I am eight years old. I live in Northern Michigan, between the two large lakes.
I have a pet fawn. I call it Beauty. It followed me to church last Sunday night; and although it behaved with perfect decorum, it attracted so much attention that papa had to put it out. I have every number of Young People.
Louis S. G.
I belong to the Boys' Exploring Association, and last summer we discovered the finest cave in the Rocky Mountains. It was filled with beautiful stalactites and stalagmites. I have some of the stalactites in my collection. The only living things we saw in the cave were a bat and two old mountain rats, one of which had young ones.
A few days ago I visited a coal mine about six miles from Colorado Springs. The coal there is soft, and lies in a narrow vein. Above and below the coal are veins or strata of sandstone, which is well covered with impressions of leaves, large and small. As I entered the mine I looked up, and right over my head there was a perfect impression of a palm-leaf, just like a palm-leaf fan. I tried to take it out whole, but it would break in pieces. There were also many impressions of small leaves, and I found pieces of the tree itself. I brought a great many of these impressions home with me. They must be many thousand years old, like the fossil shells, baculites, and ammonites which I have in my collection. I would like to exchange some of the leaf impressions with the readers of Young People. I would like for them Florida beans, sea-shells, or moss, or minerals from California or New Mexico. I have also some new specimens of different minerals which I would exchange for others.
Herbert E. Peck,
P. O. Box 296, Colorado Springs, Colorado.
The Boys' Exploring Association alluded to in the above letter is a society largely composed of the members of a Sunday-school in Colorado Springs. Any boy in the school may become a member on the payment of a trifling sum, and any other boy whose name is proposed by a member is admitted by vote. The object of the society is to study the geology and natural history of the surrounding country, and at certain seasons to make exploring expeditions, under the leadership of the clergyman of the church. The members pledge themselves to abstain from the use of tobacco and intoxicating drinks, to use no vulgar or profane language, and to carry no fire-arms while on exploring trips.
During the past summer some important discoveries have been made, and the boys, while deriving much pleasure from these camping-out excursions, have also gained physically, mentally, and morally.
We would be glad to receive reports of the future actions of this society, which will undoubtedly be of interest to our young readers, and will perhaps incite other boys to follow the example of these young naturalists by forming societies to study the botanical, geological, and other natural characteristics of the region in which they live. All places may not contain so much that is new and wonderful as Colorado, but everywhere nature has a great deal to teach, if boys and girls will only open their eyes and hearts to learn.
I have a few patterns of lace, and would be very glad to exchange with Alice C. Little, or any other correspondent of Young People.