We have studied the star forming activities and dust properties of Lynds 1251, a dark cloud located at relatively high galactic latitude. Eleven IRAS point sources identified toward Lynds 1251 are discussed. Estimate of stellar masses, and far-infrared lumnosities of the young stars associated with two prominent IRAS point sources imply that these are T-Tauri stars with masses smaller than 0.3M⊙. The low dust temperature of 27 K and low ratio of FIR emission to hydrogen column density are probably due to the lack of internal heating sources. Presumably two low mass young stars do not have enough energy to heat up the dust and gas associated. The dust heating is dominated by the interstellar heating source, and the weaker interstellar radiation field can explain the exceptionally low dust temperatures found in Lynds 1251. The estimated dust mass of Lynds 1251 is just ~1 M⊙, or about 1/1000 of gas mass, which implies that there must be a substantial amount of colder dust. The infrared flux at 100μm is matching well with 13CO peak temperature, while the 12CO integrated intensity is matching with the boundary of dust emission. Overall, the dust properties of Lynds 1251 is similar to those of normal dark clouds even though it does have star forming activities.

We have mapped the whole extent of a dark cloud Lynds 1251 in the emission of the J=1-0 transitions of 12CO and 13CO using FCRAO's fifteen-beam array receiver in high angular resolution of 50'. We have derived physical parameters of L1251, discussed three different mass estimate techniques, and obtained a large range of mass, 600 to 6,000 M⊙, depending on the techniques. The factor of 10 discrepancy between the virial and LTE masses is much larger than expected based on the uncertainties residing in two methods. The large virial mass may reflect the fact that L1251 is not gravitationally bound system as in the case of dark clouds in solar neighborhood. Two outflows are affecting the dynamics of cloud significantly but not enough to reshape the whole extent of the cloud. The small cloud, 'Stripe', which is apparently connected with main cloud, is not likely to be associated with L1251. The velocity gradient composed on this small cloud may be driven by other unknown sources. It is found that L1251 cloud itself is very quiescent except the two bipolar outflow regions.