694 The American Naturalist. [Augusts 
attempt to get actual measurements of its length and width. 
From what I could see in it and from the highway I should 
judge it to be not far from four miles long, and in no place | 
more than three-quarters of a mile wide. In this, as in the 
other swamps which are nearly mature, the wooded belt covers 
by far the greater’ portion of the marsh. There is left here, 
however, an open bog nearly, if not quite, a mile long, and 
from twenty to thirty rods wide. 
GRANNY’S ORCHARD. 
This is the last of the three depressions selected for illustra- 
tion. It isa marsh in which there is no lake, nor has there 
been one in the memory of the persons living thereabouts. It 
takes its name through the resemblance the open portion of it 
bears to an orchard and a well-confirmed story that a man 
known universally in those parts as “Granny” attempted at 
one time to reclaim some of this land by draining it. It is in 
the eastern part of the town of Palermo, and lies well up to- 
ward the divide between Oneida Lake and Lake Ontario. 
There are more large swamps in this vicinity than in any 
other part of the county. To these some of the residents ap- _ 
ply indiscriminately the term Granny’s Orchard, but I feel 
sure the name originated in the manner I have described, and 
is restricted by a majority of the people to this single swamp. 
Yet the appropriateness of the name might easily lead to its 
more general use. 
It is a very extensive swamp. In fact it must be confessed 
that we had hard work to estimate distance in this place, the 
view was so intercepted by trees and shrubs. The open por- 
tion of the swamp is surrounded by a densely wooded belt, and 
shrubs and trees of the most aggressive species have invaded 
the moor until it presents the appearance of an orchard, the 
trees of which are here represented by tamaracs and spruce. 
The level openings between are carpeted with sphagnum. The 
extent and nature of the wooded belt repels visitors even 1m 
summer, so that it is seldom visited except by adventurous 
huckleberry gatherers in August. The man who guided me 
into the bog, the first time I visited it (himself an old resident), 
