92 



THE MUSEUM. 



How could a collector place any 

 value in dollars and cents on speci- 

 mens found on such occasions with 

 their halo of pleasant incidents which 

 invest them and recollect the pleasure 

 with which he traversed the shore of a 

 fresh water lake of today, directing 

 the strokes of his obedient hammer on 

 the rough side of a suspicious looking 

 boulder and then as the rock-pages 

 broke asunder the curious delight of 

 gazing on forms that mortal eye had 

 ne'er gazed on before! 



How in the wondrous profusion with 

 which the ocean forms of a long-ago 

 age strew the shores of this great lake 

 of today, do the old and new so 

 strangely meet. And the shells that 

 had their being millions of years ago, 

 then sealed in their rocky tombs to be 

 found again and rescued by the relent- 

 less waves of Lake Erie and cleansed 

 and polished anew by her waters, she 

 placed them before us side by side by 

 her own product, the fresh water shells 

 of today. 



Let some of our skeptical scientists 

 try to find that the rock record is an- 

 tagonistic to the masonic record if 

 they wish, but the deeper the unpre- 

 judiced mind delves into the enduring 

 records of nature the firmer will be 

 the conviction that the world and "all 

 living things depend on one everlast- 

 ing Creator and Ruler." 



Let all who may contemptibly cry 

 out "Back to Dogma" when a true 

 scientist may testify to the belief in 

 the existence of an intelligent and de- 

 signing Creator, we will still believe 

 that the "existence of a first cause is 

 the creed of reason." 



And like as these beautiful forms 

 venerable with years, are born by the 

 never tiring waves of f^ake Erie from 

 their honored tombs to feel the rays of 

 a sunlight that has not kissed their 

 pearly forms for countless ages, so 

 does the greater share of students be- 

 lieve that the One who ever rules, all 

 this, will rescue the human forms of 

 our age from "Time's remorseless 

 sea," when 



"Dawns the day that will never know de- 

 clining." 



Pileated Woodpecker in Mahoning 

 County, Ohio. 



(Eylotomus pilealus.) 



One who has never made the ac- 

 quaintance of this royal Woodpecker 

 "log-cock" cannot know what he has 

 missed. He is an inspiration to the 

 lover of the wild life of the woods. 

 You will not be apt to find him in a 

 neatly trimmed grove or upstart of 

 second growth timber. No votary of 

 civilization and luxury he, but "a chip 

 of the old block" of primeval savage- 

 ness rather. 



It was a red-letter day when I dis- 

 covered the pair in a heavy woods not 

 a mile from my country home! We 

 are always discovering that we a*-e 

 richer than we thought. Surely, we 

 say, no new thing can come to me; I 

 know all about these fields and woods: 

 — So I thought, and yet, I found that 

 this regal Woodpecker had been living 

 in my horizon for at least a year, and 

 that I had heard his vigorous hammer- 

 ing all that time without really know- 

 ing who was the author. But one 

 day, I said to myself, I must go and 

 see what manner of Woodpecker that 

 is, — either he is a most vigorous bird 

 or his sounding-board is uncommonly 

 resonant. I had never seen the bird 

 at liberty, heard its drumming, or 

 dreamed that it could possibly come 

 under my observation here. But 

 when I had reached the woods, and 

 heard the powerful noise reverberated 

 by the quiet autumnal woods, my sus- 

 picions were at once aroused. I knew 

 no Woodpecker of my acquaintance 

 could make such a noise as that. 



And while I was still some gun-shots 

 away, I saw a dark bird nearly black, 

 as seen in the dim light of the woods, 

 drop into the air from the moggy top- 

 branch of a lofty tree, and in grand 

 wild waves of motion after the man- 

 ner of his tribe, gallop off through the 

 twilight of the forest into the maze of 



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