"Yet never tlie^- raised an impious hand, 
The fates had spoken— their word must stand- 
Here mourn the rocks a Nation's woe, 
And tear-drops from the mountain flow. 
Silent they fall at their chieftain's side. 
And Hoosac bhished with the puq^le tide 
But the rocks bewailed a Nation's dead." 
Rattlesnake Brook, a picturesque stream rising in a 
decadent pine and hemlock swamp on Mount a£ta, above 
the "Weeping Rocks" of Dug-Awav, meets the river near 
the State Line. Many rare flowers dwell among the hills 
and vales in this region. The grandest pastoral views of 
the Highlands are visible from our modem Mount CEta, 
especially in the earlv morning when the vallev about 
Williamstown is filled with billowy seas of mist which 
strangely suggest those ancient lakes of Aurora as they 
rippled to the Hudson. 
The valley about Pow^nal is much like a deep secluded 
glen, surrounded on all sides b3' rolling hills and ledges 
which would be creditable mountains if there were not 
higher summits of the Taconics looming beyond them. 
The Bogs of Etchowog l.ving at the base of the Dome in 
the eastern part of the town extend toward Bennington— 
a distance of six miles. The floor of this swamp area is 
fed b3* sluggish streams meandering through a chain of 
decadent lakes, now being overgrown with sphagnum, in 
which cranberry vines, Labrador tea, small tamarack, 
pitcher-plants, various orchids, lilies and marsh plants 
flourish. 
The purple-fringed orchises choose for their habitat 
the wild meadows bordering mountain lakes, or shady 
margins of sluggish streams. These orchids are among 
the most fragrant and beautiful Habenarias, although one 
may search long before he discovers their secret homes. 
In manv places the mountain laurel is embanked against 
the mountainsides and flaunts the most gorgeous colors 
