1 October 1855 – 7 October 1855

Among R.’s books is Bewick’s “AXsop’s Fa- bles.” On a leaf succeeding the title-page is engraved a facsimile of B.’s handwriting to the following effect: ‘“‘ Newcastle, January, 1824. To Thomas Bewick & Son Dr. £ s d To a Demy Copy of sop’s Fables “ 18 ‘“ Received the above with thanks Thomas Bewick Robert Elliot Bewick.”’ Then there was some fine red sea-moss adhering to the page just over the view of a distant church and windmill (probably Newcastle) by moonlight, and at the bottom of the page: — “No. 809 Thomas Bewick mark ”’ his It being the impression of his thumb.’ A cloudy, somewhat rainy day. Mr. R. brought me a snail, apparently Helix albolabris, or possibly thy- roidus, which he picked from under a rock where he was having a wall built. It had put its stag- or rather giraffe-like head and neck out about two inches, the whole length to the point behind being about three, — mainly a neck of a somewhat buffish-white or grayish- buff color or buff-brown, shining with moisture, with a short head, deer-like, and giraffe-like horns or ten- tacula on its top black at tip, five eighths of an inch long, and apparently two short horns on snout. Its neck, ete., flat beneath, by which surface it draws or slides itself along in a chair. It is surprisingly long and large to be contained in that shell, which moves atop of it. It moves at the rate of an inch or half an inch a minute over a level surface, whether horizontal or perpendicular, and holds quite tight to it, the shell like a whorled dome to a portion of a building. Its foot (?) extends to a point behind. It commonly touches by an inch of its flat under side, flatting out by as much of its length as it touches. Shell rather darker mottled (?) than body. ‘The tentacula become all dark as they are drawn in, and it can draw them or contract them straight back to naught. No obvious eyes (?) or mouth. P. M. — Rode to New Bedford and called on Mr. Green, a botanist, but had no interview with him. Walked through Mrs. Arnold’s arboretum. Rode to the beach at Clark’s Cove where General Gray landed his four thousand troops in the Revolution. Found there in abundance Anomia ephippium (?), their ir- regular golden-colored shells; Modiola plicatula (rayed mussel); Crepidula fornicata (?), worn; Pecten concen- tricus, alive; and one or two more. Returned by the new Point road, four miles long, and R. said eighty feet wide (I should think from re- collection more), and cost $50,000. A magnificent road, by which New Bedford has appropriated the sea. Passed salt works still in active operation, windmills going; a series of frames, with layers of bushes one above another to a great height, apparently for filtering. Went into a spermaceti candle and oil factory. Arthur R. has a soapstone pot (Indian), about nine inches long, more than an inch thick, with a kind of handle at the ends, — sy or protuberances.'. A. says he uses SS? fresh-water clams for bait for perch, etc., in ponds. I think it was to-day some one saw geese go over here, so they said.

A cloudy day. Rode to “Sampson’s” in Middleborough, thirteen miles. Many quails in road. Passed over a narrow neck between the two Quitticus ponds, after first visiting Great Quitticus on right of road and gathering clamshells there, as I had done at Long Pond and intend to do at Assawampsett. These shells labelled will be good mementos of the ponds. It was a great, wild pond with large islands in it. Saw a loon on Little or West Quitticus from road, an old bird with a black bill. The bayonet or rain- bow rush was common along the shore there. In Backus’s Account of Middleborough, Historical Collections, vol. ii, First Series: “Philip once sent an army to waylay Capt. Church in Assowamset Neck; which is in the south part of Middleborough.” Per- haps this was it. Just beyond this neck, by the roadside, between the road and West Quitticus Pond, is an old Indian burying-ground. R. thought it was used before the whites came, though of late by the “praying Indians.”’ This was the old stage road from New Bedford to Boston. It occupies a narrow strip between the road and the pond, about a dozen rods wide at the north end, and narrower at the south, and is thirty or forty feet above the water. Now covered with a middling growth of oak, birch, hickory, etc. Chestnut oaks (perhaps Quercus montana) grow near there. I gathered some leaves and one large acorn, from the buggy. There were two stones with inscriptions. R. copied one as follows: — In memory of Jean Squeen who died April 13th 1794 in her 23 year. Also of Benji who died at sea April 22 1799 in his 26th year children of Lydia Squeen a native’ When earth was made when time began Death was decreed the fate of man The purport of the other was that Lydia Squeen died in 1812, aged seventy-five. The other graves were only faintly marked with rough head and foot stones. All amid the thick wood. ‘There were one or two graves