2 28 Bog-Trotting for Orchids 



with dainty ferns and mosses. I^ittle rivulets flowed 

 from its sides, and climbing around to its southern 

 brow, I was delighted to find many luxuriant plants 

 of Walking Ferns — this making the fifth excursion in 

 succession in which I had found this rare plant. 



I entered the ravine below the boulder, and picked 

 my way up the chasm to the southern portal of the 

 arch, where I became wet through from the mist above, 

 as I ventured to look through the cave. Returning, 

 I found a path up the east bank leading to Marble 

 Quarry and the mill below, where gravestones, door- 

 stones, and various ornaments are manufactured. The 

 most useful piece of work ever turned out here was, in 

 my mind, the Williams College sun-dial tablet, which 

 Hawthorne observed in 1838 as being as large as the 

 top of a hogshead. * I have later discovered that this 

 dial was placed near that old Astronomical Observa- 

 tory on Consumption Hill, near the present College 

 Library, — the first building of its kind erected in the 

 United States, for the study of the worlds above, by 

 Professor Albert Hopkins, in 1838. The bronze sun- 

 dial was supported upon the marble table which Haw- 

 thorne saw at the quarry. Around it was carved in 

 the soft marble the now dim inscription: 



" HOW IS IT THAT YK DO NOT DISCERN THIS TIME." 



This dial is now among the relics in the College 

 Museum. 

 The overhanging crag, near the southern side of the 



' Hawthorne, American No^es, July 31, 1838. 



