232 Bog-Trotting for OrcHids 



Pinxter-Flower, False Solomon's Seal, yellow andblue 

 violets, bluets, and anemone everywhere decorate the 

 rocky soil. Numerous tall weeds towered coarsely 

 along the mountain-sides, to-day flaunting their dis- 

 agreeable perfume ever before me. 



I followed southwesterly, along the summit for a 

 mile or more, to Crj^stal Lake, passing the park called 

 *' Wildmont," to the right of which stands Cobble- 

 stone Cottage. The building appears very ancient. 



All the vast solitudes of the parks of Orange Moun- 

 tains are locked within gates, and the entrance labelled, 

 ''N'o Trespassi7igy Under Penalty of the Law.'' Law 

 is a specific designation for a certain kind of a broad- 

 headed, bow-legged quadruped — a thoroughbred species 

 not mentioned in the scientific annals of the Hoosac 

 Highlands. After passing the lake, I followed up the 

 swamp toward the distant walls of Wildmont, very 

 desirous of trespassing and seeing the Wild Law in his 

 cage. Soon I found a place where the stones were 

 tumbled out, and where, by lifting a barbed wire, I 

 could crawl through. So happily and leisurely I be- 

 gan to trespass about the woods. I found luxuriant 

 colonies of the Maiden - Hair Fern, tall spirit - like 

 spikes of feathery flowers, and club-like spikes of 

 fringed-purple weeds not seen in the Hoosac Valley. 

 They were so common that I did not gather any, so 

 I never determined their title. In the deeper pools 

 grew a few plants of the Skunk Cabbage. The low 

 bushes and plants were overgrown and coarse in 

 the extreme, amid the dense shades of chestnut and 