without any stones, apparently not more than five or six years old. We soon left the main road and turned into a path on the right, leading to Assawampsett Pond, a mile distant. There, too, was a fine sandy beach, the south shore of the pond, three or four rods wide. We walked along the part called Betty’s Neck. This pond is, by the map of Middleborough, a little more than three miles long in a straight line northwest and southeast across Pocksha, and nearly two wide. We saw the village of Middleborough Four Corners far across it, yet no village on the shore. As we walked easterly, the shore became stony. On one large slate (?) rock with a smooth surface, sloping toward the pond at high- water mark, were some inscriptions or sculptures which R. had copied about ten’years since, thus: — / Dp 1749 a B. Hill Israel felix The “B. Hill” is/ comparatively modern. R. said that Israel Felix was an old Indian preacher. According to Backus in Historical Collections, vol. iii, First Series, Thomas Felix was an Indian teacher in Middleborough one ' The foot appeared very ancient, though pecked in °° half aninch. It has squarish form and broad at © ‘oes, like the representation of some sculptured in 14-?\3 at the West. For a long time we could dis- cern ie 'y 1749 and B. Hill. At length we detected the foc’, at after my companion had given up, conclud- in‘Fthat the water and the ice had obliterated the rest wi ‘iin ten years, I at last rather felt with my fingers than saw with my eyes the faintly graven and lichen- covered letters of Israel Felix’s name. We had looked on that surface full fifteen minutes in vain, yet I felt out the letters after all with certainty. In a description of Middleborough in the Historical Collections, vol. i, 1810, signed “ Nehemiah Bennet, Middleborough, 1793,” it is said, “'There is on the east- erly shore of Assawampsitt Pond, on the shore of Betty’s- neck, two rocks which have curious marks thereon (supposed to be done by the Indians) which appear like the steppings of a person with naked feet, which set- tled into the rocks; likewise the prints of a hand on several, places, with a number of other marks; also, there is a rock on a high hill, a little to the eastward of the old stone fishing wear, where there is the print of a person’s hand in said rock,” ! Perhaps we might have detected more on these same rocks, had we read this before, for we saw that there was something on the next rock. We did not know of the “wear.” The same writer speaks of a settlement of Indians at ‘ Betty’s-neck (which place took its name from an ancient Indian woman by the name of Betty Sase- more, who owned that neck) where there is now ’ ight Indian houses and eight families,” between | iirty and forty souls. I was interested by some masses of puddiné¢stone further along the shore. ‘There were also a fe’ + large flat, sloping slate (?) rocks. I saw a small Em} pita; and a young snapping turtle, apparently hatched + 1is summer, the whole length when swimming about three inches. It was larger than mine last April and had ten very distinct points to its shell behind. I first saw it in the water next the shore. The same Bennet quoted above adds in a postscript: — “In the year 1763, Mr. Shubael Thompson found a land turtle in the north-east part of Middleborough, which by some misfortune had lost one of its feet, and found the following marks on its shell, viz. I. W. 1747. He marked it 5. T. 1763, and let it go. It was found again in the year 1773, by Elijah Clap, who marked it E. C. 1773, and let it go. It was found again in the year 1775, by Captain William Shaw, in the month of May, who marked it W. S. 1775. It was found again by said Shaw the same year, in Sep- tember, about one hundred rods distance from the place where he let it go. “It was found again in the year 1784, by Jonathan Soule, who marked it J. S. 1784, and let it go. It was found again in the year 1790, by Joseph Soule, who marked it J. S. 1790, and let it go. It was found again in the year 1791, by Zenas Smith, who marked it Z. 5. 1791, and let it go; it being the last time it was found; 44 years from the time the first marks were put on.” We saw five loons diving near the shore of Betty’s Neck, which, instead of swimming off, approached within ten rods as if to reconnoitre us. Only one had a black bill, and that not entirely so; another’s was turning. Their throats were all very white. I was sur- prised to see the usnea hanging thick on many apple trees and some pears in the neighborhood of this and the other ponds, as on spruce. Sheep are pastured hereabouts. Returning along the shore, we saw a man and woman putting off in a small boat, the first we had seen. The man was black. He rowed, and the woman steered. R. called to them. They approached within a couple of rods in the shallow water. “Come nearer,” said R. “Don’t be afraid; I ain’t a-going to hurt you.” The woman answered, “I never saw the man yet that I was afraid of.”’ The man’s name was Thomas Smith, and, in answer to R.’s very direct questions as to how much he was of the native stock, said that he was one- fourth Indian. He then asked the woman, who sat unmoved in the stern with a brown dirt-colored dress on, a regular countrywoman with half an acre of face (squaw-like), having first inquired of Tom if she was his woman, how much Indian blood she had in her. She did not answer directly so home a question, yet at length as good as acknowledged to one-half Indian, and said that she came from Carver, where she had a sister; the only half-breeds about here. Said her name was Sepit, but could not spell it. R. said, “ Your nose looks rather Indiany.” Where will you find a Yankee and his wife going a-fishing thus? They lived on the shore. Tom said he had seen turtles in the pond that weighed between fifty and sixty; had caught a pickerel that morning that weighed four or five pounds; had also seen them washed up with another in their mouths. Their boat was of peculiar construction, and T. said it was called a sharper [sic]; * with very high sides and a remarkable run on the bottom aft, and the bottom Sw boards were laid across, com- ing out flush, and the sides set on them. An ugly model.’ Tom said that Assawampsett was fifteen to twenty feet deep in deepest part. A Mr. Sampson, good authority, told me nine or ten on an average, and the deepest place said to be thirty or more. R. told the squaw that we were interested in those of the old stock, now they were so few. “Yes,”’ said she, “and you’d be glad if they were all gone.” This boat had a sin- gular “‘wooden grapple,” as Tom called , it, made in form of a cross, thus: with a stone within. The stones on which we walked about all the ponds were covered, now the water was low, with a hoary sort of moss which I do not remember to have seen in Con- cord; very fine and close to the rock. Great shallow lakes, the surrounding country hardly rising anywhere to more than a hundred feet above them. According to Bourne’s map there are in Mid- dleborough: — 57,9374 acres of land 5,250 “ “water 63,1873 total Backus says that iron was discovered at the bottom of Assawampsett Pond about 1747. (Historical Collec- tions, vol. iu, First Series.) “Men go out with boats, and make use of instruments much like those with which oysters are taken, to get up the ore from the bottom of the pond.” “It became the main ore that was used in the town.” Once one man got two tons a day; in 1794, half a ton. Yet there was then (in 1794) plenty of it in an adjacent pond which was twenty feet deep. Much of it was better than the bog ore they had been using. Dr. Thatcher says that Assawampsett Pond once af- forded annually six hundred tons of ore. A man after- ward discovered it in a pond in Carver, by drawing up some with a fish-line accidentally, and it was ex- tensively used. I did not hear of any being obtained now. There were three Praying Indian villages in Mid- dleborough — Namassekett, Assawomsit, and Ketchi- quut (Titicut),— the last in the northwest part, on Taunton River, where was an Indian weir. Winslow and company on a visit to Massasoit in June, 1621, stopped at Nemasket, fifteen miles, the first night be- fore “conceived by us to be very near, because the inhabitants flocked so thick upon every slight occa- sion amongst us,” etc., etc., q. v. R. is a man of feeling. As we were riding by a field in which a man was shackling a sheep, which struggled, R. involuntarily shouted to him and asked, “ What would you do?” We left our horse and buggy at John Kingman’s and walked by Sampson’s to a hill called King Philip’s Lookout, from which we got a good view of Assawamp- sett and Long Ponds. ‘There was a good-sized sailboat at Sampson’s house, now kept by a Barrows. ‘The shores were now surrounded with pale wine-colored foliage, of maples, etc., and inland were seen the very fresh green and yellow of pines, contrasting with the red (Rubus) blackberry. The highest land appears to be about the northwest end of the ponds. I saw at Kingman’s long-handled but small scoop nets for taking voung alewives for pickerel bait. They think the white perch one of the best fish, like a cod. Elder’s Pond, a little further north, is said to be the deepest and clearest. Walking along the north end of Long Pond, while R. bathed, I found amid the rainbow rush, pipewort (Eriocaulon), etc., on the now broad flat shore, a very beautiful flower, pinkish rose-color, new to me, and still quite fresh, the Sabbatia chloroides, referred to Plymouth; ten stamens and petal divisions, about one foot high. I also observed there the very broad and distinct trail of an otter in the wet sand, to and from the water, with the mark of its tail, though Kingman did not know of any now hereabouts. The arrowheads hereabouts are commonly white quartz. R. says “ gamble-roof.”” This should be “gambrel,” apparently from the hind leg of a horse, — crooked like it.

