76 Bog-Trotting for Orchids 



from Williams College ; she had seen two of them 

 come around the hill by the pond about five o'clock 

 on that day, bearing a new bushel-basket filled with 

 these gorgeous orchids, while the third soon followed 

 laden with more than he could easily carry far in his 

 arms. They followed the cool mountain road over the 

 Domelet to Williamstown, a road over which the yeo- 

 men from northern Berkshire were led to battle at 

 Bennington, on the i6th of August, 1777. The road 

 is seldom traversed now, and at best is rough and rocky. 

 It leads directly from Bennington southward to North 

 Adams, under the mountains, and indirectly to Boston. 



Had the storm come on Saturday, instead of Mon- 

 day, very few blossoms of these orchids would have 

 decorated the church chancel on Baccalaureate Sunday 

 for Williams' Commencement exercises. 



The fact that these students come to the Pownal 

 bogs for these orchids assured me of the scarcity and 

 rarity of the species in Williamstown, although they 

 may be found sparingly in the swamps of The Forks 

 along Broad Brook, just over the Vermont State I^ine 

 in Pownal. This stream rises on the east side of the 

 Majestic Dome, and flows down to the Hoosac by 

 way of White Oaks, and thus enters Williamstown, 

 where it soon joins the river. The orchids in The 

 Forks are quickly plundered, long before June 20th, 

 by ignorant tourists or students afield botanizing, who 

 either do not realize or do not care that plucking all 

 these rare blossoms will in time bring about their total 

 extinction. 



