NATURE STUDY. 



PUBLISHED UNDER THE AUSPICES OF THE 



Manchester Institute of Arts and Sciences. 



Vol. IV. August, 1903. No. 3. 



Rock Rimmon. 



BY EDWARD J. BURNHAM. 



The New England Puritans, reading their Bibles and 

 exploring the wilderness, were often reminded of that rock 

 of Rimmon, in that other wilderness, to which the dis- 

 tressed remnant of the tribe of Benjamin fled for refuge 

 long ago. Evidently, they fancied some analogy between 

 the Hebrew story and their own situation, for there are 

 several Rock Rimmons in the New England States. 



Each Rock Rimmon, like many a more lofty peak or 

 summit, has its tradition, usually of the Indian maiden 

 who cast herself down in despair, either because of a re- 

 creant lover or by reason of the villain who persistently 

 pursued her — traditions in which the emotions and senti- 

 ments of the civilized state are read into a life of savagery, 

 where they in nowise belong. 



The Rock Rimmon pictured in this number of Nature 

 Study is of interest today less by reason of any fanciful 

 tradition than because it still shows the processes by which 

 most of the hills have been rounded off and clothed with 



