. The continent we live on. Physical geography; Natural history. churned by llu' passing; of what could only be an ondli-ss paradr of deer Followins this path, winding between the giant, billowing alders, we presently came upon something that I had not sec-ii previously outside of forest Africa -a genuine and completely natural dew pond, perfectly circular, filled with limpid, clear water looking like a black mirror, and surrounded by a gently sloping muddy verge completely mosaicked with tracks of the local w hite-tailed deer. Among these were also tracks of raccoon, opossum, muskrat. many mi
. The continent we live on. Physical geography; Natural history. churned by llu' passing; of what could only be an ondli-ss paradr of deer Followins this path, winding between the giant, billowing alders, we presently came upon something that I had not sec-ii previously outside of forest Africa -a genuine and completely natural dew pond, perfectly circular, filled with limpid, clear water looking like a black mirror, and surrounded by a gently sloping muddy verge completely mosaicked with tracks of the local w hite-tailed deer. Among these were also tracks of raccoon, opossum, muskrat. many mice, some larger water birds, and some fair-sized creature with a strange leaping gait. These latter most nearly matched the prints of one of our rarest carnivorous animals, the fisher marten, but I frankly did not then believe this possible since the animal was alleged to have been extinct in this area for a long time. (About a month later a pair were caught in traps by a licensed trapper who took them to the game warden, not knowing what on earth they might be.) From this pond, which was about twenty feet in diameter, four paths meandered away almost exactly to the four points of the com- pass and were so laid out among the great bushes that you could not see more than a few feet along any of them. Just beyond, very ancient oaks unexpectedly towered above us and. as we went in under these, almost all undergrowth faded away. We found ourselves in a sort of natural cathedral with a true forest canopy above, a carpet of mosses at our feet, and a few spindly saplings balancing like giant green feathers in the gloom. From the great trees there hung genuine creepers—not the finger-thick vines that entangle our shrubbery if we neglect to tend it, but great liana-like ropes of poison ivy, lode vines, and wild grape. In some places the trees that once supported these monsters had completely vanished and the creepers. A common red fox in full winter coal. This is one of the most widel
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, booksubjectnaturalhistory, booksubjectphysicalg
