THE MUD FLAT. 47 



in Switzerland many windrows of gathered cobble-stones and 

 pebbles, and sheets of assorted sands and mud, miles in ex- 

 tent, felt that it was scarcely a theoretical view to attribute 

 these larger results of the same kind to a geologic agency of 

 a similar nature, though it had acted unknown ages before 

 human eyes had been created. 



Not far from the home of my boyhood was the mill-pond, 

 dear to every school-ward trudging urchin who had to pass it, 

 and a Saturday resort for many others who lived in the ad- 

 joining " district." Here we bathed ; here we fished ; here we 

 risked our lives in shaky skiffs, and astride of unmanageable 

 logs. The water was deep and clear. Last summer I visited 

 the old pond. Like the anxious parents, who shared with 

 mill-pond the affection of which boyish hearts are susceptible, 

 the scene of so much truant enjoyment was changed almost 

 beyond recognition. The deep, clear water was silted up, and 

 flags were thrusting their brown noses up, in the sites where 

 I used to swim in summer and skate in winter. Sedges 

 fringed the borders ; bulrushes, to their knees in water, were 

 holding possession of land that was expected to be, and the 

 encroaching marsh threatened to corner the anxious perches 

 and sunfishes in the last lingering bowl of clear water close by 

 the decrepit old dam. This, I thought, is a picture of the 

 history of the world. How long, I queried, before this mill- 

 pond will be a swamp ? Is this the impending fate of all our 

 ponds and lakelets? Johnny, do you think your favorite 

 skating place will ever come to this? 



The first land-surveyors of the territory of Michigan laid 

 down on their plats an extraordinary number of swamps and 

 bogs. It is true they greatly overdid the swamp-land business ; 

 but swamps are there in plentiful abundance; and swamps 

 properly drained and tilled are the richest lands in the state. 

 But the early settlers of Michigan found many of the swamps 

 non-existent; some were grassy plains; some were quaking 

 bogs, and others were part marsh and part lakelet. During 

 sixty years, many of the quaking bogs have become solid 

 meadows ; and many of the marsh-side lakelets have totally 



