Henry David Thoreau’s diary, 1858

P. M.—The weather still remarkably warm; the ice too soft for skating. I go through by the Andromeda Ponds and down river from Fair Haven. I am encouraged by the…

P. M.—TI see one of those fuzzy winter caterpillars, black at the two ends and brown-red in middle, crawling on a rock by the Hunt’s Bridge causeway. Mr. Hosmer is…

The first snow-storm of much importance. By noon it may be six inches deep. P. M. — Up railroad to North River. The main stream, barely skimmed over with snow,…

P. M.— To that small meadow just above the Boaz Brown meadow. Going through the swamp, the snow balled so as to raise me three inches higher than usual.

Snows again. P. M. — To Deep Cut. The wind is southwest, and the snow is very moist, with large flakes. Looking toward Trillium Wood, the nearer flakes appear to…

Sunday. P. M.— To Goose Pond across Walden. The north side of Walden is a warm walk in sunny weather. If you are sick and despairing, go forth in winter and see the…

Monday. Rain, rain — washes off almost every vestige of snow.

Wednesday. Go to Lynn to lecture, via Cambridge. 4.30 p. Ma. — At Jonathan Buffum’s, Lynn. Lecture in John B. Alley’s parlor. Mr. J. Buffum describes to me ancient…

At the Dugan Desert, I notice, under the overhanging or nearly horizontal small white oaks and shrub oaks about the edge, singular little hollows in the sand,…

F. hyemalis.

Saturday. The wonderfully mild and plea- sant weather continues. The ground has been bare since the 11th. This morning was colder than before. I have not been able…

Sunday. P. M. — Nut Meadow Brook. The river is broadly open, as usual this winter. You can hardly say that we have had any sleighing at all this winter, though five…

Monday. A warm, moist day. Thermo- meter at 6.30 p. M. at 49°. What a rich book might be made about buds, in- cluding, perhaps, sprouts!— the impregnable, viva-…

A warm rain from time to time. P. M. — To Clintonia Swamp down the brook. When it rains it is like an April shower. The brook is quite open, and there is no snow on…

Wednesday. P. M.—To Hill and beyond. It is so mild and moist as I saunter along by the wall east of the Hill that I remember, or anticipate, one of those warm…

Minott has a sharp ear for the note of any migrating bird. Though confined to his dooryard by the rheumatism, he commonly hears them sooner than the widest rambler.…

P. M. — To Great Meadows at Copan. It is considerably colder. I go through the northerly part of Beck Stow’s, north of the new road. For a great distance it is an…

P. M. — To Gowing’s Swamp. I thought it would be a good time to rake in the mud of that central pool, and see what animal or vegetable life might be there, now that…

I notice in one place that the last six or more inches of the smooth sumach’s lusty twigs are dead and withered, not having been sufficiently matured, not-…

Measured Gowing’s Swamp two and a half rods northeast of the middle of the hole, 7. e. in the andromeda and sphagnum near its edge, where I stand in the summer;…

Still rains, after a rainy night with a little snow, forming slosh. As I return from the post-office, I hear the hoarse, robin-like chirp of a song sparrow on…

P. M. — To Conantum. I notice that the corner posts of the old Conantum house, which is now being pulled down, were all set butt up, and are considerably larger at…

P. M.— To C. Miles Swamp. Discover the Ledum latifolium, quite abundant over a space about six rods in diameter just east of the small pond-hole, growing with the…

P. M. — To Boaz’s Meadow. There is a plenty of that handsome-seeded grass which I think Tarbell called goose grass! in the meadow south of the roadway, at Boaz’s…

Aunt Louisa has talked with Mrs. Monroe, and I can correct or add to my account of January 23d. She says that she was only three or four years old, and that she…

P. M.— To Walden and Goose Pond. The ground is so completely bare this winter, and therefore the leaves in the woods so dry, that on the 5th there was a fire in the…

A. M. — To old Hunt house with Thatcher. The stairs of the old back part are white pine orspruce, each the half of a square log; those of the cellar in front, oak,…

Grows cold toward night, and windy.

At 3 p. M. it is 11° and windy. I think it is the coldest day of this winter. The river channel is now suddenly and generally frozen over for the first time. P. M.…

Colder than yesterday morning; perhaps the coldest of the winter. P. M. — To Ledum Pond. Those small holes in the ground, — musquash, mice, etc., — thickly beset…

Last night said to have been a little colder than the night before, and the coldest hitherto. P. M. — Ride to Cafferty’s Swamp. The greatest breadth of the swamp…

About one inch of snow falls.

To Cambridge and Boston. Saw, at a menagerie, a Canada lynx, said to have been taken at the White Mountains. It looked much like a monstrous gray cat standing on…

I find Walden ice to be nine and a half plus inches thick, having gained three and a half inches since the 8th. The Rubus hispidus (sempervirens of Bigelow) is…

Coldest morning this winter by our ther- mometer, — 3° at 7.30. The traveller is defended and calloused. He deals with surfaces, has a greatcoat on. But he who…

Snows all day. The most wintry day of the winter; yet not more than three inches on a level is fallen. We hear the names of the worthies of Concord, — Squire Cuming…

I see, at Minot Pratt’s, rhodora in bloom in a pitcher with water andromeda.

