MARTHA'S VINEYARD 351 



Though nominally not in charge, he could not quite divest him- 

 self of responsibility, and the very presence of a body of students 

 so near at hand was a source of care to him, so that eventually 

 the summer station for this branch of teaching was transferred 

 to Squam Lake. The fascination which Martha's Vineyard had 

 for Mr. Shaler, aside from its restorative climate, was in part 

 due to its geological formations. There were the peculiar and 

 brilliant beds of clay at Gay Head ; on his own place, a long 

 stretch of seashore where he could watch the work of the sea ; 

 and everywhere traces of glacial action. Unlike most farmers, 

 he coveted the rocks as much as he did the soil ; and he bought 

 a special tract of land that he might have, as he said, a moraine 

 of his own. His feeling in regard to these features of the land- 

 scape was recognized by his friends. Mr. W. E. Darwin writes, 

 "There is nothing I should like better than to visit your 

 private preserve of kames and aprons at Martha's Vineyard." 

 Many other stretches of land, for various assigned reasons, 

 but mainly because he had the land hunger of his forbears, were 

 purchased from the widely scattered children of the old folk 

 who, in the intervals of their toiling with the sea, built bowlder 

 walls and scratched the sterile soil for a living. Most of their 

 houses, under stress of weather, had so fallen to decay that in 

 some instances only chimneys and foundations remained to 

 mark the spot where a home once had been ; or flowers, these 

 in their season blossoming persistently in the lonely places. 

 Among them the old-fashioned daffies seemed best to have with- 

 stood neglect; and taking this hint of their hardihood, Mr. 

 Shaler and his companion planted thousands of new bulbs of 

 their kind, so that in the spring, when the east winds of March 

 invited to shelter, one was tempted forth to gather the yellow 

 blossoms that glowed alongside of the bowlders, the old founda- 

 tions, and stone walls. As the crop increased, the coming of 

 the daffodils and their distribution in Cambridge got to be a 

 floral event that was looked forward to by many friends. Mr. 

 Shaler was also very much interested in the planting of 



