8 September 1856 – 14 September 1856

Brattleboro. — Rains. Frost gives me an aster which he thinks A. concinnus of Wood; grows in woods and yet longer leaved. P. M.— Clearing up. I went a-botanizing by the Coldwater Path, for the most part along a steep wooded hillside on Whetstone Brook and through its interval. In the last heavy rain, two or three weeks since, there was a remarkable freshet on this brook, such as has not been known before, the bridge and road carried away, the bed of the stream laid bare, a new channel being made, the interval covered with sand and gravel, and trees (buttonwood, etc.) brought down; several acres thus buried. Frost escaped from his house on a raft. I observed a stream of large bare white rocks four or five rods wide, which at first I thought had been washed down, but it seems this was the former bed of the stream, it having worn a new channel further east. Witch-hazel out, maybe a day or two, in some places, but the Browns do not think the fringed gentian out yet.

Tuesday. 8 a. m.— Ascend the Chester- field Mountain with Miss Frances and Miss Mary Brown. The Connecticut is about twenty rods wide between Brattleboro and Hinsdale. This mountain, according to Frost, 1064 feet high. It is the most remarkable feature here. ‘The village of Brattleboro is peculiar for the nearness of the primitive wood and the moun- tain. Within three rods of Brown’s house was excellent botanical ground on the side of a primitive wooded hillside, and still better along the Coldwater Path. But, above all, this everlasting mountain is forever lowering over the village, shortening the day and wear- ing a misty cap each morning. You look up to its top at a steep angle from the village streets. A great part belongs to the Insane Asylum. ‘This town will be convicted of folly if they ever permit this mountain to be laid bare. Francis [sc] B. says its Indian name is Wantastiquet, from the name of West River above. Very abundant about B. the Gerardia tenutfolza, in prime, which I at first mistook for the purpurea. 'The latter I did not see. High up the mountain the Aster macrophyllus as well as corymbosus. The (apparently) Platanthera orbiculata (?) leaves, round and flat on ground (vide press); another by it with larger and more oblong leaves. Pine-sap. A tuft of five-divided leaves, fifteen or eighteen inches high, slightly fern-like (vide press). Galiwm circezans var. lanceolatum. ‘Top of the mountain covered with wood. Saw Ascutney, between forty and fifty miles up the river, but not Monadnock on account of woods. P. M. — To and up a brook north of Brown’s house. A large alternate cornel, four or five inches in diam- eter, a dark-gray stem. ‘The kidney-shaped leaves of the Asarum Canadense common there. Panax quinquefolium, with peculiar flat scarlet fruit in a little umbel. Clinopodium vulgare, or basil, apparently flatted down by a freshet, rather past prime; and spearmint in brook just above. Close behind Brown’s, Exparis liliifolia, or tway-blade, leaves and bulb. A very interesting sight from the top of the mountain was that of the cars so nearly under you, apparently creeping along, you could see so much of their course. The epigzea was very abundant on the hill behind Brown’s and elsewhere in B. The Populus moni- lifera grows on West River, but I did not see it. The Erigeron Philadelphicus I saw pressed, with in- numerable fine rays. Scouring-rush was common along the Coldwater Path and elsewhere. The most interesting sight I saw in Brattleboro was the skin and skull of a panther (Felis concolor) (cougar, catamount, painter, American lion, puma), which was killed, according to a written notice attached, on the 15th of June by the Saranac Club of Brattle- boro, six young men, on a fishing and hunting excur- sion. This paper described it as eight feet in extreme length and weighing one hundred and ten pounds. The Brattleboro newspaper says its body was “4 feet 11 inches in length, and the tail 2 feet 9 inches; the animal weighed 108 pounds.” I was surprised at its great size and apparent strength. It gave one a new idea of our American forests and the vigor of nature here. It was evident that it could level a platoon of men with a stroke of its paw. I was particularly impressed by the size of its limbs, the size of its canine teeth, and its great whiteclaws. I do not see but this affords a sufficient foun- dation for the stories of the lion heard and its skins seen near Boston by the first settlers. This creature was very catlike, though the tail was not tapering, but as large at the extremity as anywhere, yet not tufted like the lion’s. It had a long neck, a long thin body, like a lean cat. Its fore feet were about six inches long by four or five wide, as set up. I talked with the man who shot him, a Mr. Kellogg, a lawyer. They were fishing on one of the Saranac Lakes, their guide being the Harvey Moody whom Hammond describes, when they heard the noise of some creature threshing about amid the bushes on the hillside. The guide suspected that it was a panther which had caught a deer. He reconnoitred and found that it was a panther which had got one fore paw (the left) in one of his great double-spring, long teethed or hooked bear-traps. He had several of these traps set (without bait) in the neighborhood. It fell to Kellogg’s lot to advance with the guide and shoot him. They approached within six or seven rods, saw that the panther was held firmly, and fired just as he raised his head to look at them. The ball entered just above his nose, pierced his brain, and killed him at once. The guide got the bounty of twenty-five dollars, but the game fell to his employers. A slice had been sheared off one side of each ear to secure this with. It was a male. The guide thought it an old one, but Kellogg said that, as they were returning with it, the inhabitants regarded it as common; they only kicked it aside in the road, remarking that [it] was a large one. I talked also with the Mr. Chamberlin who set it up. He showed me how sharp the edges of the broad grinders were just behind the canine teeth. They were zigzag, thus: and shut over the under, scraping close (7 like shears and, as he proved, would cut off a straw clean. This animal looked very thin as set up, and probably in some states of his body would have weighed much more. Kellogg said that, freshly killed, the body showed the nerves much more than as set up. The color, etc., agreed very well with the account in Thompson’s History of Vermont, except that there was, now at least, no yellow about the mouth or chin, but whitish. It was, in the main, the universal color of this family, ora little browner. According to Thompson, it is brown- red on the back, reddish-gray on the sides, whitish or light-ash on the belly; tail like the back above, except its extremity, which is brownish-black, not tufted; chin, upper lip, and inside of ears, yellowish-white. Hairs on back, short, brownish tipped with red; on the belly, longer, lighter, tipped with white; hairs of face like back with whitish hairs intermingled. Canines conical, claws pearly-white. Length, nose to tail, four feet eight inches; tail, two feet six inches; top of head to point of nose, ten inches; width across forehead, eight inches. Length of fore legs, one foot two inches; hind, one foot four inches. Weight usually about one \ \ hundred pounds. The largest he ever knew was seven feet in extreme length and weighed one hundred and eighteen pounds. One had been known to leap up a precipice fifteen feet high with a calf in his mouth. Vide Lawson, Hunter, and Jefferson in Book of Facts. Hunter when near the Rocky Mountains says, “So much were they to be apprehended . . . that no one ever ventured to go out alone, even on the most trifling occasion.”” He makes two kinds.