Ice at Walden eleven inches thick and very soggy, sinking to a level with the water, though there is but a trifling quantity of snow on it. Does it not commonly…

A. M. — To Hill. The hedges on the Hill are all cut off. The journals think they cannot say too much on improvements in husbandry. It is a safe theme, like piety.…

P. M. — To White Pond. I see twenty-four cones brought together under one pitch pine in a field, evidently gnawed off by a squirrel, but not opened. Rice says he…

The divergent open capsules (?) of the rhodora, yellowish-brown, are quite interesting when the sun falls on them. We have just had a winter with absolutely no…

Snowed last night and this morning, about seven inches deep, much more than during the winter, the first truly wintry-looking day so far as snow is concerned; but…

Thermometer 14° this morning, and this makes decent sleighing of the otherwise soft snow. Father Rasle’s dictionary of the Abenaki language amounts to a very…

Went to hear a Chippeway Indian, a Doctor Mung-somebody, — assisted by a Penobscot, who said nothing. He made the audience laugh un- intentionally by putting an m…

P. M.—Up river on ice to Fair Haven Pond. The river is frozen more solidly than during the past winter, and for the first time for a year I could cross it in most…

Walking by the river this afternoon, it being half open and the waves running pretty high, —the black waves, yellowish where they break over ice, —I inhale a fresh,…

Went to a concert of instrumental music this evening. The imitations of the horn and the echo by the violoncello were very good, but the sounds of the clarionet…

About three inches more of snow fell last night, which, added to about five of the old, makes eight, or more than before since last spring. Pretty good sleighing.…

P. M. — To Conantum. A thick mist, spiriting away the snow. Very bad walk- ing. This fog is one of the first decidedly spring signs; also the withered grass bedewed…

Hear the first bluebird. P. M. — To the Hill. A remarkably warm and pleasant day with a south or southwest wind, but still very bad walking, the frost coming out…

7 a. mM. — By river. Almost every bush has its song sparrow this morning, and their tinkling strains are heard on all sides. You see them just hopping under the…

P. M. — To Hill and Grackle Swamp. Another pleasant and warm day. Painted my boat this afternoon. ‘These spring impressions (as of the apparent waking up of the…

A. M. — By river. The tree sparrow is perhaps the sweetest and most melodious warbler at present and for some days. It is peculiar, too, for singing in concert…

Warm rain, April-like, the first of the season, holding up from time to time, though always completely overcast. P. M. — To Ministerial Swamp via Little River.…

P. M. — Launch my boat and row down- stream. There is a strong and cool northwest wind. Leaving our boat just below N. Barrett’s, we walk down the shore. We see…

Surveying Mr. Gordon’s farm. See something stirring amid the dead leaves in the water at the bottom of a ditch, in two or three places, and presently see the back…

P. M. — To Fair Haven Pond, east side. The pond not yet open. A cold north-by-west wind, which must have come over much snow and ice. The chip of the ground-bird '…

P. M. — To bank of Great Meadows by Peter's. Cold northwest wind as yesterday and day before. Large skaters ({1ydrometra) on a ditch. Going across A. Clark’s field…

P. M. —Sail to Bittern Cliff. Scare up a flock of sheldrakes just off Fair Haven Hill, the conspicuous white ducks, sailing straight hither and thither. At first…

P. M. — To Cliffs. After a cloudy morning, a warm and pleasant after- noon. I hear that a few geese were seen this morning. Israel Rice says that he heard two brown…

Monday. Wear a pheebe early in the morning over the street. Considerable frost this morn- ing, and some ice formed on the river. The white maple stamens are very…

P. M.— To my boat at Cardinal Shore and thence to Lee’s Cliff. Another fine afternoon, warmer than before, I think. I walk in the fields now without slumping in the…

P. M.— To Flint’s Pond. A fresh south or southeast wind. The most forward willow catkins are not so silvery now, more grayish, being much enlarged and the down less…

White-bellied swallows. P. M. — Paddle up Assabet. The river is at summer level; has not been up this spring, and has fallen to this. The lowermost willow at my…

P. M. — To yew and R. W. E.’s Cliff. At Hubbard’s Grove I see a woodchuck. He waddles to his hole and then puts out his gray nose within thirty feet to reconnoitre.…

Going down-town this morning, I am sur- prised by the rich strain of the purple finch from the elms. Three or four have arrived and lodged against the elms of our…

What I call the young bullfrog, about two and a half inches long, — though it has no yellow on throat. It has a bright-golden ring outside of the iris as far as I…

A moist, foggy, and very slightly drizzly morning. It has been pretty foggy for several mornings. This makes the banks look suddenly greener, apparently making the…

A cold and gusty, blustering day. We put on greatcoats again. P. M. — Down the Great Meadows. The river is low, even for summer. The ground about the outmost willow…

Surveying Kettell farm. Could I have heard Fringilla socialis along the street this morning?? Or may it have been the hye- malis ? Polly Houghton comes along and…

April rain at last, but not much; clears up at night. At 4.30 p. m. to Well Meadow Field. ? Possibly, for I hear it the 14th, and perhaps the 12th. Vide 12th. The…

A. M.— Surveying part of William P. Brown’s wood-lot in Acton, west of factory. Hear the huckleberry-bird and, [ think, the Fringilla socialis.1 The handsomest…

Began to rain last evening, and still rains. The tree sparrows sing sweetly, canary-like, still. Hear the first toad in the rather cool rain, 10 A. M. See through…

P. M. — To sedge-path Salix humilis. I see many planting now. See a pair of woodpeckers.on a rail and on the ground a-courting. One keeps hopping near the other,…

My fish ova in a tumbler has [sic] gradu- ally expanded till it is some three sixteenths of an inch in diameter, and for more than a week the embryos have been…

P. M. — Via Assabet to Coral Rock. See several kingfishers. Red-wings still in flocks, and crow blackbirds feeding amid leaves by Assabet- side, half a dozen…

