A Thousand-Mile Walk 



giHas, eschscholtzias, white and yellow violets, 

 blue and yellow lilies, dodecatheons, and eri- 

 ogonums set in a half-floating maze of purple 

 grasses. There is but one vine in the Hollow 



— the Megarthiza [Echinocystis T. & D.] or 

 "Big Root." The only bush within a mile of 

 it, about four feet in height, forms so remark- 

 able an object upon the universal smoothness 

 that my dog barks furiously around it, at a 

 cautious distance, as if it were a bear. Some of 

 the hills have rock ribs that are brightly colored 

 with red and yellow lichens, and in moist nooks 

 there are luxuriant mosses — Bartramia, Di- 

 cranuniy Funaria, and several Hypnums, In 

 cool, sunless coves the mosses are companioned 

 with ferns — a Cystopteris and the little gold- 

 dusted rock fern, Gymnogramma triangularis. 



The Hollow is not rich in birds. The meadow- 

 lark homes there, and the little burrowing 

 owl, the killdeer, and a species of sparrow. Oc- 

 casionally a few ducks pay a visit to its waters, 

 and a few tall herons — the blue and the white 



— may at times be seen stalking along the 



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