Henry David Thoreau’s diary, 1859

Having had rain within a few days on the four or five inches of snow there was, making slosh of it without melting the hard frozen ground, the slosh and surface…

A northeast snow-storm, or rather a north snow-storm, very hard to face. P. M. to Walden in it. It snows very hard, driving along almost horizontally, falling but a…

As I go over the causeway, near the railroad bridge, I hear a fine busy twitter, and, looking up, see a nuthatch hopping along and about a swamp white oak branch,…

P. M. — To M. Miles’s. Near Nut Meadow Brook, on the Jimmy Miles road, I see a flock of snow buntings. They are feeding ex- clusively on that ragged weed which I…

At sundown to Walden. Standing on the middle of Walden I see with perfect distinctness the form and outlines of the low hills which surround it, though they are…

P. M.—Up Assabet to Sam Barrett’s Pond. Cold weather at last; — 8° this forenoon. This is much the coldest afternoon to bear as yet, but, cold as it is, —four or…

At 6 a. mM. — 22° and how much more I know not, ours having gone into the bulb; but that is said to be the lowest. Going to Boston to-day, I find that the cracking…

Mr. Farmer brings me a hawk which he thinks has caught thirty or forty of his chickens since summer, for he has lost so many, and he has seen a hawk like this catch…

The cold spell is over, and here this morning is a fog or mist; the wind, if there is any, I think, northerly; and there is built out horizontally on the north side…

The fog-frosts and the fog continue, though considerable of the frostwork has fallen. This forenoon I walk up the Assabet to see it. The hemlocks are perhaps a…

P. M.— To Walden and thence via Cas- sandra Ponds to Fair Haven and down river. There is still a good deal of ice on the north sides of woods and in and about the…

That wonderful frostwork of the 13th and 14th was too rare to be neglected, — succeeded as it Blake, Thoreau says ‘“‘Cholmondeley has been here again,’ etc.…

Wednesday. P. M.—'To Great Meadows via Sleepy Hollow. It is a remarkably warm, still, and pleasant afternoon for winter, and the wind, as I discover by my hand-…

A second remarkably pleasant day like the last. P. M. — Up river. I see a large white oak perfectly bare. Among four or five pickerel in a “well” on the river, I…

A January thaw, with some fog, occa- sioned as yet wholly by warm weather, without rain; high wind in the night; wind still south. The last two days have been…

Apparently the wind south two or three days or thermometer so long above 40° will make a freshet, if there is snow enough on the ground. 8.30 a. mM. — Go to the…

The freshet is now frozen over, but not thick enough to bear without cracking, and that pecul- iar whitish ice like bread or mortar that has run over is seen four…

An abundance of excellent skating, the freshet that covered the meadows being frozen. Many boys and girls are skating on Mantatuket Meadow and on Merrick’s. Looking…

The river has gone down about eight inches, and the ice still adhering to the shore all about the meadows slants downward for some four or five feet till it meets…

P. M. — Over Cyanean Meadow on ice. These are remarkably warm and pleasant days. The water is going down, and the ice is rotting. I see some insects — those…

I see some of those little cells, perhaps, of a wasp or bee, made of clay or clayey mud. It suggests that these insects were the first potters. They look some- what…

Melvin tells me that one with whom he deals below says that the best musquash skins come from Concord River, and it is because our musquash are so fat. M. says that…

How peculiar the hooting of an owl! It is not shrill and sharp like the scream of a hawk, but full, round, and sonorous, waking the echoes of the wood. The surface…

P. M. — Up river across Cyanean Meadow.

P. M.— Up Assabet. The river having suddenly gone down since the freshet, I see cakes of ice eight or ten feet across left two feet high or more above the banks,…

I see Peter Hutchinson cutting down a large red oak on A. Heywood’s hillside, west of the former’s house. He points out to me what he calls the “gray oak” there,…

Five minutes before 3 p. m., Father died.! After a sickness of some two years, going down-town in pleasant weather, doing a little business from time to time,…

When we have experienced many disappoint- ments, such as the loss of friends, the notes of birds cease to affect us as they did. [I see another butcher-bird on the…

Evidently the distant woods are more blue in a warm and moist or misty day in winter, and is not this connected with the blue in snow in similar days ? Going along…

P. M. — To Ball’s Hill over ice. Among the common phenomena of the ice are those triangular points of thick ice heaved up a couple of feet where the ice has…

Saturday. You may account for that ash by the Rock having such a balanced and regular outline by the fact that in an open place their branches are equally drawn…

P. M. — On ice to Fair Haven Pond. Yesterday there was no skating, unless you swept the snow from the ice; but to-day, though there has been no rain nor thaw, there…

P. M. — On ice up Assabet to railroad.

P. M. — Up river to Fair Haven Pond. I thought, by the peculiar moaning sound of the wind about the dining-room at noon, that we should have a rain-storm. I heard…

P. M.— From the entrance of the Mill road I look back through the sun, this soft afternoon, to some white pine tops near Jenny Dugan’s. Their flattish boughs rest…

Have just read “Counterparts, or the Cross of Love,” by the author of “Charles Auchester.” It is very interesting —its illustration of Love and Friendship — as…

Go to Worcester to lecture in a parlor.

