VI 

 Hail-Storms at E-tchowog 



. . . Suddenly, a flaw 

 Of chill wind menaced ; then a strong blast beat 

 Down the long valley's murmuring pines and awoke 

 The noon-dreams of the sleeping lake, and broke 

 Its smooth steel mirror at the mountain's feet. 



WhiTTiER, Storm on Lake Asquam. 



ON June 2ist, with Major I walked down 

 through the Swamp of Oracles in District 

 Fourteen, along Ball Brook to the Kimball 

 Farm bogs, and so on once more to the 

 Bogs of Btchowog and the new colony of RegiiicB — the 

 queen of the Indian Moccasin-Flowers — which I had 

 so recently discovered in Cranberry Bog north of the 

 pond. I found prime blossoms all along the tiny path, 

 in the course of the stream through the deeper parts of 

 Glen of Com us, and in the Kimball Bogs, and I was in 

 hopes of finding them in the swamps of Etchowog. 



As I passed through the sphagnous meadows east 

 of Kimball's barns, around the hillside path to Are- 

 thusa's Fountain, I noticed several flowers of the 

 Cypripedium I was seeking, and recognized the leaves 

 and green-budded spikes of Habenaria psy codes, which 

 would later, w^hen fully in bloom, change to a delicate 

 purple. 



72 