Copied the map of Middleborough. Somewhat rainy. Walked along shore of Acushnet looking for shells. R. pointed out to me the edible mushroom, which he says he loves raw even. It is common. The shore was all alive with fiddler crabs, carrying their fiddles on one side, and their holes, nearly an inch over, were very common and earth heaped up. ‘The samphire was turned red in many places, yielding to the autumn. Atkinson, in his Sibe- rian and steppe travels, speaks of the “Salsola plant” turned a bright crimson. On the Kirghis Steppes, he says, “in the distance I could see salt lakes: I knew them to be salt by the crimson margins which encircled them.” (Page 425.) Got some quahogs and Modiola plicatula (rayed mus- sel); the last was very abundant; also some pyrulas, which are dug up alive by sand [?]-diggers. Gathered there apparently wild germander (Teucriwm), out of bloom, and Iva frutescens, or high-water shrub, ditto. Sailed back up the river in Arthur’s whale-boat with three sails. Her side drank water through a crack. He gave three dollars for her and spent ten more in repairs. ‘Twenty feet long, and worth originally per- haps $75. If I had stayed longer we should probably have gone to Cuttyhunk in this. P. M. — Rode to see some old houses in Fairhaven, etc., etc. How beautiful the evergreen leaf of the Prinos glaber, slightly toothed toward end! The old Woods place, a quarter of a mile off the road, looked like this: — lg ow Prexle ; The end showed the great stone chimney, all stone to top, except about hearth. The upper story over- lapped about eighteen inches, with the ornamental points of timbers drop- ping from it. Above this, in front, the shin- gles were rounded, scale-like. There was one half of a diamond window left in front, set in lead, very thin lead, with a groove in each side for sash, and a narrow slit-window for firing through, also another on farther end. Chimney mortared. The old latch to front door was primitive, apparently made by village blacksmith. Also an old house in the village of Fairhaven, said to have been standing in Philip’s War; a small house, a ten-footer, with one end and chimney wholly of stone. The chimney quite handsome, of this form, looking down on it: Visited the studio in Fair- haven of a young marine painter, built over the water, the dashing and gurgling of it coming up through a grating in the floor. He was out, but we found there painting Van Best, a well-known Dutch painter of marine pieces whom he has attracted tohim. He talked and looked particularly Dutchman-like. Then visited Fort Nobscot 'on a rocky point.

Rode to Westport, where R. wished to con- sult the Proprietors’ Records of Dartmouth to find the names, etc., of his ancestors. Passed through Smith’s Mills village, the older settlement in Dart- mouth, on the stream which comes from Sassacowens Pond, then Westport, about three miles beyond, and crossed the Westport River to Gifford’s, a mile beyond, where the Records were. Returning, lunched by Westport Pond in Dart- mouth, said to contain sixty acres but to [be] only about two feet deep. Saw a blue heron in it some rods from the shore, where the water did not come up to its body. Perhaps it might have waded anywhere in it. It stood with the side of its head towards us, being wary of us. When it moved, walked with a pe- culiar stooping and undulating gait in the water. At length thrust its bill in as if feeding. That must be a rare place for it to catch frogs and perhaps minnows in, though we were told that there [were] only turtles, snakes, and pouts in it. The vanes on this ride were often a whale, rather a lumpish form, but reminding us that the farmer had, perhaps, been a whaler.

Rode to Plymouth with R., in his buggy. In the north part of Rochester, went into an old un- inhabited house which once belonged to John Shear- man. It had the date 1753 engraved on an oblong square stone in the stone chimney, though the chimney-top had been rebuilt with the old stone. The house had a sin- gular musty scent when we opened it. The bare joists above in the kitchen all black with smoke. In the cellar grew the apple-of-Peru, Nicandra physalodes, then in bloom; a short datura-like blossom with a large fruit-like capsule. After passing the Neck between the two Quitticus Ponds, we turned to the right and passed by the Point road between the Great Quitticus and Pocksha Ponds. This was a mere bar, half a mile long, two or three rods wide, and built up above high water with larger stones. We rode with one wheel in the water. There was in one place a stream crossing it and two or more bridges prepared for high water. Scared up five apparently black ducks. Continued on towards Carver by small winding country roads via where was once Nelson’s meeting-house and along the east side of Tispaquin Pond, — this was the name of the old sachem of Nemasket, — near which in a field R. picked up a young Emys picta’s (?) shell, which I have. Beyond this the country was almost uniformly level, sandy, — oak wood, with few dwellings. Lunched near the boundary of Carver. Passed Johns Pond and Wenham Pond and others in Carver, passing a mile or more south of Carver Green, and afterward Clear Pond in Plymouth. We heard the blasting at the Quincy quarries (so Watson told us) during this ride, I think even as far back as New Bedford town- ship, very distinctly. According to Bennet, writing :1793 (vide Historical Collections), Snipatuet Pond in Rochester has one stream emptying into the sea at Mattapoisett Harbor . and another, three quarters of a mile long, emptying into East Quitiquos Pond. “So that the alewife fish come into Snipatuet pond from both streams.”’ In a description of Carver in the Fourth Volume, Second Series, of the Historical Collections, I read: “The cast iron tea kettle was first cast at Plympton (now Carver) between 1760 and 1765. So modern is this very common utensil in New England. Wrought iron imported tea kettles were used before a copper tea kettle was first used at Plymouth, 1702.” Also, “A place called ‘Swan Holt’ by the first planters, a little southeast of Wenham Pond, denotes the former visits of that bird, the earliest harbinger of spring; for before the ice is yet broken up, the swan finds an open resting place among the ozier holts, while the kil- dee, flying over the land from the sea shore, soon after confirms the vernal promise.’”’ A note adds: ‘‘A species of plover, probably the “que ce qu'il dit’ of the French. It may be added that kildee is the Danish word for a spring.”

Return to Concord via Natural History Library. De Kay calls the pine marten the American sable.