146 Clear Skies and Cloudy. 



of ignorance. Only recently two great names 

 clouded their reputations by talking authorita- 

 tively of this neighborhood, which one of them 

 has never seen and the other never studied. 

 Scarcely a statement made was correct in any 

 particular, but what was spoken was sent over 

 the whole land by the public prints, and the 

 labors of those who have bravely borne the heat 

 and burden of exploration goes for naught. It 

 does not augur well for the advancement of 

 science when men are more given to maintain- 

 ing the positions they have taken on important 

 questions than admitting they are mistaken and 

 eager to proclaim the truth that others have dis- 

 covered. It is not strange that the masses look 

 with some suspicion on what is called expert 

 testimony. Can it be that a life-long familiarity 

 with simple conditions goes for nothing, and 

 with Nature forever before us, we shall die with- 

 out an inkling even of what has been and is 

 now occurring before our eyes ? 



The shadows of the tall hickories in the 

 smooth meadows are creeping eastward. A 

 purple mist is gathering along the jagged out- 

 line of the horizon, and one by one the trees 