P. M.— Walk to Quinsigamond Pond, where was good skating yesterday, but this very pleasant and warm day it is suddenly quite too soft. I was just saying to Blake…

Heard Staples, Tuttle, E. Wood, N. Bar- rett, and others this morning at the post-office talking about the profit of milk-farming. The general conclu- sion seemed…

P.M. — To Cliffs. Though it was a dry, powdery snow-storm yesterday, the sun is now so high that the snow is soft and sticky this afternoon. The sky, too, is soft…

To Cambridge and Boston. Saw a mackerel in the market. The upper half of its sides is mottled blue and white like the mackerel sky, as stated January 19th, 1858.

Wednesday. P. M.—'To Cassandra Ponds and down river. It is a remarkably cold day for March, and the river, etc., are frozen as solidly as in the winter and there is…

Going to Acton this morning, I saw some sparrows on the wall, which I think must have been the F. hyemalis (?). P. M. — Up river to Nut Meadow Brook. It is nearly…

Began to snow last evening, and it is now (early in the morning) about a foot deep, and raining. P. M.—To E. Hosmer Spring. Down Turnpike and back by E. Hubbard’s…

Going down-town this forenoon, I heard a white-bellied nuthatch on an elm within twenty feet, uttering peculiar notes and more like a song than I remember to have…

Sunday. P. M.—To Yellow Birch Swamp. We go through the swamp near Bee-Tree, or Oak, Ridge, listening for blackbirds or robins and, in the old orchards, for…

6.30 a. m. — To Hill. I come out to hear a spring bird, the ground gen- erally covered with snow yet and the channel of the river only partly open. On the Hill I…

A rainy day. P. M. —To Hill in rain. To us snow and cold seem a mere delaying of the spring. How far we are from understanding the value of these things in the…

P. M. — To Lee’s Cliff with C. C. says that he heard and saw a bluebird on the 7th, and R. W. E. the same. This was the day on which they were generally observed. I…

6 a. m.— To Hill. I see at near [sic] the stone bridge where the strong northwest wind of last night broke the thin ice just formed, and set the irregular…

6 A. mM. — By riverside I hear the song of many song sparrows, the most of a song of any yet. And on the swamp white oak top by the stone bridge, I see and hear a…

Saturday. P. M.— Walk in rain to Min- isterial Swamp. Going up the railroad in this rain, with a south wind, I see a pretty thick low fog extending across the rail-…

7 a. mM. — F. hyemalis in yard. Going down railroad, listening intentionally, I hear, far through the notes of song sparrows (which are very numerous), the song of…

P. M. — To Hunt house. I thought from the above drawing that the original door must have been in the middle of the old part and not at one end, and that I should…

Rainy day and southerly wind. I come home in the evening through a very heavy rain after two brilliant rainbows at sunset, the first of the year.

6 a. M.— The water is just over the slanting iron truss, four feet from its east end, and still rising. | P. M. — Launch my boat and sail to Ball’s Hill. It is fine…

6.30 a. Mm. — River risen still higher. It is seven and a half inches below the highest part of the truss and about fifteen and a half inches below the middle of…

8 a. mM. — To stone bridge. The water has fallen three or four inches. It was at its height last night, and was then about five inches below the highest part of the…

7 a. m. — Fair weather and a very strong southwest wind, the water not quite so high as day before yesterday, — just about as high as yesterday morning, —…

7 a. mM. — River no higher than three days ago, notwithstanding the rain of two days ago, the wind being southwest and very strong.

6 a. m.— The water has fairly begun to fall. It was at its height the 17th; fell a little — two or three inches — the morning of the 18th. On‘ the 18th it rained…

P. M.— The wind changes to easterly and is more raw, 2. e. cool and moist, and the air thick- ens as if it would rain. Returning from Poplar Hill through the west…

P. M.— Walk to Cardinal Shore and sail to Well Meadow and Lee’s Cliff. It clears up at 2 P. M. The Lycoperdon stellatum are numerous and blos- somed out widely in…

P. M.— Down railroad. Southeast wind. Begins to sprinkle while I am sit- ting in Laurel Glen, listening to hear the earliest wood frogs croaking. I think they get…

A rainy day. P. M. — To Clamshell. I heard the what what what what of the nuthatch this forenoon. Do I ever hear it m the afternoon? It is much like the cackle of…

P. M.— To Conantum wa Cardinal Shore and boat. The river has gone down considerably, but the rain of yesterday and to-day has checked its fall somewhat. Much earth…

7 a. M.— Was that the Alauda, shore lark (?), which flew up from the corn-field beyond Texas house, and dashed off so swiftly with a peculiar note, — a small flock…

P. M. — Paddle to the Bedford line. It is now high time to look for arrowheads, etc. I spend many hours every spring gathering the crop which the melting snow and…

Driving rain and southeast wind, etc. Walden is first clear after to-day. Garfield says he saw a woodcock about a fortnight ago. Minott thinks the middle of March…

The frost is out of our garden, and I see one or two plowing early land. You walk dry now over this sandy land where the frost is melted, even after heavy rain, and…

Some have planted peas and lettuce. Melvin, the sexton, says that when Loring’s Pond was drained once — perhaps the dam broke — he saw there about all the birds he…

P. M.— To Lee’s Cliff (walking). Alders generally appear to be past prime.’ I see a little snow ice in one place to-day. It is still windy and cool, but not so much…

Friday. I believe that I rarely hear the nuthatch’s note from the elms toward evening, for when I heard it yesterday evening I was surprised. P. M. — To epigza and…

An easterly wind and rain. P. M. — To White Pond. C. says he saw a striped snake on the 30th. We go by Clamshell. The water on the meadows is now visibly lowered…

P. M.—To Goose Pond. The wind is as strong, and yet colder, being more from the north, than before. ‘Through, I think, all this windy weather, or at least for about…

Rain all day.

