198 Bog'-Trotting for Orchids 



Revolutionary days by Silas Stone, who kept tavern 

 when stages ran between Pittsfield, Bennington, and 

 Troy. 



On July 1 8th I made a tour of the limestone ridge 

 above the Gulf Road, known as the Glebe. It is the 

 most desolate and unproductive soil in the whole town. 

 In the early townships of the New Hampshire Grants, 

 Governor Benning Wentworth required " One Share 

 for a Glebe for the Church of England as by Law 

 Established," and another for schools. These lands, 

 therefore, are to-day called "minister lots" and "school 

 lots." The occupants, instead of paying taxes, pay 

 lease money for the use of the land, which is appropri- 

 ated according to the vote of the town's people for the 

 support of ministers and schools. 



Beginning northwest of the Swamp of Oracles, over 

 the Amidon fields, one finds the limestone bed-rock 

 cropping out everywhere. Eittle rounded hills appear 

 to jut out of the deeper swamps leading toward Iris 

 Swamp on Ball Farm, as one rides along the Pownal 

 Centre Road. Great lime-rock boulders and piles of 

 loosened rock lie strewn over the fields. One enormous 

 boulder may be observed by the road north of Amidon' s 

 house, and another near the Peleg Card house. I col- 

 lected innumerable Walking Ferns scattered over these 

 miniature hills and boulders. I proceeded northward 

 to the Campbell horseshoeing shop, in the woods be- 

 3^ond, and turned to the left toward the ridges of the 

 Glebe. Searching the rocks along the edges of the 

 road, I found — perched high on a point of rocks — a 