P. M. — To Hubbard’s Grove. A dandelion open; will shed pollen to-morrow.

Spend the day hunting for my boat, which was stolen. As I go up the riverside, I see a male marsh hawk hunting. He skims along exactly over the edge of the water,…

P. M. — Rain-storm begins, with hail.

George Melvin says that Joshua Haynes once saw a perch depositing her spawn and the male following behind and devouring it! (?) Garlick in his book on pisciculture…

Hear martins about a box. P. M. — To Hubbard’s Great Meadow. The spawn of April 18th is gone! It was fresh there and apparently some creature has eaten it. I see…

I receive to-day Sanguinaria Canadensis from Brattleboro, well in bloom, —how long? —in a large box full of mayflowers. The toads ring now by day, but not very loud…

A cold northwest wind. Igo at 8 A. M. to catch frogs to compare with the R. palustris and bull- frog which I have, but I find it too cold for them. Though I walk…

P. M. — To Assabet. Approaching the Island, I hear the phe phe, phe phe, phe phe, phe phe, phe, the sharp whistling note, of a fish hawk, and, looking round, see…

A little snow in the night, which is seen against the fences this morning. See a chewink (male) in the Kettell place woods.

It has been so cold since the 23d that. I have not been able to catch a single frog, have hardly seen where one jumped, as I walked through the mead- ows looking…

Blustering northwest wind and wintry aspect. A. M. — Down river to look at willows. The common S. cordata apparently not yet within two days at least. This salix is…

P. M.—I carry the rest of my little fishes, fifteen or twenty, to the cold pool in Hubbard’s ground. They are about a quarter-inch long still, and have scarcely…

A warm and pleasant day, reminding me of the 3d of April when the R. halecina waked up so suddenly and generally, and now, as then, apparently a new, allied frog is…

Sit without fire to-day and yesterday. I compare the three Rana palustris caught yester- day with the male and female of April 23d. The males agree very well. What…

P. M. — Ride to Flint’s Pond to look for Uvularia perfoliata. Salix purpurea in Monroe’s gar- den effete. Apparently blooms with our early willows; say 10th of…

The Salix pedicellaris by railroad, appar- ently not for two or three days. ‘—The Missouri currant, probably to-day. : P. M. — By boat to Holden Swamp. To go among…

‘The two Rana palustris which I caught May ist have been coupled ever since in a firkin in my chamber. They were not coupled when I caught them. Last night I heard…

I heard from time to time a new note from my fana palustris in the firkin in my chamber. It was that strong vibratory purr or prr-r-r-a-a-a, as if it began with a…

P. M. — To stone-heaps. Mr. Wright of the factory village, with whom I talked yesterday, an old fisherman, remembers the lamprey eels well, which he used to see in…

P. M. — To Holden and to Ledum Swamp. See two Rana halecina. They have the green halo, but are plain brown between the spots on the back and not vivid light-green…

A rather warm and pleasant day. Going down-town in the morning, I hear the warbling vireo, golden robin, catbird, and summer yellowbird. For some days the Salix…

P. M. — Wishing to get one of the little brook (?) pickerel, of Hubbard’s ditches, in the arethusa meadow, I took a line in my pocket, and, baiting with a worm and…

Chimney swallows. P. M. — Up Assabet. On the 8th I noticed a little pickerel recently dead in the river with a slit in its upper lip three quarters of an inch long,…

P. M. — To Island. Uvularia sessilifolia is well out in Island woods, opposite Bath Rock; how long? The early willows now show great green wands a foot or two long,…

5.30 a. m. — Up railroad. Hear and see the red-eye on an oak. The tail is slightly forked and apparently three quarters of an inch beyond wings; all whitish…

7.30 a. m. — Ride to the Shawsheen in the northeast of Bedford. Meadow saxifrage well out, many of them, at the tan-yard meadow. The Equise- tum limosum will…

A. M. — Up Assabet. Aralia nudicaulis at Island. The leaf-stalks are often eaten off, probably by some quadruped. The flower-buds of the Cornus florida are five…

Louring and more or less rainy. P. M. — To Ledum Swamp. Near Beomyces Bank, I see the Salix humilis show- ing its down or cotton, and also the S. tristis.?,…

Set an arbor-vite hedge fifteen inches east of our line; about twenty inches high.

A. M. — Surveying (by the eye) for War- ner the meadow surveyed for John Hosmer in June, ’56. The black currant near southwest corner of his Saw Mill field (Ribes…

P. M. — Up Assabet. A cloudy afternoon, with a cool east wind, producing a mist. Hundreds of swallows are now skimming close over the river, at its broadest part,…

P. M. — To Boulder Field. Horse-chestnut in bloom. Actea spicata var. rubra will bloom, apparently, in four or five days. It is now fifteen inches high. Lilac in…

Saturday. Ed. Emerson brings me the egg of a hawk, dirty bluish-white,? just found, with three other eggs not much developed, in a nest on the ground. Probably a…

In Worcester. 5 a. M.— Walk with Blake, Brown, and Rogers to Quinsigamond Pond, carrying our breakfast. Paddled up the pond northerly three quarters of a mile from…

Monday. To New York by railroad. All through Connecticut and New York the white involucres of the cornel (C. Florida), recently expanded, some of them reddish or…

Visited the Egyptian Museum. The chariot wheel might have been picked out of a ditch in Carlisle, and the infant’s shoe have been found with it. P. M.— To Staten…

3 p. M. — Return to Boston.

