THE AMERICAN BOTANIST. 
shamrock blossoms. Numerous species of violets delight 
the collector of rare varieties and conspicuous among 
these is the sweet Canada violet, nodding half hidden 
among the tender maiden-hair ferns and sho\v3- orchises. 
Later in May the dainty footsteps of the pink moccasin- 
flowers (Cypripedium acaule) max be traced over the 
ridges beyond. One may follow the trail of this orchis far 
summitw-ard to the Central Shaft of the Tunnel Mountain. 
Standing upon the bluffs of the Ragged Mountains, 
across the Valley of the Ashuilticook, one may observe 
the path leading from the piles of rock near the West 
Shaft. A line of telegraph poles now ascends the 
mountain in nearly the same place as the Indians chose to 
make their trail when raiding the early settlers of the 
Deerfield Yalle3% Many granite boulders lie thrown about 
the slopes, — pitched perhaps by the Giants of Earth, each 
ot which is reputed to have had fifty pair of hands and to 
have hurled a hundred stones at a single throw ! One of 
these rocks rests near the brook in the ravine east of the 
West Shaft road. This, how^ever, was doubtless drifted 
here from Stamford Mountains northward — the onh' 
region in the highlands where granite exists. It lies 
broken in twain,— the larger portion having slipped 
ahead about four feet beyond the other portion — between 
which trees now flourish, 
A week spent exploring the region about the Hoosac 
Tunnel Mountain is worthwhile for the student of Nature 
and her phenomena as well as for the poet and philoso- 
pher who cannot behold the flinty p\-ramidical piles ot 
rock tunneled from its heart without awe and reverence 
for the art and science of man which rendered the tunnel 
possible. Who can tell us how many centuries will roll 
by ere these monuments of the internal regions will be 
covered with grasses, flowers and forest trees ? 
The rolling hills between West Shaft and Aurora's 
Lake are wild and rugged with out-cropping ledges 
adorned with briars and low huckleberry bushes, colum- 
bine, lilies, common polypody and various other ferns. In 