10.30 a. m. — Took the cars to Bellows Falls, through Dummerston, Putney, and Westminster. Looked at the falls and rocks. River higher than usual at this season, yet could cross all but about twenty feet on the rocks. Some pot-holes of this form: real pot-holes, but commonly several curves com- mingled, thus: or the whole more rounded. ¢~ -*7) Found, spread- ing prostrate on the rocks amid the pot-holes, apparently a small willow,' with shining dark- red stems and smooth, spatulate, rather obtuse serrate leaves. (Vide press.) I read that salmon passed these falls but not shad. When the water is lowest, it is con- tracted to sixteen feet here, and Peters’s, an old history of Connecticut, says it was so condensed that you could not thrust a crowbar into it. It did me good to read his wholesale hearty statements,—strong, living, human speech, so much better than the emasculated modern histories, like Bancroft’s and the rest, cursed with a style.? I would rather read such histories, though every sentence were a falsehood, than our dull emasculated reports which bear the name of histories. The former, having a human breath and interest behind them, are nearer to nature and to truth, after all. The histo- rian is required to feel a human interest in his subject and to so express it. President Dwight, speaking of the origin of those pot-holes, says, “'The river now is often fuller than it probably ever was before the coun- try above was cleared of its forests: the snows in open ground melting much more suddenly, and form- ing much greater freshets, than in forested ground.” (Vol. 1, page 92.) Ascended the Fall Mountain with a heavy valise on my back, against the advice of the toll-man. But when I got up so soon and easily I was amused to re- member his anxiety. It is seven hundred and fifty feet high, according to Gazetteer. Saw great red oaks on this hill, particularly tall, straight, and bare of limbs, for a great distance, amid the woods. Here, as at Brattle- boro, a fine view of the country immediately beneath you; but these views lack breadth, a distant horizon. There is a complete view of the falls from this height. Saw a pair of middle-sized black hawks hovering about this cliff, with some white spots, with peculiar shrill snapping notes like a gull, a new kind to me. Descending the steep south end of this hill, I saw an apparent Corydalis glauca, mostly withered, three feet or more, and more than usually broad and stout in proportion. (Vide press.) My shoes were very smooth, and I got many falls descending, battering my valise. By the railroad below, the Solanum nigrum, with white flowers but yet green fruit. Just after crossing Cold River, bathed in the Con- necticut, evidently not far from site of the old Kilbourn fort. Clay-muddy shore. Near the site of the old Bellows Fort, saw completely purple Polygala verti- culata abundant in road. Rode the last mile into Walpole with a lumberer, who said that when he commenced operations at Bellows Falls he thought that there was not more than one hundred thousand there, but they had already got out four millions. He imported some of those masts I had seen go through Concord from Canada West. They were rafted along Lake Erie (a Mr. Dorr of Buffalo afterward told me that he did this part with steamers, merely running an inch chain through the butt of each log and fastening the ends to a boom, which surrounded the whole, leaving the small ends to play) and in small rafts by canal to Albany, and thence by railroad via Rutland to Portland, for the navy; and it cost only one third more to get them from Canada West than from Bellows Falls. Remem- bering the difficulty in old times of loading one of these sticks in New Hampshire for the King’s Navy, this seemed the greatest triumph of the railroad. In Walpole, the Chenopodium Botrys.

