A Thousand-Mile Walk 
gilias, 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 Megarrhiza [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- 
cranum, 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 
[ 198 ] 
