140 WOODLAND IDYLS. 



with purple dots, a fact not noted in Gray's 

 book. 



Boulders of many kinds, both large and small, 

 are scattered along the side and in the bed of 

 the stream. Their smooth surface is often 

 plainly marked with striae; there graved while 

 they were being dragged thither from their dis- 

 tant homes in the Canadian wilderness. From 

 many ledges were they broken, quartzite, dior- 

 ite,^ granite, gneiss, mica-schist and numerous 

 other kinds of rocks being represented. On a 

 large moss-covered, lichen bedecked one of gran- 

 ite am I seated as I write. Just before me is 

 another in which the mica scales gleam prettily 

 in the sunlight. How many times in the past 

 have I blasted the hopes of some poor human 

 who imagined he had gold in quantities when 

 he possessed only the worthless mica of some 

 old, decaying granite boulder. 



Returning to camp I got my pole and a lunch 

 and at eight o'clock, with some worms and a 

 dozen mole crickets which I had secured the 

 evening before, I went again up stream, gather- 

 ing also on the way some crawfish for bait. 

 They are cunning creatures and when they 

 bring their caudal end down with a jerk, are 

 very quick in motion. Those found were small, 

 and sometimes two or three were taken from 

 beneath the same dead leaf or small flat stone. 

 About twenty were secured by making single- 



