PEAT IN CONNECTICUT 
49 
falls on the ground beneath any shade 
tree on a sunny day. It will be observed 
that the figures cast are circular. This 
effect is interesting to note. 
On what law of nature does it de- 
pend and what is its signification? 
sje sf: s|« s|c s|c 
These observations are not very defi- 
nite as to the size of the hole but they 
seem to me to be correct. Any such 
small hole makes what is known as a 
pinhole camera. An image of the 
scene outside is formed on the screen 
which is the wall or side of the room. 
The images seen were not of the hole 
but of the sun itself. Hence they were 
elliptical or circular. In times of solar 
eclipse, when the sun is not circular, 
the images are of the same shape as the 
sun. and discussions of eclipse often 
state that if one looks under trees the 
crescent-shaped images of the sun will 
be seen on the ground, or if the sun 
shines in a dark room through a small 
hole the eclipsed sun can be seen. I 
have often seen this. I heard a colan- 
der, the ordinary household utensil, 
suggested as a thing full of small holes, 
each of which gives a small image of 
the sun, but in trying it I did not have 
much success.--Professor Samuel G. 
Barton. University of Pennsylvania. 
A Flower Fantasy. 
The Spring is a-blush with color, 
It fairly glints and glows; 
It poses among the seasons 
As a great, warm-hearted rose. 
A water-lily floating 
On the cool lake’s placid breast, 
Best typifies the Summer, 
Its serenity and rest. 
A peony’s crimson beauty 
Suggests the Autumn blaze, 
When it proudly rears its sumptuous head, 
And the sunlight o’er it plays. 
The gleaming white of dogwood 
Most rivals Winter’s snow. 
And is emblematic of the time 
Of cold and firelight-glow. 
— Emma Peirce. 
Not all snails which kill and eat 
clams operate by boring through the 
shell. Some, it appears, smother the 
clam by enveloping its syphon with the 
foot until the victim is smothered and 
dies. Then, of course, the shell opens 
and the snail devours the body. 
Peat in Connecticut. 
Mr. Edgar S. Weed of Stamford has 
presented ns with an interesting speci- 
men of peat which he states was found 
some ten feet in the ground in digging 
a well on Clinton Avenue, Stamford. 
The specimen was referred to Profes- 
sor William North Rice of Wesleyan 
University, Middletown, Connecticut, 
and he writes as follows : 
“Deposits of peat are very numerous 
in Connecticut. The area of any indi- 
vidual deposit is usually not very great. 
As regards their geological history, it 
may be said that they are among the 
consequences of the events connected 
with the Glacial period. The irregular 
deposits of drift, which were left in 
helter-skelter fashion when the ice 
melted away, obstructed the courses 
of many of the small streams, and 
made numerous changes in the direc- 
tions of drainage. In many places the 
surface of the drift was marked by shal- 
low basins which, after the retirement 
of the ice, were occupied by water 
forming lakes and ponds. Ponds of 
various sizes are still very numerous 
in Connecticut, as in all glacial regions, 
but many of the lakes that existed im- 
mediately after the Glacial period have 
been filled up or drained. Often a transi- 
tional stage in the filling or draining of 
a lake is represented by a swamp. Nat- 
urally swamps are very numerous in 
Connecticut. A lake may be filled by 
sedimentary material brought in by 
rainwash or by inflowing streams, or 
it may be filled in large part by the 
accumulation of the products of de- 
composition of vegetable deposits. In 
the latter case we have a peat bog.” 
To Wild Gardens. 
M ild gardens by the roadsides. 
And clambering up the hills, 
Carpeting the meadows, 
And bordering the rills; 
Wild gardens on the mountains, 
And by the Summer sea, 
With denizens of butterflies. 
And swift, industrious bee; 
Rioting in color. 
Sweet with perfume too, 
Brightening every vista, 
Framing every view; 
Nature’s truant children, 
Roaming at your will. 
With beauty you’re incarnate, 
With joy our summer fill. 
— Emma Peirce. 
