694 The American Naturalist. 



[August) 



attempt to get actual measurements of its length and width. 

 From what I could see in it and from the highway I should 

 judge it to be not far from four miles long, and in no place 

 more than three-quarters of a mile wide. In this, as in the 

 other swamps which are nearly mature, the wooded belt covers 

 by far the greater portion of the marsh. There is left here, 

 however, an open bog nearly, if not quite, a mile long, and 

 from twenty to thirty rods wide. 



granny's oechaed. 



This is the last of the three depressions selected for illustra- 

 tion. It is a marsh in which there is no lake, nor has tliere 

 been one in the memory of the persons living thereabouts. It 

 takes its name through the resemblance the open portion of it 

 bears to an orchard and a well-confirmed story that a man 

 knowii universally in those parts as " Granny " attempted at 

 one time to reclaim some of this land by draining it. It is in 

 the eastern part of the town of Palermo, and lies well up to- 

 ward the divide between Oneida Lake and Lake Ontario. 

 There are more large swamps in this vicinity than in any 

 other" part of the county. To these some of the residents ap- 

 ply indiscriminately the term Granny's Orchard, but I feel 

 sure the name originated in the manner I have described, and 

 is restricted by a majority of the people to this single swamp. 

 Yet the appropriateness of the name might easily lead to its 

 more general use. 



It is a very extensive swamp. In fact it must be confessed 

 that we had hard work to estimate distance in this place, the 

 view was so intercepted by trees and shrubs. The open por- 

 tion of the swamp is surrounded by a densely wooded belt-, and 

 shrubs and trees of the most aggressive species have invaded 

 the moor until it presents the appearance of an orchard, the 

 trees of which are here represented by tamaracs and spruce. 

 The level openings between are carpeted with sphagnum. The 

 extent and nature of the wooded belt repels visitors even in 

 summer, so that it is seldom visited except by adventurous 

 huckleberry gatherers in August. Tlie man who guided me 

 into the bog, the first time I visited it (himself an old resident), 