Clears up in afternoon.

8 a. mM. — To the south part of Acton, surveying, with Stedman Buttrick. When B. came to see me the other evening, and stood before the door in the dark, my mother…

A little snow fell on the 11th with the rain, and on some very warm banks, the south sides of houses and hills, the grass looked quite green by contrast in spots.…

Was it a vireo I heard this forenoon on the elms? Channing sees the same small flock of sheldrakes, three birds, in Walden still. They have been there a week or…

Hear and see my ruby-crowned or crested wren singing at 6 a. M. on Wheildon’s pines. Setting pines all day.

Setting pines all day. This makes two and a half days, with two men and a horse and cart to help me. We have set some four hundred trees at fifteen feet apart…

‘The Salix purpurea in prime, out probably three or four days; say 19th. Arbor-vite, how long? P. M. — In a fine rain, around Walden. I go by a Populus…

Rain, rain. Hear seringo, by chance the first, and while it rains. The tree sparrows abundant and singing in the yard, but I have not noticed a hyemalis of late.…

Sunday. P. M.— To Pine Hill and Hey- wood’s meadow. The weather is windy still and cool. I see for sev- eral days past tipulide of larger size dancing like the…

P. M.— To Kalmia Swamp. First notice martins. I got to-day and yesterday the first decided impres- sion of greenness beginning to prevail, summer-like. It struck me…

Start for Lynn. , Rice says that he saw a large mud turtle in the river about three weeks ago, and has seen two or three more since. Thinks they come out about the…

Walk along Swampscott Beach from Red Rock northeast. The beach is strewn with beautifully colored purple and whitish algze just left by the tide. Hear and see the…

8.30 a. mM. — Row to Carlisle Bridge with Blake and Brown. See black ducks and sheldrakes still. The first myr- tle-bird that I have noticed. A small hawk, perhaps…

7 a. M. — To Walden, and set one hun- dred larch trees from England, all two years from seed, about nine inches high, just begun to leaf. See and hear a black and…

P. M. — Sail to Holden Swamp. The warmest afternoon yet. Sat in sun without fire this forenoon. The wind has at length been easterly without rain following. Fishes,…

Hear the ruby-crowned wren. We accuse savages of worshipping only the bad spirit, or devil, though they may distinguish both a good and a bad; but they regard only…

Small pewee and young lackey caterpillars. I see on the Salix rostrata by railroad many honey- bees laden with large and peculiarly orange-colored pellets of its…

Surveying the Bedford road. Hear the te-e-e of a white-throat sparrow.

Wednesday. P. M.—To Lee’s Cliff on foot. This the fourth warm day. The cassandra (in full bloom) swarms with little bees, and amid them is one bumblebee which they…

Thursday. P. M.—To Melvin’s Preserve. Red-wings fly in flocks yet. Near the oak beyond Jarvis land, a yellow butterfly, — how hot! this meteor dancing through the…

Surveying for Willis & Damon at the fac- tory. Hear the tea-lee of the white-throat sparrow. It is suddenly very warm and oppressive, especially in the woods with…

Saturday. Surveying Damon’s Acton lot. It is hotter still,—88° or more, as I hear in the afternoon. I frequently see pigeons dashing about in small flocks, or three…

Sunday. Hotter still than the last two days, — 90° and more. Summer yellowbird. C. sees a chim- ney swallow. Indeed, several new birds have come, and many new…

Surveying for Stow near Flint’s Pond. Hear the warbling vireo and oven-bird; yellow- throat vireo (?). One helping me says he scared up a whip-poor-will from the…

Wednesday. Golden robin yesterday. Fir- balsam well out in the rain; so say 9th. Pp. M. — To Flint’s Pond. Arum triphyllum out. Almost every one has a little fly or…

Dug up to-day the red-brown dor-bugs. My red oak acorns have sent down long radicles under- ground. A parti-colored warbler hangs dead downward like a goldfinch on…

Friday. Surveying Damon’s Acton lot. Hear the pe-pe and evergreen-forest note, also night- warbler (the last perhaps the 11th). Apple in bloom.

Saturday. Surveying for Damon. Rhodora out, says C. Yorrick heard the 12th. Did I hear a bobolink this morning? C. says he heard a yellow-legs yesterday. Bought a…

Sunday. Observe Cornus florida involucres. Sarsaparilla flower. Salix discolor seed, or down, begins to blow. A woodcock starts up with whistling sound. I have been…

Monday. Surveying Damon’s farm and factory lot. Our corydalis was out the 13th. Hear a tanager to-day, and one was seen yesterday. Sand cherry out. Ranunculus…

Surveying for Stow in Lincoln. Two-leaved Solomon’s-seal. I hear of young song sparrows and young robins since the 16th. That hand- some spawn of Ed. Emerson’s…

Our Azalea nudiflora flowers. It is a warm, muggy, rainy evening, when the night- hawks commonly spark and the whip-poor-will is heard.

