for anecdotal purposes or to designate the large turtles from the 

 small. Such was the extent of their nature knowledge. 



Having some time to devote to an interesting experiment, 

 the writer suggested to several members of the community that 

 daily nature walks be organized where a bit of the rich natural 

 history of the section would be explained to all interested. No 

 motive other than that of learning the environment was offered 

 as an incentive. The proposal was accepted with alacrity by 

 almost everyone in the colony, young and old. So each fair morn- 

 ing at eleven o'clock the group gathered for the daily jaunt. 

 There were little tots of five, children from eight to sixteen, 

 and mothers of families. In some cases the women arose an hour 

 earlier than usual each day, in order that they might cook their 

 mid-day meal in time to join the "hikers." All were enthusiastic 

 and vied with each other for the honor of the greatest accumu- 

 lation of natural history information. 



Our trips were short and varied. Some days we hardly ad- 

 vanced more than a few feet, for the story of a chestnut tree 

 or the tale of the deadly "Destroying Angel" — a toadstool — or 

 the recounting of the beautiful legend concerning the Indian 

 Pipe or Corpse Plant, made the hour and a half pass so quickly 

 that we had to return home before we had advanced at all. 

 Other days we spent in searching in a shale bed for other rock 

 forms, perchance a fossil, or a stray bit of quartz left there by 

 the glacier. One session was spent on a trip in row boats to a 

 lake which adjoined ours, where we hoped to find forms of fresh 

 water and bog life. Our booty when the excursion was over that 

 day and notes were compared, consisted of a tiny painted turtle, 

 a number of kinds of water insects, a water snake, a small sun 

 fish captured in a net with the help of cracker dust, and about 

 forty kinds of bog plants including a beautiful clump of pitcher 

 plant with its long-peduncled, lemon-colored blossom. When a 

 visitor came to the colony, he would be escorted over some of 

 the ground already covered by one of the group, who explained 

 enthusiastically objects of which all had been ignorant only a 

 few weeks before. 



Before long the region began to take on a new meaning to 

 our colonists. No longer did they pull armfuls of club moss for 

 an evening's decoration, or cut mountain laurel bushes to adorn 

 a bare corner of a porch. They circumspectly stepped on the 