At Boston, Cambridge, and Concord. De. Kay describes the Esox fasciatus, which is appar- ently mine of May 11th. As I count, the rays are the same in number, wiz. “…

I get the nest of the turtle dove above named, it being deserted and no egg left. It appears to have been built on the foundation of an old robin’s nest and…

P. M.— To Bateman’s Pond wa Pratt’s. Buttonwood, one tree, not for two or three days. Rubus triflorus, well out, at Calla Swamp, how long? Calla apparently in two…

Hear of lady’s-slipper seen the 23d; how long? I saw the Nuphar advena above water and yellow in Shrewsbury the 23d. P. M. — To hen-harrier’s nest and to Ledum…

A. M. — To Island. Choke-cherry, a day or two. Cornus florida, not yet for two or three days. I saw some in Connecticut with involucres much more rosaceous than…

8.30 a. M. — Start for Monadnock. Between Shirley Village and Lunenburg, I notice, in a meadow on the night hand, close to the railroad, the Kalmia glauca in bloom,…

At length, by 3 o’clock, the signs of dawn appear, and soon we hear the robin and the Fringilla hyemalis, — its prolonged jingle, — sitting on the top of a spruce,…

Friday. At 6a. M. we began to descend. Near the upper edge of the wood, I heard, as I had done in ascending, a very peculiar lively and interest- ing strain from…

A. M. — Surveying a blueberry and maple swamp belonging to Thomas Brooks in the northeast part of Lincoln, burned over in fall of *57. The fire spread across a…

P. M. — Cornus florida at Island well out, say the 3d. I hear of linnea out in a pitcher and prob- ably (?) in woods. Go to Painted-Cup Meadow via Assabet Bath. See…

P. M.— To Walden. Warm weather has suddenly come, beginning yes- terday. To-day it is yet warmer, 87° at 3 P. M., com- pelling me to put on a thin coat, and I see…

P. M. — To marsh hawk’s nest near Hub- bard’s Bath. I see many breams’ nests made, and in one or two in which I look, I find, on taking out the stones and the…

P. M. — To Beck Stow’s. High blackberry, not long. I notice by the roadside at Moore’s Swamp the very common Juncus effusus, not quite out, one to two and a half…

Smilacina racemosa well out, how long ? Sophia has received the whorled arethusa from Northampton to-day. P. M. — To Assabet Bath and return by stone bridge. A…

P. M. — To Assabet Bath. The fertile Salix alba is conspicuous now at a dis- tance, in fruit, being yellowish and drooping. Hear the parti-colored warbler. Examine…

Rains all day. Much water falls.

Louring all day. P. M. — To Ledum Swamp. Lambkill, maybe one day. Strawberries. In the great apple tree front of the Miles house I hear young pigeon woodpeckers.…

Miss Pratt brings me the fertile barberry from northeast the great yellow birch. The stami- nate is apparently effete. Young partridges, when? P. M. — To Gowing’s…

Rains steadily again, and we have had no clear weather since the 11th. The river is remarkably high, far higher than before, this year, and is rising. I can paddle…

P. M. — To Staples’s Meadow Wood. It is pleasant to paddle over the meadows now, at this time of flood, and look down on the various meadow plants, for you can see…

P. M. — To hawk’s nest. One egg is hatched since the 8th, and the young bird, all down, with a tinge of fawn or cinnamon, lies motion- less on its breast with its…

How dogs will resort to carrion, a dead cow or horse, half buried, no matter how stale, — the best-bred and petted village dogs, and there gorge themselves with the…

Saturday. 1 do not hear the night-warbler so often as a few weeks ago. Birds generally do not sing so tumultuously. Storrow Higginson and other boys have found this…

P. M. — By boat to Holden Swamp. I heard that snapping sound against a pad on the surface, and at the same time saw a pad knocked up several inches, and a ripple in…

Vide at Cambridge, apparently in prime, Silene inflata; also, in a rich grass-field on Sacramento Street, what may be Turritis glabra (? ), also in prime, the last…

Edward Bartlett found what he calls two bobolinks’ nests some weeks ago, with each six eggs. I have one of the nests. There is but little of it, composed simply of…

P. M. — With some boys to Flint’s Pond, to see the nests mentioned on last [two pages]. The hermit (?) thrush’s nest referred to on last page is a rather shallow…

Very hot weather. Aralia hispida at Cliffs. Epilobium, how long? Storrow Higginson gives me a bobolink’s egg. It is a regular oval, seven eighths by five eighths…

P. M. — To Conantum. Hotter than yesterday and, like it, muggy or close.

Sunday. P. M. — Up Assabet. Land at old mill-site and walk through the Lee Woods looking for birds’ nests. See an Attacus luna in the shady path, smaller than I…

P. M. — To broom. The erect potentilla is a distinct variety, with dif- ferently formed leaves as well as different time of flow- ering, and not the ‘same plant at…

P. M. — To Walden. Bathing in the cove by railroad. When I hold my head near the surface and look down, in two or three feet of water, the bottom appears concave,…

A. M.—Start for White Mountains in a private carriage with Edward Hoar. Notice in a shallow pool on a rock on a hilltop, in road in North Chelmsford, a rather…

Continued along in a slight rain through Bedford, crossing to Manchester, and driving by a brook in Hookset just above Pinnacle. Then through Allenstown and…

Sunday. A. M.—Clears up after a rainy night. Get our breakfast apparently in the northern part of Loudon, where we find, in a beech and maple wood, Panax…

Monday. Continue on through Senter Harbor and ascend Red Hillin Moultonboro. On this ascent I notice the Erigeron annuus, which we have not, me- thinks, 2. e.…