Sunday. A warm, drizzling day, the tender yellow leafets now generally conspicuous, and contrast- ing with the almost black evergreens which they have begun to…

What that brilliant warbler on the young trees on the side of the Deep Cut? Orange throat and beneath, with distinct black stripes on breast (1. e. on each side?),…

Dragon-flies have begun to come out of their larva state in numbers, leaving the cases on the weeds, etc. See one tender and just out this forenoon. Meadow fox-tail…

Thursday. P. M.—'To Ledum Swamp and Lee’s Cliff. Eleocharis tenuis in bloom, apparently the earliest eleocharis. The rhodora at Ledum Swamp is now in its…

Friday. P. M. — Up Assabet. Now first I notice a linty dust on the surface of the dark river at the Hemlocks, evidently from the new and downy leaves. These…

Saturday. P. M. — To Cliffs. Some Salia rostrata seed begins to fly. Low black- berry in bloom on railroad bank. Also S. Torreyana seed, just begun to fly. S.…

Sunday. Thorn bushes and the Ranunculus bulbosus are apparently in prime. Coming out of Sleepy Hollow Cemetery to-day, where I had just been to deposit the corpse…

P. M.— To Gowing’s Swamp. Sorrel begins to redden fields. The peculiarly tender foliage (yellowish) which began to invest the dark ever- greens on the 22d lasts a…

Tuesday. Small black flies or millers over river, with long feelers, flying low in swarms now.

Wednesday. Some boys found yesterday, in tussock of sedge amid some flags in a wet place in Cyrus Hosmer’s meadow, west of the willow-row, six inches above the…

I hear that Farmer shot on the 28th ult. two marsh hawks, male and female, and got their four eggs, in which the young were moving. P. M. — To Flnt’s Pond. Red…

Friday. P. M.— Up Assabet. A large yellow butterfly (somewhat Harris Papilio Asterias like but not black-winged) three and a half to four inches in expanse.…

P. M. — To Flint’s Pond. Cornus alternifolia well out, apparently three or four days. Yellow-eyed grass, how long? Poa compressa not quite out.

Sunday. P. M.— To Ball’s Hill. Cat-briar in flower, how long? Allium not out. See several ducks, I think both summer and black. A yellowbird’s nest; four eggs,…

P. M.— To Well Meadow. Yellow wood-sorrel out. Umbelled thesium, how long ? Red avens, how long? Stellaria longifolia, at Well Meadow Head, how long? Cardamine…

Wednesday. Notice that one of these little silvery scales on a stone is now empty of eggs; how long? See a painted turtle beginning to lay. She has merely scratched…

Thursday. A boy shows me one of three (apparent) hen-hawk’s eggs, fresh, obtained on the 6th from a pine near Breed’s house site.

Friday. Surveying for D. B. Clark on “College Road,” so called in Peter Temple’s deed in 1811, Clark thought from a house so called once stand- ing on it. Cut a…

P. M. — To Owl Swamp. Lambkill flower. Carrion-flower up a day or two. Panicum latvfolium (not out) grows by riverside at Dakin’s Brook. Ferns generally were killed…

Sunday. P. M. — To Gowing’s Swamp. I am struck with the beauty of the sorrel now, e. g. Lepidium campestre field. What a wholesome red! It is densest in parallel…

To Boston. My rail’s egg of June Ist looks like that of the Virginia rail in the Boston collection. A boy brought me a re- markably large cuckoo’s egg on the 11th.…

P. M. — To Flint’s Pond. Early strawberries begin to be common. The lower leaves of the plant are red, concealing the fruit. Violets, especially of dry land, are…

A. M. — To lead-mill, Acton. Suddenly hot weather, — 90° — after very cool days. Yarrow out, how long? Blue flag abundant. Blue-eyed grass at height. Saw near mill,…

P. M. — Paddle to Great Meadows. Small snapdragon, how long? Examined a kingfisher’s nest, — though there is a slight doubt if I found the spot. It was formed…

Rain, especially heavy rain, raising the river in the night of the 17th.

P. M. — Sail up river. Rain again, and we take shelter under a bridge, and again under our boat, and again under a pine tree. It is worth the while to sit or lie…

Sunday. P. M.—To Heywood Meadow and Well Meadow. In Stow’s meadow by railroad, Scirpus Eriophorum, with blackish bracts, not long out. A flying squirrel’s nest and…

River, on account of rain, some two feet above summer level. Great purple fringed orchis. What that colored-flowered locust in Deacon Farrar’s yard and house this…

Tuesday. P. M.—To Derby’s pasture behind and beyond schoolhouse. Meadow-sweet. Hedge-hyssop out. In that little pool near the Assabet, above our bath-place there,…

Paddle up the river to Lee’s, measuring the bridges. | The sun coming out at intervals to-day, after a long rainy and cloudy spell in which the weeds have grown…

Ride to Wayland, surveying the bridges. Veiny-leaved hawkweed freshly out. At Heard’s Bridge the white maple is the prevailing one, and I do not notice a red one…

To Billerica dam, surveying the bridges. Another foggy [szc], amounting from time to time to a fine rain, and more, even to a shower, though the grass was thickly…

Sunday. P. M. — Up Assabet. The black willow down is now quite conspicuous on the trees, giving them a parti-colored or spotted white and green look, quite…

I find that the tops of my stakes in Moore’s Swamp are nearly two feet lower than a fortnight ago, or when Garfield began to fill it. P. M. — To Walden. At the…

P. M. — To Walden. Very hot. The piper grass bloom in prime. Examined the flying squirrel’s nest at the base of a small white [oak] or two (sprouts), four inches…

Cooler, with a northerly wind. The pads blown up by it already show crimson, it is so strong, but this not a fall phenomenon yet.