P. M.— Walked over what Alcott calls Farm Hill, east of his house. Erigeron annuus, four feet high, by roadside; also Ranunculus Pennsylvanicus, or bristly crowfoot, still in bloom. Vide press. A fine view of the Connecticut valley from the hilltop, and of Ascutney Mountain, but not of Monadnock. Descended a steep side of the hill by a cow-path, made with great judg- ment regularly zigzag, thus : well worn and deep. Visited the grave- yard and Colonel Benjamin Bellows, the found- er’s, gravestone and more re- cent monu- ment. In the evening read an interesting pamphlet ac- count of the Bellows family of Walpole, prepared by Dr. Bellows of New York, on occasion of the family gathering and erection of the monument. A large part of the inhabitants of Walpole are descendants of Colonel B. Bellows. The writer quotes from a paper in “the Cheshire Gazette of April 28, 1826,’ “understood to be prepared by our respected townsman, Dr. Morse,” Dr. B. saying first, “A Mrs. Watson of Germantown, Pennsylvania, was alive in 1826, who resided in Wal- pole in 1762, then only 8 years old,” but she had a remarkable memory. He then quotes Morse, who states that her father came and built a house in Walpole in 1762. “The roof of the house was covered with bark, and the gable ends remained open some time, which enabled them to hear the barking of foxes, the howling of wolves, and the cries of the panther, while sitting before the fire. The latter resembled the voice of a woman in distress, and [seemed]' intended to decoy people into the woods, where the salutations of these roving gentry were apt to prove troublesome, unless prevented by the presence of fire-arms.” Ac- cording to this woman (and Morse), “a shad was taken near the falls which had a rattlesnake’s head in its stomach.” Dr. B. states that there is a tradition that the founder, Colonel B., once killed, on Fall Mountain, two bears and a very large panther, which last alarmed him considerably. According to Morse and the woman, “a large portion of pin money was derived from the sale of golden thread, ginseng, and snakeroot, which were procured from their [the ladies’]? own hands.” This should probably be “lands,” or the preposition, “by.” In Alcott’s yard, sprung up from his bird’s seed, hemp, like common except fragrant.® These are the plants I obtained on this excursion: — Panicled elder berries, Fitchburg. Aster concinnus (?), Frost, Brattleboro. Solidago Canadensis. A. cordifolius. Urtica gracilis (?). Pear-hipped rose. Vites cordifolia. Eupatorium ageratoides. Helianthus decapetalus. Solidago arguta. A. tenutfolius (?), Frost. Hepatica triloba, leaves. Trarella cordifolia, leaves and dried’ stem. Stum lineare (?). Urtica Canadensis. Phryma Leptostachya. Campanula rotundifolia. Polygonum Virginianum. Cornus stolonijera (?). Dirca palustris, leaves. A, miser var. hirsuta (?). Viburnum lantanoides, leaves. Acer spicatum, leaves. Rabes cynosbat, in fruit. Taxus Canadensis, in fruit. Solidago Muhlenbergit. Tussilago Farfara, leaves. Epiphegus Americana. Equisetum scirpovdes. Veronica Americana, not in flower. Nabalus altissimus. Oxalis Acetosella, leaves. Viola rotundifolia (??), radical leaves. Erigeron annuus. Polypodium Dryopteris, in fruit. Heavy scented plant. Gerardia tenutfolia. Platanthera orbiculata (?), out of bloom. Tufted and divided leaves on mountain. Aster, longzjolius-like, on Island.

