20 November 1854 – 26 November 1854

To Philadelphia. 7 a. m., to Boston; 9 a. M., Boston to New York, by express train, land route. | See the reddish soil (red sandstone?) all through Connecticut. “Beyond Hartford a range of rocky hills 1854 | TO PHILADELPHIA 73 crossing the State on each side the railroad, the east- ern one very precipitous, and apparently terminating at East Rock at New Haven. Pleasantest part of the whole route between Springfield and Hartford, along the river; perhaps include the hilly region this side of Springfield. Reached Canal Street at 5 p. M., or candle-light.

Looked from the cupola of the State- House, where the Declaration of Independence was declared. The best view of the city I got. Was inter- ested in the squirrels, gray and black, in Independence and Washington Squares. Heard that they have, or have had, deer in Logan Square. The squirrels are fed, and live in boxes in the trees in the winter. Fine view from Fairmount water-works. The line of the hypothenuse of the gable end of Girard College was apparently deflected in the middle six inches or more, reminding me of the anecdote of the church of the Madeleine in Paris. Was admitted into the building of the Academy of Natural Sciences by a Mr. Durand of the botanical department, Mr. Furness applying to him. The car- penters were still at work adding four stories (!) of galleries to the top. These four (Furness thought all of them, I am not sure but Durand referred to one side only) to be devoted to the birds. It is said to be the largest collection of birds in the world. They belonged to the son of Masséna (Prince of Essling ?), and were sold at auction, and bought by a Yankee for $22,000, over all the crowned heads of Europe, and presented to the Academy.* Other collections, also, are added to this. ‘The Academy has received great donations. There is Morton’s collection of crania, with (I sup- pose a cast from) an Indian skull found in an Ohio mound; a polar bear killed by Dr. Kane; a male moose not so high as the female which we shot; a European elk (a skeleton) about seven feet high, with horns each about five feet long and tremendously heavy; grinders, etc., of the Mastodon giganteum from Barton County, Missouri; etc., etc. Zinzinger was named as of the geological department. In Philadelphia and also New York an ornamental tree with bunches of seed-vessels supplying the place of leaves now. I suppose it the ailanthus, or Tree of Heaven. What were those trees with long, black sickle-shaped pods? I did not see Steinhauser’s Burd family ' at St. Stephen’s Church. The American Phi- losophical Society is described as a company of old women. In the narrow market-houses in the middle of the streets, was struck by the neat-looking women market- ers with full cheeks. Furness described a lotus iden- tical with an Egyptian one as found somewhere down the river below Philadelphia; also spoke of a spotted chrysalis which he had also seen in Massachusetts. There was a mosquito about my head at night. Lodged at the United States Hotel, opposite the Girard (for- merly United States) Bank.

Left at 7.30 a. m. for New York, by boat to Tacony and rail wa Bristol, Trenton, Princeton (near by), New Brunswick, Rahway, Newark, etc. Uninteresting, except the boat. ‘The country very level, —red sandstone (?) sand, — apparently all New Jer- sey except the northern part. Saw wheat stubble and winter wheat come up like rye. Was that Jamestown- weed with a prickly bur? Seen also in Connecticut. Many Dutch barns. Just after leaving Newark, an extensive marsh, between the railroad and the Kill, full of the Arundo Phragmites, I should say, which had been burnt over. Went to Crystal Palace; admired the houses on Fifth Avenue, the specimens of coal at the Palace, one fifty feet thick as it was cut from the mine, in the form of a square column, iron and copper ore, etc. Saw sculptures and paintings innumerable, and armor from the Tower of London, some of the Eighth Century. Saw Greeley; Snow, the commercial editor of the Tribune; Solon Robinson; Fry, the musical critic, etc.; and others. Greeley carried me to the new opera- house, where I heard Grisi and her troupe. First, at Barnum’s Museum, I saw the camelopards, said to be one eighteen the other sixteen feet high. I should say the highest stood about fifteen feet high at most (twelve or thirteen ordinarily). The body was only about five feet long. Why has it horns, but for orna- ment? Looked through his diorama, and found the houses all over the world much alike. Greeley appeared to know and be known by everybody; was admitted free to the opera, and we were led by a page to various parts of the house at different times. Saw at Museum some large flakes of cutting arrowhead stone made into a sort of wide cleavers, also a hollow stone tube, probably from mounds.

What that little long-sharp-nosed mouse I found in the Walden road to-day? Brown above, gray beneath, black incisors, five toes with claws on 1854| CONCORD RIVER AGAIN 77 each foot, long snout with small blunt black extremity, many mustachios, eyes far forward, feet light or dirty white, tail 13 inches long, whole length 3? inches; on causeway.