P. M. — To Second Division Brook. Have heard the peculiar peep of young tailless golden robins for a day or more. White water ranunculus in full bloom at least a…

P. M. — To Stow’s chestnut and Thaspium aureum. Vetch, morning-glory, Andromeda ligustrina, how long? Waded out thirteen rods from rock in Flint’s Pond, and was…

P. M. — To Hubbard’s Grove. You see in rich moist mowing the yet slender, re- curving unexpanded panicles or heads of the red-top (? ), mixed with the upright, ngid…

June 28th, I observed up the Assabet some exceedingly handsome amelanchier leaves, bright- crimson, regularly striped with green on the veins and with scattered…

P. M.— To Ball’s Hill, sounding river. * Both white and red, when the leaves are not half developed, long ago. Having sounded the river yesterday and to-day from…

My English cress (Nasturtium officinale) at Depot Field Brook is in bloom, and has already be- gun to go to seed, turning purplish, as it withers (from white). P.…

P. M. — To Great Meadows. P. Hutchinson says he once found a wood duck’s nest in a hollow maple by Heywood’s meadow (now by rail- road), and tried to get the young…

Friday. I see an emperor moth (Attacus Cecropia), which came out the 6th. P. M. — To Clamshell by river. The Carex Muhlenbergit is common on Clamshell slope, just…

Paddle up river and sound a little above Fair Haven Pond. See young kingbirds which have lately flown perched in a family on the willows, — the airy bird, lively,…

Water ten and a half inches above summer — level. 8 a. M.— Take boat at Fair Haven Pond and pad- dle up to Sudbury Causeway, sounding the river. To-day, like…

Another hot day with blue haze, and the sun sets red, threatening still hotter weather, and the very moon looks through a somewhat reddish air at first. The…

Another hot day. 96° at mid-afternoon. P. M. — To Assabet Bath. The elm avenue above the Wheeler farm is one of the hottest places in the town; the heat is…

P. M.—Sounded river from Ball’s Hill (7. e. off Squaw [?] Harbor) to Atkins’s boat-house corner. The river, in all the above distance, nowhere washes the base of an…

P. M.— To Ledum Swamp. First notice Canada thistle, Aralia hispida, Stachys aspera, and Asclepias pulchra. 'The Eriophorum vagina- tum done. The white orchis not…

One tells me that he stopped at Stedman Buttrick’s on the 10th, and found him sitting under a cherry tree ringing a bell, in order to keep the birds off! If you get…

P. M. — Up Assabet. The architect of the river builds with sand chiefly, not with mud. Mud is deposited very slowly, only in the stagnant places, but sand is the…

'The little Holbrook boy showed me an egg which I unhesitatingly pronounced a peetweet’s, given him by Joe Smith. The latter, to my surprise, declares it a…

P. M.— To Assabet, above factory. For about one third the way from the factory dam to the powder-mills the river is broad and deep, in short a mill-pond.

Start just before 8 a.m. and sail to the Falls of Concord River. Water 24+ inches above summer level. A south- west wind rises and blows us rapidly along. We are…

P.M. — To Walden. Going through Thrush Alley and beyond, I am pestered by flies about my head, — not till now (though I may have said so before). They are perfect…

P.M. — To Ledum Swamp. The hairy huckleberry still lingers in bloom, — a few of them. The white orchis will hardly open for a week. Mulgedium, how long? Near the…

The Rice boy brings me what he thought a snipe’s egg, recently taken from a nest in the Sudbury meadows. It is of the form of a rail’s egg, but is not whitish like…

P. M. — To Great Meadows. I see in Clark’s (?) land, behind Garfield’s, a thick growth of white birches, apparently three years old, blown from the wood on the west…

P. M. — Up Assabet. I see what I take to be young purple finches eating mountain-ash berries (ours). The kingbirds eat cur- rants. IT notice that the common…

P.M. — To Fair Haven Hill shore. Ranunculus Flammula var. reptans out, also impa- tiens, noli-me-tangere. ‘The Cyperus dentatus in bloom on hard sandy parts of…

A. M.— On river to ascertain the rate of the current. This dog-day weather I can see the bottom where five and a half feet deep. At five feet it is strewn clear…

7.80 a.m. — Up river. C. and I, having left our boat at Rice’s Bend last night, walk to it this forenoon on our way to Saxonville. Water three quarters of an inch…

6 a. mM. — River is at summer level. This being Monday morning, the river is probably lower than at any other time in the week. Am surprised to see in water…

