One of many fungi in the woods of Appalachia, Urnula craterius is sooty black and leathery in 

 texture. It appears in spring in secluded places. 



with a defunct tube and some of which then proceed to 

 perform miracles therein. This is not to suggest that such 

 creatures do not exist elsewhere — they live in almost every 

 country in the world — but in Appalachia with its furious spring, 

 fairly long summer, and prolonged fall, one seems to notice 

 their activity more intimately. If you trouble to open up their 

 works you may find, in certain cases, the most marvelous series 

 of thimble-shaped structures, one above the other, made from 

 perfect oblongs or circles cut from rose leaves, each containing 

 an egg and a supply of food for the hatching larva. However, in 

 this land you need not resort to the labor of sawing up fence 

 posts to disclose miracles of insect life. All you have to do is sit 

 on the front porch and rock, while the wasps labor back and 

 forth from some mud patch with loads of clay with which they 

 will build wondrous upside-down skyscrapers on your ceilings 

 and walls, in which they will stash away a larder of spiders, in 

 a state of suspended animation, for their young. 



FOOTPRINTS ON THE SNOW 



But these are all wild things of the warmer months. What of the 

 colder months? During this season of the year, Appalachia for 

 the most part looks as if it had been seared by a passing comet 



and would never grow another green thing. Only in the north 

 and at higher elevations where the conifers predominate does 

 the land seem to maintain any virility, and this is a somber dark 

 green indeed. Strangely, conditions appear to be even more 

 depressing the farther south one goes along the narrow ridge of 

 true Appalachia. South of the thirty-sixth parallel of latitude, 

 which is in northern North Carolina, the foothill forests of the 

 coastal area or of the northeast are a little greener, but those of 

 the western flank leading down to the Ohio Plateau are even 

 more lifeless in appearance. Apart from the pine forests, what 

 appears to be a luxuriant land in summer and early fall becomes 

 in winter a thin and rather scrawny brown stand of paltry trees 

 and shrubs. Looking through these stunted woods one wonders 

 where on earth the deer can find enough cover to get out of the 

 wind, let alone out of sight of hunters and their other foes. 



Of course there are endless hidden places of the utmost charm 

 to be wandered through during this northern winter, but, despite 

 all the claims made about this land at that season, it is really 

 for the most part a dreary-looking place. Nevertheless it is a fine 

 time for geologists and rock-hunters because the bold features of 

 topography are then laid bare and not a little of the ground 

 itself is more than just accessible — it is positively naked. 



But then, after the first snows, which start early on the 

 uplands in the north and last long into the spring, all manner 



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