Tuesday. 5.35 a. M.— Keep on through North Tamworth, and breakfast by shore of one of the Ossipee Lakes. Chocorua north-northwest. Hear and see loons and see a…

Wednesday. Having engaged the services of Wentworth to carry up some of our baggage and to keep our camp, we rode onward to the Glen House, eight miles further,…

Though a fair day, the sun did not rise clear. I started before my companions, wishing to secure a clear view from the summit, while they accompanied the collier…

Friday. Walked to the Hermit Lake, some forty rods northeast. istera cordata abundant and in prime in the woods, with a hitle Platanthera obtusata, also apparently…

Saturday. Wentworth says he once col- lected one hundred pounds of spruce gum and sold it at Biddeford for forty cents per pound. Says there are “sable lines’ about…

Sunday. Mizzling weather. Were visited by three men from Glen House, who thought it was well named “ Tucker's Ravine,”’ because it tuckered a man out to get to it!…

Monday. It having cleared up, we shoul- dered our packs and commenced our descent, by a path about two and a half or three miles to carriage-road, not descending a…

Tuesday. This morning it rained, keeping us in camp till near noon, for we did not wish to lose the view of the mountains as we rode along. We dined at Wood’s…

Wednesday. This forenoon we rode on through Whitefield to Bethlehem, clouds for the most part concealing the higher mountains. Found the Geum strictum in bloom in…

Thursday. Continued the ascent of La- fayette, also called the Great Haystack. It is perhaps three and a half miles from the road to the top by path along winding…

Saturday. Passed by Webster’s place, three miles this side of the village. Some half-dozen houses there; no store nor public buildings. A very quiet place. Road…

Sunday. Keep on through New Boston, the east side of Mount Vernon, Amherst to Hollis, and noon by a mill-pond in the woods, on Pennichook Brook, in Hollis, or three…

Get home at noon. For such an excursion as the above, carry and wear: — Three strong check shirts. Two pairs socks. Neck ribbon and handkerchief. Three…

Wednesday. Concorpo. P. M.— To Walden, with E. Bartlett and E. Emerson.

The nest of the marsh hawk is empty. It has probably flown. C. and I took refuge from a shower under our boat at Clamshell; staid an hour at least. A thunderbolt…

Neottia gracilis, how long?

Button-bush in prime. Edward Bartlett shows me a nest in the Agricultural ground which had four eggs, yet pretty fresh, but the bird has now deserted it. (Vide…

P. M.— To Conantum. From wall corner saw a pinkish patch on side-hill west of Baker Farm, which turned out to be epilobium, a rod across. ‘Through the glass it was…

P. M.— To Pine Hill, looking for the Vac- cuntum Pennsylvanicum berries. I find plenty of bushes, but these bear very sparingly. They appear to bear but one or two…

P. M. — To Flint’s Pond. I see much eriocaulon floating, with its mass of white roots uppermost, near the shore in Goose Pond. I suspect it may have been loosened…

P. M. — Up Assabet. The radical or immersed leaves of the pontederia are linear and grass-like, and I see that I have mistaken them for vallisneria just springing…

P. M. — Up Assabet. Landed at the Bath-Place and walked the length of Shad-bush Meadow. I noticed meandering down that meadow, which is now quite dry, a very broad…

Savory-leaved aster.

Thursday. 9.30 a.m. — Up river to Pan- try Brook.

P. M.— Walk to Boulder Field. The broom is quite out of bloom; probably a week or ten days. It is almost ripe, indeed. I should like to see how rapidly it spreads.…

Saturday. P. M.— Up Assabet. The most luxuriant groves of black willow, as I recall them, are on the inside curves, or on sandy capes between the river and a bay,…

P. M. — To Ledum Swamp. T see at Clamshell Hill a yellow-browed sparrow sit- ting quite near on a haycock, pluming itself. Observe it a long time in all positions…

P. M. — To yew, etc.

When I came down-stairs this morning, it raining hard and steadily, I found an Irishman sitting with his coat on his arm in the kitchen, waiting to see me. He…

This month thus far has been quite rainy. It has rained more or less at least half the days. You have had to consider each afternoon whether you must not take an…

P.M. — To the one-arched bridge. Hardhacks are probably a little past prime. Stopped by the culvert opposite the centaurea, to look at the sagittaria leaves.…

P. M. — Down river to Abner Buttrick’s. Rain in the night and dog-day weather again, after two clear days. I do not like the name “‘dog-days.”” Can we not have a…

Hear it raining again early when I awake, as it did yesterday, still and steady, as if the season were troubled with a diabetes. P. M. — To Cardinal Ditch. I hear…

Still hear the chip-bird early in the morn- ing, though not so generally as earlier in the season. Minott has only lately been reading Shattuck’s “ His- tory of…

P. M.— To Fair Haven Hill. Miss Caroline Pratt saw the white bobolink yesterday where Channing saw it the day before, in the midst of a large flock.* I go by the…

P.M.— Sail to Baker Farm shore. It is cool with a considerable northwesterly wind, so that we can sail to Fair Haven. The dog-day weather is suddenly gone and here…

Edward Hoar has found in his garden two or three specimens of what appears to be the Veronica Buxbaumi, which blossomed at least a month ago. Yet I should say the…

P. M. — A-berrying to Conantum. I notice hardhacks clothing their stems now with their erected leaves, showing the whitish under sides. A pleasing evidence of the…

P. M. — I have spliced my old sail to a new one, and now go out to try it in a sail to Baker Farm. It is a “ square sail,”’ some five feet by six. I like it much.…

