LEDGES. 



" SPEAK to the earth and it shall teach thee." JOB. 



WITHIN a half mile of the main road on 

 the way to Molega there is a sharp 

 upraise, and a sudden turn to get over a quart- 

 zite ledge that abruptly bars the way. One may 

 see it, like an old battered hand-made wall run- 

 ning off to east and west through the brackens 

 and scrub underbrush. It is only five or six 

 feet in height at best, and it dips or slants a 

 little to the northward. All this steep side is 

 more or less cracked and rent, affording rootage 

 for rock polypod, ferns, dwarf spruce and firs, 

 and other plants of the locality. On the more 

 or less bare surface of this ledge, a few rods in 

 width, there is a most interesting variety of vege- 

 table life. There are great gray carpets of 

 white lichens, clean and cool, and in June they 

 are bordered with nodding lady's-slippers, or 

 cypripediums, fashioned like daintiest shells. 

 Slender wire-birches, clad in gray and green, 

 stand guard over those woodland gems, that the 



