Ram's-Heads in WitcH Hollow 103 



able to designate it. Here, also, small ferns and lux- 

 uriant brakes were sheltered amid the low sumach 

 bushes and willows. Wild grape-vines entwined the 

 trunks of trees, reaching far into the tops of the high 

 elms. One immense elm had been blown over by 

 some northeast hurricane, which had quite recently 

 swept through this hollow. The upturned roots of 

 this ruined tree had apparently grown about a deeply 

 buried fellow in the peat and marl, for they still 

 retained the impression of the buried trunk about 

 which they had clung. In the mud and water from 

 which the tree had been torn, lay in its deep grave 

 this log, bare of its outer bark, but still sound and 

 round. It was now well water-soaked, after having 

 been so long sealed from the air and light beneath 

 the earth. How many centuries it had been buried 

 there, no one can guess. The now apparently aged 

 elm upon the surface had torn up several feet of earth 

 as it fell. Forest after forest had thus fallen, a new 

 one rising over it, eventually to give place to another, 

 and itself to form a strata of mould, enriching the soil 

 of these bogs which yield so many floral treasures. 



I did not remain in this meadow long, as it proved 

 still too damp to walk through grasses and sedges 

 without w^ater-tight boots. Coming out of this place 

 at the foot of the little ravine below the colony of 

 Ram's-Heads, I ran upon numerous oblong, waxen, 

 green leaves, which at first reminded me of the similar 

 leaves of the Pink Moccasin - Flower {Cypripedium 

 acaule). But on closer search for their seed-capsules, I 