Cooler than ever. Some must have fires, and I close my window. P. M. — Britton’s camp via Hubbard’s Close. The rhexia in the field west of Clintonia Swamp makes a…

Edward Hoar brings Cassia Chamecrista from Greenport, L. I., which must have been out a good while. P. M. — Sail to Ball’s (?) Hull. It is a strong but fitful…

It has been cool and especially windy from the northwest since the 19th, inclusive, but is stiller now. The note of a warbling vireo sounds very rare. P. M. — To…

P. M. — To Great Meadows. The Solidago arguta is apparently in its prime. Hips of moss rose not long scarlet. The Juncus effusus, a long [time] withered (the upper…

P. M. — To Walden. Dog-day weather again to-day, of which we had had none since the 18th, — 72. e. clouds without rain. Wild carrot on railroad, apparently in…

Soaking rain last night, straight down. When the wind stirs after the rain, leaves that were pre- maturely ripe or withered begin to strew the ground on the leeward…

I hear this morning one eat i potter from a golden robin. They are now rarely seen. The ghost-horse (Spectrum) is seen nowadays, — sev- eral of them. All these high…

P. M. — To bayonet rush by river. Find at Dodd’s shore: Eleocharis obtusa, some time out of bloom (fresh still at Pratt’s Pool); also Juncus acuminatus (?), just…

P.M. — To Flint’s Pond. A hot afternoon. We have had but few warmer. I hear and see but few bobolinks or blackbirds for several days past. The former, at least,…

P. M.— To Botrychium Swamp. Aster miser not long, but the leaves turned red. At the pool by the oaks behind Pratt’s, I see the Myriophyl- lum ambiguum still, and…

Up Assabet. The common light-sheathed Scirpus Eriophorum still. At the Pokelogan, apparently Cinna arundinacea (? ) in prime (one stamen); also Elymus Virginicus…

P. M. — Up Assabet a-hazelnutting. I see a small striped snake, some fifteen or eighteen inches long, swallowing a toad, all but the head and one fore leg taken in.…

Much rain, with thunder and lightning. Our large-fruited sparganium Is evidently S. ramosum, still a little, at least, in flower. My large grass of the riverside…

P. M. — To Walden. Prinos verticillatus berries reddening. I hear two or more wood pewees this afternoon, but had not before for a fortnight or more. The pewee days…

6 a. m. — To Merrick’s shore. Hear a warbling vireo, sounding very rare and rather imperfect. I think this is what I have mistaken for the young purple finch note.…

P. M. — To Assabet Bath. I turn Anthony’s corner. It is an early September afternoon, melting warm and sunny; the thousands of grasshoppers leaping before you…

6 a. m. — On river. It flows with a full tide. When it is thus deep its cur- rent is swift, and then its surface (commonly smooth and dark) is freckled with…

P. M. — To Waban Chiff. A very hot day, — 90°, as I hear. Yesterday was hot, too. Now it is about time to gather elder-berries. Many Viola cucullata have opened…

‘Tower-mustard in bloom again. A mus- quash-house begun.

Sunday. P.M. — To Cliffs. The handsome crimson-tipped hazelnut burs now and for some time have reminded us that it was time to gather these nuts. They are worth…

P. M. — Sail to Fair Haven Pond. It is a fine September day. The river is still rising on account of the rain of the 16th and is getting pretty well over the…

P. M. — To Annursnack. Solidago puberula, apparently in prime and hand- some, roadside, Colburn’s Hill. I noticed the black willows quite imbrowned on the 10th, and…

Sunday. P.M.— To Cassandra Ponds. We go through Sedge Hollow. See a small hole, per- haps a skunk’s, in that hollow, and, about the mouth, fragments of a hornets’…

The river probably reaches its highest since June to-day. The Maryland yellow-throat is here. Hear warbling vireos still, in the elms. Miss Pratt shows me a small…

Go to Cape Ann. A very warm day. A.M.— Go with Russell to the rooms of the Essex Institute, — if that is the name. See some Indian pot- tery from the Cayuga…

A clear cold day, wind northwest. Leave Salem for the Cape on foot. Near Beverly Bridge, crossed over that low and flat part of Salem where the first settlement was…

Another fair day and wind northwest, but rather warmer. We kept along the road to Rockport, some two miles or more, to a “thundering big ledge”’ by the road, as a…

What that singular spiny plant, otherwise like chenopodium, which I found on a wharf in Salem? Saw at the East India Marine Hall a bay lynx killed in Danvers July…

A smart white frost last night, which has killed the sweet potato vines and melons. P. M.—Go a-graping up Assabet with some young ladies. The zizania fruit is green…

Another smart frost, making dry walking amid the stiffened grass in the morning. The purple grass (Hragrostis pectinacea) done. Perhaps the first smart frost…

P. M. — By boat to Fair Haven Pond. Wind northeast. Sail most of the way. The river has gone down from its height on the 20th, and is now some eighteen inches…

Tuesday. P.M.— To Great Fields via Gentian Lane. The gentian (Andrewsi), now generally in prime, loves moist, shady banks, and its transcendent blue shows best in…

Fine weather. P. M. — To White Pond. One or two myrtle-birds in their fall dress, with brown head and shoulders, two whitish bars on wings, and bright-yellow rump.…

A large flock of grackles amid the willows by the riverside, or chiefly concealed low in the button- bushes beneath them, though quite near me. There they keep up…

P. M.— To Hubbard’s Close. Clintonia Maple Swamp is very fair now, especially a quarter of a mile off, where you get the effect of the light colors without…

A dark and windy night the last. It is a new value when darkness amounts to something positive. Each morning now, after rain and wind, is fresher and cooler, and…