I try the current above Dodd’s. There is a southwest breeze. A loose board moves faster than one with a sunk box, but soon drifts diago- nally across and lodges at…

6 A.M. — River fallen one inch since 2.30 P.M. yesterday; 2.¢., it is now a quarter of an inch above summer level. Juncus Greenei grows in river meadow opposite…

See many yellowed peach leaves and butter- nut leaves, which have fallen in the wind yesterday and the rain to-day. The lowest dark-colored rocks near the water at…

P. M. — Up Assabet. I perceive that rocks on the bottom stretch across from Mantatuket Point to the Island, and probably make the ancient core of the shoals and…

I see under the railroad bridge a mass of meadow which lodged there last spring, not revealed till this low water, and this is now dense with a thrifty growth of…

A. M. — Up Assabet to stone bridge. This river is so shallow that you can easily push up it with a paddle, but the other is commonly too deep for this. As I paddle…

P.M.— To Barrett’s Bar. The zizania now makes quite a show along the river, overtopping the withered heads of the early canary grass. When I reached the upper end…

Thursday. Half the leaves of some cher- ries in dry places are quite orange now and ready to fall.

Sunday. P. M.— Walk over the Great Meadows and observe how dry they are. There is quite a drought, and I can walk almost anywhere over these meadows without wetting…

Monday. The circles of the blue vervain flowers, now risen near to the top, show how far ad- vanced the season is. The savory-leaved aster (Diplopappus…

P. M.— To Laurel Glen to see the effect of the frost of the 17th (and perhaps 18th). As for autumnal tints, the Smilacina racemosa is yellowed, spotted brown in…

Copious rain at last, in the night and during the day. A. M. — Mountain-ash berries partly turned. Again see, I think, purple finch eating them. I see, after the…

The dust is laid, the streets washed, the leaves — the first ripe crop — fallen, owing to yester- day’s copious rain. It is clearer weather, and the creak of the…

A little more rain last night. What were those insects, some winged, with short backs and say half an inch long, others wingless and shorter, like little coils of…

P.M. — To Walden. A cool day; wind northwest. Need a half-thick coat. Thus gradually we withdraw into winter quarters. It is a Clear, flashing air, and the shorn…

I hear in the street this morning a goldfinch sing part of a sweet strain.

P.M.— Up Assabet.

P. M. — To Fair Haven Hill. Was caught in five successive showers, and took refuge in Hayden’s barn, under the cliffs, and under a tree. A thunder-cloud, seen from…

P.M.— To Saw Mill Brook and Flint’s Pond. That reach in the road this side Britton’s Camp might be called Nabalus Road, they are so abundant there. Some of them are…

P.M.— To Ledum Swamp. The pontederia leaves are now decidedly brown or brownish, and this may be the effect of frost, since we have had some considerable in low…

A strong wind, which blows down much fruit. R. W. E. sits surrounded by choice windfall pears.

P. M. — To Well Meadow and Walden. The purple culms and spikes of the crab-grass or finger-grass, spreading and often almost prostrate under our feet in sandy paths…

Spent a part of the forenoon in the woods in the northwest part of Acton, searching for a stone suitable for a millstone for my lead-mill.

Hear the sounds nowadays — the lowing, tramp, and calls of the drivers — of cows coming down from up-country. Staghorn sumach berries probably some time, but ours…

The 7th, 8th, and 9th, the State muster is held here. The only observation I have to make is that [Concord] is fuller of dust and more uninhabitable than I ever…

I start many pigeons now in a sprout-land. I have noticed for a week or more some swarms of light-colored and very small fuzzy gnats in the air, yet not in such…

See wasps, collected in the sun on a wall, at 9 A. M.

P. M. — To Conantum-end. The prinos berries are now seen, red (or scarlet), clustered along the stems, amid the as yet green leaves. A cool red. By the pool in…

P.M.—'To Moore’s Swamp and Great Fields. Elder-berries are apparentlyin prime, generally black, though many have been plucked by birds. The four kinds of bidens…

P. M. — Up Assabet. The Bidens chrysanthemoides, now apparently in its prime by the river, now almost dazzles you with its great sunny disk. I feast my eyes on it…

High, gusty winds, with dust and a little rain (more or less for two or three days). These powerful gusts fill all the air with dust, con- cealing the earth and…

Yesterday was very cold, with northwest wind, and this morning the first frost in the garden, killing some of our vines. W. Ricketson says that, when looking for…

Another and severer frost, which cut off all our vines, etc., lespedeza, corn, ete. P. M. — By the roadside, forty or fifty rods east of the South Acton station, I…

Considerable rain yesterday, raising the streams at last somewhat. The frost of the 16th was very severe for the season, killing all our vines, and to-day I see the…

A. M. — To Stow. Hear the note of the goldfinch on all sides this fine day after the storm. Butternuts have been falling for two or three weeks, — now mostly…

P. M. — To White Pond. The button-bushes by the river are generally overrun with the mikania. This is married to the button-bush as much as the vine to the elm, and…

Heard in the night a snapping sound and the fall of some small body on the floor from time to time. In the morning I found that it was produced by the witch-hazel…

A mizzling day, with less rain than yes- terday, filling the streams. As I went past the Hunt cellar, where Hosmer pulled down the old house in the spring, I…

