WOODLAND PATHS 



a new orchid hiding about the sources of 

 the Orinoco. 



It was the sphagnums that led me to 

 the brookside and caused me to recall that 

 lusty scientist, Mr. Pickwick, and his dis- 

 covery of the sources of the Hampstead 

 ponds. And while I stood and wondered 

 I saw a second brook, only a little further 

 on, also flowing downward into the sphag- 

 num and losing itself in the bog, to pass 

 beneath the cedar roots and moss debris 

 and enter the pond. 



Some ancient traveler, perhaps Marco 

 Polo, passing from Babylon to Bagdad, 

 coming first upon the Euphrates and then 

 the Tigris, may have felt some of the 

 amazement and delight which I had in 

 this discovery. Never before had I 

 known of a brook entering the pond. It 

 had always been a sheet of water self- 

 contained and sufficient in itself, fed, I 

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