II 



Ball BrooK and tKe Bo^s of 

 ErtcHovrog 



Fringing the stream, at every turn 

 Swung low the waving fronds of fern ; 

 From stony cleft and mossy sod 

 Pale asters sprang, and golden-rod. 



Whittier, The Seeking of the Waterfall. 



ON May 25th I reached Pownal, Bennington 

 County. Upon the following day I ex- 

 plored the great swamps of Etchowog. 

 Prepared with luncheon, vasculum, basket 

 for roots and my hound Major, I started on one of those 

 happy excursions such as Thoreau recommends we 

 should take, " in the spirit of undying adventure, never 

 to return, — prepared to send back our embalmed hearts 

 only as relics to our desolate kingdoms." ' 



Ball Brook, a sluggish stream flowing northwardly 

 to East Pownal swamps — commonly called the Bogs of 

 Etchowog — has its source in the marshy hillsides north- 

 west of the schoolhouse in District Fourteen. Two 

 streams flow from this valley. One is called Ladd 

 Brook, running southwesterly and following the wind-. 

 ings of the shady Ladd Road to Pownal village, where 



'Thoreau, "Walking," Excursions, p. 252. 

 15 