One brings me this morning a Carolina rail alive, this year’s bird evidently from its marks. He saved it from a cat in the road near the Battle-Ground. On being…

Going by Dr. Barrett’s, just at the edge of evening, I saw on the sidewalk something bright like fire, as if molten lead were scattered along, and then I wondered…

I still see large flocks, apparently of chip- birds, on the weeds and ground in the yard; without very distinct chestnut crowns, and they are divided by a light…

P.M.—To Saw Mill Brook and Fiint’s Pond. Now, methinks, the autumnal tints are brightest in our streets and in the woods generally. In the streets, the young sugar…

Fine pasture grass, seen in the sun, begins to look faded and bleached like the corn. Strong northwest wind. ‘The button-bushes and black willows are rapidly losing…

Cold and northwest wind still. The maple swamps begin to look smoky, they are already so bare. Their fires, so faded, are pale-scarlet or pinkish. Some Cornus…

Sunday. P. M.— To Annursnack. November has already come to the river with the fall of the black willow and the button-bush, and the fall and blackening of the…

P. M. — To Conantum. The autumnal tints have not been so bright as usual this year,’ but why it is hard to say. The summer has been peculiarly cool, as well as wet,…

P. M. — Up Assabet. Most exposed button-bushes and black willows are two thirds bare, and the leaves which remain on the former are for the most part brown and…

Rain, all day, more or less, which the cloudy and rather still yesterday threatened. Elm leaves thickly strew the street now and rattle underfoot, — the dark- brown…

P. M. — Sail to Ball’s Hill. The white maples are now apparently in their au- tumnal dress. The leaves are much curled and of a pale hoary or silvery yellow, with…

The balm-of-Gileads are half bare. I see a few red maples still bright, but they are commonly yel-. low ones.’ White pines are in the midst of their fall. The…

P. M. — Sail up river. There is less wind these days than a week or fortnight ago; calmer and more Indian-summer-like days. I now fairly begin to see the brown…

P. M. — Up Assabet. There are many crisped but colored leaves resting on the smooth surface of the Assabet, which for the most part is not stirred by a breath; but…

P. M.— To Smith’s chestnut grove and Saw Mill Brook. The large sugar maples on the Common are now at the height of their beauty. One, the earliest to change, is…

A remarkably warm day. I have not been more troubled by the heat this year, being a little more thickly clad than in summer. I walk in the middle of the street for…

Indian summer this and the 19th. I hear of apple trees in bloom again in Waltham or Cam- bridge. P. M. — To White Pond. Another remarkably warm and pleasant day, if…

Cooler to-day, yet pleasant. 6 a. m. — Up Assabet. Most leaves now on the water. They fell yesterday, — white and red maple, swamp white oak, white birch, black and…

P. M. — To Cliffs and Walden. A thickly overcast yet thick and hazy day. I see a Lombardy poplar or two yellowing at last; many leaves clear and handsome yellow.…

P. M. — To Ledum Swamp. One tells me that he saw geese go over Wayland the 17th. Large wild cherries are half fallen or more, the few remaining leaves yellowish.…

A northeast storm, though not much rain falls to-day, but a fine driving mizzle or “drisk.” This, as usual, brings the geese, and at 2.30 p. m. I see two flocks go…

P. M. — To the Beeches. I look at the willows by the causeway, east side, as I go, — Salix discolor, Torreyana, rostrata, and lucida are all almost quite bare, and…

The sugar maples are about bare, except a few small ones. Minott remembers how he used to chop beech wood. He says that when frozen it is hard and brittle just like…

P. M. — Sail to Fair Haven Pond. A moderate northerly wind and pleasant, clear day. There is a slight rustle from the withered pontederia. The Scirpus lacustris,…

Cattle coming down from up country. P. M. — Up Assabet to Cedar Swamp. Here is an Indian-summer day. Not so warm, in- deed, as the 19th and 20th, but warm enough…

6.30 a. M.— Very hard frost these mornings; the grasses, to their finest branches, clothed with it. The cat comes stealthily creeping towards some prey amid the…

Rain and wind, bringing down the leaves and destroying the little remaining brilliancy. The but- tonwoods are in the midst of their fall. Some are bare. They are…

P. M. — To Conantum. Our currants bare; how long? The Italian poplars are now a dull greenish yellow, not nearly so fair as the few leaves that had turned some time…

P. M. — To Poplar Hill. Many black oaks are bare in Sleepy Hollow. Now you easily detect where larches grow, viz. in the swamp north of Sleepy Hollow. ‘They are far…

P. M. — To Cliff. A cool gray November afternoon; sky overcast. Looking back from the causeway, the large willow by Mrs. Bigelow’s and a silvery abele are the only…

Colder weather, true November weather, comes again to-night, and I must rekindle my fire, which I had done without of late. IT must walk briskly in order to keep…

A rainy day. Called to C. from the outside of his house the other afternoon in therain. At length he put his head out the attic window, and I inquired if he did n’t…

Humphrey Buttrick says that he finds old and young of both kinds of small rails, and that they breed here, though he never saw their nests. P. M. — Up Assabet. The…

Yesterday was a still and cloudy day. This is another rainy day. On the whole, we have had a good deal of fair weather the last three months. Mr. Buttrick, the…

P. M. — To Bateman’s Pond. It cleared up this forenoon. I leave my boat opposite the Hemlocks. I see the cold sunlight from some glade between the clouds falling on…

P. M. — To Boulder Field. Goodwin, laying wall at Miss Ripley’s, observed to me going by, “ Well, it seems that thought that he had lived long enough.” He committed…

