8 Bog-Trotting for OrcKids 



Whenever I come to the Hoosac Valley, I enter, if 

 possible, by way of this tunnel. I seem thus to close 

 away the outer world, and to penetrate a new realm hid- 

 den here in the seclusion of the marble highlands. This 

 triumph of man over the power of Nature needs no 

 further introduction here. I can never forget, however, 

 the weary years of hardships endured by those who 

 toiled in its construction, entombed within the heart of 

 the mountain, subject to the dangers of quicksands, 

 falling rocks, damp and gases, explosives, fire and 

 starvation, before the great work was accomplished. 



I enjoyed the ridges in the pastures along the foot- 

 hills of the grim -faced Tunnel Mountain, and about 

 Aurora's Lake, which reflects like a pretty little mirror 

 the rugged beauty of the hills. This lake is partly 

 natural, but now dammed artificially. Every line of 

 its terraced shores bears the scars of antiquity, which 

 would indicate that ten thousand years ago a larger 

 lake slept in this hollow vale which geologists have 

 estimated at a depth of six hundred feet. Here are 

 rich deposits of glacial drift, and northeast of Aurora's 

 Lake are sphagnous swamps, where I find many rare 

 orchids and early spring blossoms. Here both the 

 pink and yellow Moccasin-Flowers bloom in May, 

 while in June the queen of the tribe unfolds her white- 

 petaled purity. 



This bogland is very similar to that of the Swamp 

 of Oracles in Pownal, in District Fourteen, save for the 

 openness of the former's shores. Aurora's Swamp 

 is located in a deep flinty basin, surrounded only by 



