80 BOULDER REVERIES. 



have seen their mole-like burrows in more. The 

 latter are especially common in the sand along 

 our larger streams and about the margins of the 

 northern lakes, where they may be readily 

 traced for rods. Occasionally, but not often, 

 the cricket is seen above ground, ambling along 

 in a rapid but peculiar gait. Beneath one 

 chunk, half buried in the sand, I once unearthed 

 a colony of five; and the young by scores are 

 often caught while seining minnows, as they 

 burrow in the soft mud beneath the shallow 

 water close along the shores. 



Last Thursday I saw, for the first time, the 

 lilac petals of the purple fringed orchis, in 

 the borders of a bog in Steuben County. I 

 bowed the knee in reverence before its entranc- 

 ing beauty. How can the mud and slime of 

 these northern bogs be transformed into such a 

 flower as this ? How can the spotless white and 

 the fragrance of our water lilies come from the 

 black, ill-smelling ooze of our ponds and lakes ? 

 Only the science of chemistry and the God of 

 Nature can answer. 