Return to Concord.

Saturday. At Concord. — After all, I am struck by the greater luxuriance of the same species of plants here than up-country, though our soil is considered leaner. Also I think that no view I have had of the Connecticut Valley, at Brattleboro or Wal- pole, is equal to that of the Concord from Nawshaw- tuct. Here is a more interesting horizon, more va- riety and richness. Our river is much the most fertile in every sense. Up there it is nothing but river-valley and hills. Here there is so much more that we have forgotten that we live in a valley. 8 a. m. — Up Assabet. Gathered quite a parcel of grapes, quite ripe. Diffi- cult to break off the large bunches without some dropping off. Yet the best are more admirable for fragrance than for flavor. Depositing them in the bows of the boat, they filled all the air with their fragrance, as we rowed along against the wind, as if we were rowing through an endless vineyard in its maturity. The Aster Tradescanti now sugars the banks densely, since I left, a week ago. Nature improves this her last opportunity to empty her lap of flowers. Ascended the hill. The barberries are abundant there, and already handsomely red, though not much more than half turned. Was surprised at the profusion of autumnal dandelions in their prime on the top of the hill, about the oaks. Never saw them thicker in a meadow. A cool, spring-suggesting yellow. They reserve their force till this season, though they begin so early. Cool to the eye, as the creak of the cricket to the ear. The Viburnum Lentago, which I left not half turned red when I went up-country a week ago, are now quite black-purple and shrivelled like raisins on my table, and sweet to taste, though chiefly seed.

P. M.— To Hubbard’s Close and Car- dinal Ditch. Now for the Aster Tradescanti along low roads, like the Turnpike, swarming with butterflies and bees. Some of them are pink. How ever unexpected are these later flowers! You thought that Nature had about wound up her affairs. You had seen what she could do this year, and had not noticed a few weeds by the roadside, or mistook them for the remains of summer flowers now hastening to their fall; you thought you knew every twig and leaf by the roadside, and no- thing more was to be looked for there; and now, to your surprise, these ditches are crowded with millions of little stars. They suddenly spring up and face you, with their legions on each side the way, as if they had Jain in ambuscade there. The flowering of the ditches. Call them travellers’ thoughts, numerous though small, worth a penny at least, which, sown in spring and summer, in the fall spring up unobserved at first, successively dusted and washed, mingled with nettles and beggar-ticks as a highway harvest. A starry meteoric shower, a milky way, in the flowery kingdom in whose aisles we travel. Let the traveller bethink himself, elevate and expand his thoughts somewhat, that his successors may oftener hereafter be cheered by the sight of an Aster Nove-Anglie or spectabilis here and there, to remind him that a poet or philoso- pher has passed this way. The gardener with all his assiduity does not raise such a variety, nor so many suc- cessive crops on the same space, as Nature in the very roadside ditches. There they have stood, begrimed with dust and the wash of the road so long, and made acquaintance with passing sheep and cattle and swine, gathering a trivial experience, and now at last the fall rains have come to wash off some of that dust, and even they exhibit these dense flowery panicles as the result of all that experience, as pure for an hour as if they grew by some wild brook-side. Successor to Mayweed & Co. Is not mayweed, by the way, the flower furthest advanced into the road rut or mid- channel, like the kalmiana lily in the river? The mid- channel, where the stream of travel flows deep and strong, unless it is far up the stream toward its foun- tainhead, no flower invades. Mayweed! what a mis- nomer! Call it rué-weed rather. Goodyera pubescens apparently just done. Fringed gentian well out (and some withered or frost-bitten ?), say a week, though there was none to be seen here August 27th. I see the fruit and flowers of Polygonum Careyi affected with smut like corn.