It is remarkable that the only deciduous trees in the town which now make any show with their living leaves are: (1) scarlet oaks, perhaps only one (2) Populus…

A pleasant day, especially the forenoon. Thermometer 46° at noon. Some would call it Indian summer, but it does not deserve to be called summer; grows cool in…

Goodwin brings me this forenoon a this year’s loon, which he just: killed on the river, — great northern diver, but a smaller specimen than Wil- son describes and…

I hear from Ricketson to-day that on the 10th the following trees, which I had not seen lately, were leafy and, as I infer, more or less unwithered. His words are,…

8.30 a.m. — To Hill. I notice of late the darker green (livid ?) of the arbor- vite and other evergreens, the effect of cold. So they are never so purely bright a…

It is very cold and windy; thermometer 26. I walk to Walden and Andromeda Ponds. It is all at once perfect winter. I walk on frozen ground two- thirds covered with…

P. M. — To Grackle Swamp. A very fine snow falling, just enough to whiten the bare spots a little. I goto look for evergreen ferns before they are covered up.’ The…

P. M. — To Hubbard’s Close. A cold and blustering afternoon; sky for the most part overcast. The Cornus Canadensis is called by Loudon “a de- ciduous herbaceous…

The ground has remained frozen since the morning of the 12th. P. M. — Up Assabet. The polypody on the rock is much shrivelled by the late cold. The edges are curled…

P. M. — To Conantum. Notice the short bright-yellow willow twigs on Hub- bard’s Causeway. They are prominent now, first, be- cause they are bare; second, because…

P. M. — Mocker-nutting, to Conantum. The lambkill and water andromeda are turned quite dark red where much exposed; in shelter are green yet. Those long mocker-nuts…

P. M. — To Ministerial Swamp. I have seen more gray squirrels of late (as well as musquash); I think not merely because the trees are bare but because they are…

P. M. — To Hubbard’s place. See small water-bugs in Nut Meadow Brook in one place. Probably they were not to be found in the late cold weather, 12th, 13th, ete. See…

In surveying Mr. Bigelow’s wood-lot to- day I found at the northeasterly angle what in the deed from the Thayers in ’38 was called “an old stump by the wall.” It is…

A northeasterly storm, with occasional sugarings of snow.

P. M. — To Cliffs and Walden. There is a slight sugaring of snow on the ground. On grass ground there is much the less, and that is barely perceptible, while plowed…

P.M. — To Ministerial Swamp. I go through the Dennis Swamp by railroad. See a few high blueberry buds which have fairly started, ex- panded into small red leaves,…

The various evergreens, large and small, may be said generally to turn green or to have turned reddish about the middle of November. Got in boat on account of…

Those barren hollows and plains in the neighborhood of Walden are singular places. I see many which were heavily wooded fifteen or thirty years ago now covered only…

A gray, overcast, still day, and more small birds —tree sparrows and chickadees — than usual about the house. There have been a very few fine snowflakes falling for…

P. M. — To Hill. About three inches of snow fell last evening, and a few cows on the hillside have wandered about in vain to come at the grass. They have at length…

The shrike was very violent for a long time, beating itself against the bars of its cage at Stacy’s. To-day it is quiet and has eaten raw meat. Its plain dark…

When I first saw that snow-cloud it stretched low along the northwest horizon, perhaps one quarter round and half a dozen times as high as the mountains, and was…

P. M. — To Walden. A deliciously mild afternoon, though the ground is covered with snow. The cocks crowed this morning as of yore.

Some sugar maples, both large and small, have still, like the larger oaks, a few leaves about the larger limbs near the trunk. P. M. — To Walden. Snowed yesterday…

To Boston. At Natural History Rooms. The egg of Turdus solitarius is light-bluish with pale- brown spots. This is apparently mine which I call her- mit thrush,…

At New Bedford. See a song sparrow and a pigeon woodpecker. Dr. Bryant tells of the latter picking holes in blinds, and also in his barn roof and sides in order to…

P. M. — To Walden. There is a fine mizzling rain, which rests in small drops on your coat, but on most surfaces is turning to a glaze. Yet it is not cold enough for…

I see at Derby’s shop a barred owl (Strix nebulosa), taken in the woods west of the factory on the 11th, found (with its wing broke [szc]) by a wood- chopper. It…

P. M. — To Walden. The pond is merely frozen a little about the edges. I see various little fishes lurking under this thin, trans- parent ice, close up to the edge…

Walden is frozen over, except two small spots, less than half an acre in all, in middle.

P. M. — To Walden. I see in the cut near the shanty-site quite a flock of F. hyemalis and goldfinches together, on the snow and weeds and ground. Hear the…

P. M. — To Eddy Bridge. Colder last night. Walden undoubtedly frozen at last, — what was left to freeze.’ See a shrike on the top of an oak. It sits still, plum-…

‘Those two places in middle of Walden not frozen over yet, though it was quite cold last night! See another shrike this afternoon, — the fourth this winter! It…

P. M.— Up river on ice to Fair Haven Pond and across to Walden. The ground is still for the most part bare. Such a December is at least as hard a month to get…

P. M. — To Jenny Dugan’s. I walk over the meadow above railroad bridge, where the withered grass rises above the ice, the river being low. I notice that water has…

‘Talk of fate! How little one can know what is fated to another!— what he can do and what he can not do! I doubt whether one can give or receive any very pertinent…

P. M.— To Walden. The earth is bare. I walk about the pond looking at the shores, since I have not paddled about it much of late years. What a grand place for a…

P. M. — Skate to Israel Rice’s.