring runs the skunk cabbage pushes its pike up 

 through the mould, the flower appearing first, as if 

 Nature had made a mistake. 



It is not till about the 1st of April that many wild 

 flowers may be looked for. By this time the hepa 

 Uca^ anemone, saxifrage, arbutus, houstonia, and blood 