Pretty copious rain in the night. 11 a. M. — River risen about fourteen inches above lowest this year (or thirteen and three quarters above my mark by boat). What…

P. M. — To Melvin’s Preserve. Was that a flock of grackles on the meadow? I have not seen half a dozen blackbirds, methinks, for a month. I have many affairs to…

P.M. — To Emerson’s Cliff. Holding a white pine needle in my hand, and turning it in a favorable light, as I sit upon this cliff, I perceive that each of its three…

P. M. — To Clamshell by boat. The Solanum dulcamara berries are another kind which grows in drooping clusters. I do not know any clusters more graceful and…

At Cattle-Show to-day I noticed that the ladies’ apple (small, one side green, the other red, glossy) and maiden’s-blush (good size, yellowish-white with a pink…

Down railroad and to Fair Haven Hill. In Potter’s maple swamp I see the (apparently) Aspidium Thelypteris (revolute segments) about half decaying or whitish, but…

P. M. — Up Assabet. Ever since the unusually early and severe frost of the 16th, the evergreen ferns have been growing more and more distinct amid the fading and…

P. M. — To the beeches. Looking down from Pine Hill, I see a fish hawk over Walden. The shrub oaks on this hill are now at their height, both with respect to their…

Rain in the night and cloudy this forenoon. We had all our dog-days in September this year. It was too dry before, even for fungi. Only the last three weeks have we…

P. M. — To Bateman’s Pond; back by hog- pasture and old Carlisle road. Some faces that I see are so gross that they affect me like a part of the person improperly…

When I have made a visit where my ex- pectations are not met, I feel as if I owed my hosts an apology for troubling them so. If I am disappointed, I find that I…

A. M. — To Boston. Examine the pigeon and sparrow hawks in the Natural History collection. My wings and tail are apparently the pigeon hawk’s. The sparrow hawks are…

The pontederia seeds which I dropped into a pitcher of water have now mostly sunk. As the outside decays they become heavier than water.

P. M. — Boston. Read a lecture to Theodore Parker’s society. Aster cordifolius abundant and commonly in bloom in Roxbury. See the privet everywhere with dense…

White-throated sparrows in yard and close up to house, together with myrtle-birds (which fly up against side of house and alight on window-sills) and, I think, tree…

P.M. — To Cliffs. Looking under large oaks, black and white, the acorns appear to have fallen or been gathered by squirrels, ete. I see in many distant places stout…

P. M. — To Hubbard’s Close. The common goldenrods on railroad causeway have begun to look hoary or gray, the down showing itself, — that November feature. I see…

P. M. — Up Assabet. Many of thesmall hypericums, mutilum and Canadense, have survived the frosts as yet, after all. The hemlock seed is now in the midst of its…

9 a.m. — Toand around Flint’s Pond with Blake. A fine Indian-summer day. The 6th and 10th were quite cool, and any particularly warm days since may be called Indian…

P. M. — To Botrychium Swamp. A cold northwest wind. . | I see some black oak acorns on the trees still and in some places at least half the shrub oak acorns. The…

Sunday. P. M.— Paddle to Puffer’s and thence walk to Ledum Swamp and Conant’s Wood. A cold, clear, Novemberish day. The wind goes down and we do not sail. The…

A smart frost this morning. Ground stiff- ened. Hear of ice in a tub. P. M. — To Gowing’s Swamp. The water standing over the road at Moore’s Swamp, I see the sand…

Rains till 3 Pp. M., but is warmer. P. M. — To Assabet, front of Tarbell’s. Going by Dennis Swamp on railroad, the sour scent of decaying ferns is now very strong…

P. M. — To Ripple Lake. Dug some artichokes behind Alcott’s, the largest about one inch in diameter. Now apparently is the time to begin to dig them, the plant…

P. M. — To Mason’s pasture. The brook between John Flint’s house and the river is half frozen over. The clump of mountain laurel in Mason’s pasture is of a…

P.M. — To Cliffs and Fair Haven. I am surprised to find in the field behind the top of the Cliffs a little vetch still perfectly fresh and blooming, where Wheeler…

In Boston. — The first Indian-summer day, after an unusually cold October. Sat at the end of Long Wharf for coolness, but it was very warm, with scarcely a breath…

The river is quite low, about four inches lower than the hub [?] I used in the summer, or lower than before, this year. Yet there is more water in the mill-streams;…

A pleasant day. P. M. — To Nut Meadow and Fair Haven Hill. I hear a small z-ing cricket. Coombs says that quite a little flock of pigeons bred here last summer. He…

A fine Indian-summer day. Have had pleasant weather about a week.’

Rain; warm.

