New York State Museum Bulletin 



Entered as second-class matter November 27, 1915, at the Post Office at Albany, N. Y., under 

 the act of August 24, 1012. Acceptance for mailing at special rate of post- 

 age provided for in section 1103, act of October 3, 1917, authorized 

 July 19, 1918 



Published monthly by The University of the State of New York 

 Nos. 239, 240 ALBANY, N. Y. November-December 1920 



The University of the State of New York 



New York State Museum 



John M. Clarke, Director 



SEVENTEENTH REPORT OF THE DIRECTOR OF 



THE STATE MUSEUM AND SCIENCE 



DEPARTMENT 



INCLUDING THE SEVENTY-FOURTH REPORT OF THE STATE MUSEUM 

 THE FORTIETH REPORT OF THE STATE GEOLOGIST AND THE REPORT OF 

 THE STATE PALEONTOLOGIST FOR 1920-21 



INTRODUCTION 



This report is written in the solitude of the evergreen woods where 

 every sound and glance tells of the service this Museum is endeavoring 

 to render to the people of this State. The breeze whispers through 

 the boughs of cedar and balsam and whistles among the tall tops 

 of spruce and hemlock. In the shadows on a carpet of finest needle- 

 work, where the brown leaves of the evergreens have fallen, spring 

 many-hued mushrooms and pallid clumps of Indian pipe ; the clearing 

 burns with crimson fireweed and glows with goldenrod. From 

 tree to stump and from bough to bush, the spider has displayed his 

 aerial engineering; butterflies in passing touch the blue vetch and 

 dindle; chattering rodents, restless artists that they are, chase 

 back and forth; the junco, the goldfinch, sapphic warblers of many 

 sorts and voices are starring in these groves, while the blue canopy 

 overhead, supported by a wall of towering spikes of spruce, is 

 crossed by the napping raucous crow and the soaring herring gull; 

 and into all the beauty of this hermitage intrudes the gray moss 

 crowding out the life of the spruce branches, and an unseen army 

 of other parasites at whose scant mercy lies the whole host of life. 

 As a rug is spread upon the solid and essential floor, so all this living 

 picture is stretched out on, and overshadowed by, a foundation of 

 rocks which tell an ancient story of a different life upon the earth. 



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