ent who looses sleep soon becomes the
one who says “I don’t know professor,”
when called on in his classes. From
the tendencies of human nature to con
tinue in a path once trodden, it becomes
all important that the student should
start aright if he would attain an end
of which he can be proud.
THE BEAR MEADOWS.
BV PROF. W, A. BUCKHOUT, M. S.
The “Bear Meadows” is one of the most in
teresting places in our College neighborhood to
any one with a taste for the study of nature.
There is nothing specially beautiful in it, in fact
one’s first impression is generally of downright
disappointment, for the name is suggestive of a
good deal, and imagination and all the local tra
ditions lead us to expect something extraordinary.
Many turn away disgusted when they find only a
very common looking swamp, and wonder what
possible interest can be found in it, except by the
hunter, .who may be rash enough to penetrate its
laurel thickets in pursuit of game, or the fisher
man who flounders about through its mud, lured
by the idea that trout can be taken there. But,
consider for a moment, a few facts about the phys
ical geography of this square mile or so of our
state. It lies about 1800 feet above sea level.
Walled about it are low mountain ranges made
up of fold after fold of rocks which run along the
flank of the Allegheny proper. Now lakes and
boys are not common features in the landscape of
Pennsylvania, and in this part of the state they
are exceedingly rare. . Here, however, is the
conjunction of a few physical conditions which
have made possible a basin, probably a beautiful
little mountain lake at one time, but now choked
and filled with organic matter due to many cen
turies’ growth of peat which' occupies the central,
treeless area while its borders support a vigorous
THE FREE LANCE.
growth of trees. Look about now and we shall
see that, while the surrounding mountain sides
carry the same pines, oaks, etc., which make the
prevailing timber of the region, the borders of
the meadows show a profusion of very vigorous
specimens of tulip poplar, hemlock and soft ma
ple, and in marked contrast to these the tall
spires and sombre green of the black spruce, with
here and there the resinous trunks and blue-green
leaves of the balsam spruce: the last two are
strange trees hereabouts and one must needs travel
a long way before meeting them again. But look
closer yet and mark the undergrowth and smaller
plants. Here are several shrubby species which
are rare in this latitude, while scattered about in
abundance are a score or more of herbaceous plants
which are either entirely unknown anywhere else
in the neighborhood, or are not commonly found.
Conspicuous among them are the painted trill
ium, cucumber-root, goldthread, pitcher plant,
and buckbean—a flora quite Canadian. In
short we have here, in its plants as well as in.its
physical features, a bit of a Canadian bay dropp
ed down as it were in the heart of our Appalach
ians, or perhaps a relic of the old geological days
.when glaciers covered the country to the north
and drove all life southward before them. These
are some of the points of interest brought out by
hasty and limited examination of this unique
spot; doubtless there is much more which
would reward a careful and prolonged study.
Heretofore the Meadows have been preserved by
reason of their isolation. Somewhat remote
from the settled districts, accessible only by
rough and tedious roads, they have been invaded
only by periodical hunters and fishermen, by
bands of berry pickers and curious tramps,
These, though seeking.what they may devour
have had little power to despoil the place of its
natural features—if we except the game. At
most they destroy a few trees by their reckless use
of bark in building huts, and by their extrava
gance in keeping up fires; but nature soon covers
up these feeble attacks. That which is to.be