Windy and cooler. I observed, October 23d, wood turtles copulating in the Assabet, and a flock of goldfinches on the top of a hemlock, — as if after its seeds?…

The first sprinkling of snow, which for a short time whitens the ground in spots. I do not know how to distinguish between our wak- ing life and a dream. Are we not…

A very pleasant Indian-summer day. P. M. — To Ledum Swamp. I look up the river from the railroad bridge. It is perfectly smooth between the uniformly tawny mead-…

Another Indian-summer day, as fair as any we’ve had. I go down the railroad to Andro- meda Ponds this afternoon. Captain Hubbard is having his large wood — oak and…

A fog this morning and yesterday morn- ing, lasting till about 10 a. Mm. I looked into the Church of England liturgy, printed near the beginning of the last…

Ground white with snow a few hours. C. says that he saw to-day a procession of minnows (one to two inches long) some three or four feet wide, about forty abreast,…

The river has risen considerably, at last, owing to the rain of the 22d. Had been very low before. See, on the railroad-slope by the pond, and also some days ago, a…

P. M. — Paddle to Baker Farm. The weeds of water-plants have decayed and fallen long since, and left the water along the sides of the river comparatively clear. In…

P. M.— Walk over the Colburn Farm wood-lot south [of] the road. I find, sometimes, after I have been lotting off a large wood-lot for auction, that I have been…

P.M. — To Colburn Farm wood-lot north of C. Hill. I traverse this wood-lot back and forth by the lines cut by those who have lotted it off. Thus I scare up the…

P. M. — To E. Hubbard’s Wood. Goodwin tells me that Therien, who lives in a shanty of his own building and alone in Lincoln, uses for a drink only checkerberry-tea.…

P. M. —'To Copan. There is a white birch on Copan which has many of the common birch fungus of a very peculiar and re- markable form, not flat thus: but shaped like…

I am one of a committee of four, viz. Simon Brown (Ex-Lieutenant-Governor), R. W. Emer- son, myself, and John Keyes (late High Sheriff), in- structed by a meeting…

Suddenly quite cold, and freezes in the house. | Rode with a man this forenoon who said that if he did not clean his teeth when he got up, it made him sick all the…

Awake to winter, and snow two or three inches deep, the first of any consequence. that it was Francis Jackson Merriam, one of John Brown’s men, on his way to…

P.M. — Down Turnpike to Smith’s Hill. Rather hard walking in the snow. There is a slight mist in the air and accordingly some glaze on the twigs and leaves, and…

P. M.— To Walden and Baker Bridge, in the shallow snow and mizzling rain. It is somewhat of a lichen day. The bright-yellow sulphur lichens on the walls of the…

Here is a better glaze than we have yet had, for it snowed and rained in the night. I go to Pleasant Meadow, —or rather toward the sun, for the glaze shows best so.…

Suddenly cold last night. The river and Fair Haven Pond froze over generally (I see no opening as I walk) last night, though they were only frozen along the edges…

Get in my boat, in the snow. The bottom is coated with a glaze.

At 2 p. M. begins to snow, and snows till night. Still, normal storm, large flakes, warm enough, lodging.

P. M.— To Pine Hill and round Walden. Seeing a little hole in the side of a dead white birch, about six feet from the ground, I broke it off and found it to be made…

P. M. — On river to Fair Haven Pond. My first true winter walk is perhaps that which I take on the river, or where I cannot go in the summer. It is the walk…

At 2 Pp. M. begins to snow again. I walk to Walden. Snow-storms might be classified. This is a fine, dry snow, drifting nearly horizontally from the north, so that…

The first kind of snow-storm, or that of yesterday, which ceased in the night after some three inches had fallen, was that kind that makes handsome drifts behind…

A. M.—'To Cambridge, where I read in Gerard’s Herbal.? His admirable though quaint de- scriptions are, to my mind, greatly superior to the modern more scientific…

P. M. —'To Walden. The snow being some three or four inches deep, I see rising above it, generally, at my old bean-field, only my little white pines set last spring…

Rains. P. M.— To Assabet opposite Tarbell’s, via Abel Hosmer’s. It rains but little this afternoon, though there is no sign of fair weather. Only the mist appears…

Yarrow ? too is full of seed now, and the common johnswort has some seed in it still. Farmer has lately been riding about in the neighbor- ing towns west and…

A. M.— To T. Wheeler wood-lot. Snows very fast, large flakes, a very lodging snow, quite moist; turns to rain in afternoon. If we leave the sleigh for a moment, it…

A. M.—A fine winter day and rather mild. Ride to T. Wheeler’s lot. See a red squirrel out in two places. Do they not come out chiefly in the forenoon ? Also a large…

Another fine winter day. P. M. — To Fhnt’s Pond. C. is inclined to walk in the road, it being better walking there, and says: “You don’t wish to see any- thing but…

The third fine, clear, bright, and rather mild winter day. P. M. — To Ball’s Hill across meadow. The gardener at Sleepy Hollow says that they caught many small…

P. M. — To Flint’s Pond. A strong and very cold northwest wind. I think that the cold winds are oftenest not northwest, but northwest by west. There is, in all, an…

'The last our coldest night, as yet. No doubt Walden froze over last night entirely. P. M. — To Carlisle Bridge on river and meadow.

P. M.—Skate to Lee’s Bridge and there measure back, by pacing, the breadth of the river. After being uniformly overcast all the forenoon, still and moderate…

A very cold morning, — about —15° at 8 a. M. at our door. . I went to the river immediately after sunrise. I could [see] a little greenness in the ice, and also a…

I awake to find it snowing fast, but it slack- ens ina few hours. Perhaps seven or eight inches have fallen, — the deepest snow yet, and almost quite level. At…

Thermometer at 7.45 a.m.,—1°, yet even more vapor is rising from the open water below my boat’s place than on the 29th, when it was — 15°. The wind is…