156 BAYS OUT OF DOORS. 



strengthened that fishes as a class are more intelligent 

 than batrachians, and here it may be well to add that the 

 strictly carnivorous fishes are without exception more cun- 

 ning than herbivorous or even omnivorous species. 



I tarried for half an hour after sunset at one very 

 prominent feature of the empty pond, an enormous white- 

 oak stump. Since the pond was built it has been deeply 

 submerged, but as yet has lost nothing of its bulk, save 

 the bark. The tree when felled, in 1803, was one of the 

 land-marks of the neighborhood, and the largest oak, save 

 one, for many miles around, and probably one of the 

 largest in existence. 



My grandfather, who was familiar with the tree for 

 more than twenty years, told me that it stood in the mid- 

 dle of the original highway that passed here, and the 

 wagon tracks on each side of the tree were thirty feet 

 apart, the ground being so wrinkled with projecting 

 roots that this wide oflBng was necessary. Of these great 

 roots nothing now remained, or if jfct decayed they were 

 deeply covered with silt. Having other oaks in mind, one 

 in the Orosswicks meeting-house yard in particular, it 

 was not difficult to reconstruct the ancient tree and re- 

 store the surroundings to their earlier and wilder condi- 

 tion. The little valley must have been a charming spot, 

 and I wonder not that to the few remaining Indians it 

 was a favorite one. Here, during the closing years of the 

 last century, they encamped annually in autumn, mak- 

 ing and peddling baskets and bead- work during their 

 stay. The oak tree, if not the surroundings, appeared to 

 be sacred to them, so my grandfather thought, or at least 

 to be associated with certain memorable events in their 

 history. 



And at last, when the shadows lengthened until the 

 pond was almost lost to view, I turned toward home. 



