THE WRITINGS OF
HENRY DAVID THOREAV
JOURNAL
EDITED
BY BRADFORD TORREY
X
AUGUST 8, 1857-JUNE ~29, 18,58
BOSTON AND NEW YORK
HOUGHTON MIFFLIN AND COMPANY
(~br 13iberoite PCofs, Cambribge
1906
CONTENTS
CHAPTER I . August, 1857 (XT . 40)
COPYRIGHT 1(906 BY HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN S' UO.
3
Glow-Worms-A l Remarkable Fungus -Life- Jewelry,
False and True - A Cuckoo - With Austin Bacon in Natick
- Emerson at Naushon - A Veteran of the Revolution Ground-Nuts .
All rt;Iits reserved
CHAPTER 11 .
September, 1857 (XT . 40)
21
Some Large Yellow Birches - A Large Rhns radicans Prinos hrrigatus - At Bateman's Pond - Larch Trees and a
Tupelo - Gathering Pine Cones - A Wood Frog - A Beautiful Pine Grove - More Glow-Worms - Nabalus - Beach
Plums - A Dense White Pine Grove - A Squirrel burying a
Nut - Hardwood Trees under Pines - The Blushing of the
Red Maple - An Old Grist-Mill - Crickets - A Virtuous
Red Maple - Hawks - Poitrine Jaune Grosse - Vandalism
-A Talk with Minott- Wyman and the Crow .
CHAPTER 111 . October, 1857 . (iET . 40)
The Changing of the Leaves - Old Furniture - Employed
as a lIason-Building a "Vood-Shed-Kicked by a Horse Minott's Peach Tree Story - A Red Squirrel -The Turning
Foliage - Ruskiris "Modern Painters" -The Red of a
Maple Swamp - Autumn from Fair Haven Hill - Entertaining Visitors - Walden's Brilliant Belt - A Rabbit's Living
Tomb - An CTlmarium - An Irishman digging 11lud -The
Telltale Smokes - Frosty Mornings - An Old Grist-JIill - A
Distant Elm - Autumnal Tints - Golden Autumn - The
Solvency of Sand-Banks - The Fall of the Pine Leaves -
55
Vi
CONTENTS
CONTENTS
CHAPTER V . December, 1857 (.,E.T . 40)
Reflections - A Great Fall of Leaves - Indian Summer Witeh-Ilazel -The Fallen Pine-Needles-The Principal
Stages in the Autumnal Change -The Trainers and their
Band - Water-Bugs -- The Creaking of Crickets - A Cheery
Old -Alan - Melvin's Nutting -The Easterbrooks Country A Talk with Melvin - A Repulsive Eel - The Poet's Journal
- A Connoisseur in Wood-Blue Water-The Indian
Arrowhead-The Horizon 'Mountains-The ChestnutEvergreen Ferns - Sal Cummings on Kansas - Picking Chestnuts - Two Great Birds - Moods and Seasons - Chipmunks
and Acorns - The Reign of Water - The Facts of a Poet's
Life - The Littleton Giant - A Serene, Elysian Light - A
Soaring Ilen-Ilawk - The Growth of an Apple - The Little Brown Snake - Farly JIorning Thoughts - A Dream
Mountain - Amusements - The Most Profitable Companion -The True Way to crack the Nut of Happiness Ruskin and Nature - Green Ferns - The Brave SkunkCabbage .
CHAPTER IV . November,
1957 (~3':r . 40)
Witch-Hazel - Polypody - Reflections and Reflections Pictures and Picture-Frames - Nature repairing Damages Bloom - The Sunset from Pine Hill - A Talk with Minott The Polypody again -The Point of Interest - Brooks Clark's
Reminiscences - A Flock of Geese - A Carpet of Leaves The Swamp Pyrus -The Boy and the Bound - Indian CornIlills - Surveying Companions - A Boundary Dispute - A
Cold horning - A Mouse's Iloard -The First Freezing
Day - Holden Swamp - A Deer Mouse - C . Miles Swamp
- Desirable Evergreen Trees - - A Hard-working Irishman SyTnpathy with Nature - Life under a Stone-The Interesting
in Books--Native Soil-Some Sportive Bullocks -A Woodcock - Gowin 's S-,vamp - The Andromeda Ponds - Writing Poetry - November Eat-Heart - At Hubbard's Close A Fox - A Story of a Stutterer - Ilinott's House - Frosted
Snares for Partridges -- A Wildcat's Caterwaul Windows
Colors
of
the Withered Oak Leaves -The Growth of a
The
Rumor -The Air full of Geese .
218
A Red Squirrel in the Tree-Tops-The Village Aristocracy Staples's Prosperity - An Anecdote of Mrs . Hoar - Finding
an Old Survey Line -The Tracks of Mice in the Snow The Appetite for Sound - A Bullfrog on the lee - A Crooked
Stick - Surveying
CHAPTER VI . January, 1858 (,FT . 40)
152
233
Genuine and Artificial Words - The Maine Woods and the
Concord Wood-Lots -The Glow of the Andromeda - A Load
of Hay- in Winter - Snowflakes - A Flock of Tree Sparrows - Lecturing in Lynn - Mr . Buffum's Account of the
Sea-Serpent - Naliant - The Lynn Quarries -- The Song of
the White-throated Sparrow - A lAlild Winter - Saw Mill
Brook - The Bark of a Fox - Improvement and Stagnation
-The Fox's Bark again -Water-Bugs - Poison Sumach A Book about Buds -The Birch Fungus - True Life April Rain - A Distant Cloud -Minott's Ear for Bird-Notes
Briglit-colored Fungi - The Pool in Gowing's Swamp Ice-Crystals .
CHAPTER VII . February,
1858 (,F, r . 40)
271
Sounding Gowing's Swamp - Ledzinc latifoliuna - Family
History -The heaved-up Pond-Shore-The Large Blueberry Bushes at Goose Pond - An Old Sketch of Concord Jail The Earth's Breath - A Canada Lynx - A Concord Negro
Slave - Barbcrrv Wood - Pine Cones .
CHAPTER VIII . March, 1858 (fET . 40)
A Flock of Snow Buntings - The Slavery of the Press Philology and Ethnology - An Indian's English - Some
Indian Customs-The Indian Language - A .Alusquasli Academy Grants in Maine -A Rill of Melted Snow-The
Note of the First Flicker-Arriving Birds--A Spring Wind
- View from Fair Haven Hill -The Ameriean Yew- Swarms
288
CONTENTS
CONTENTS
Family - The Old Fox - A Cat Owl's Nest - Young
Birches - To Worcester on the Way to New York - Quinsigamond Pond - The Track of a Thunderbolt - New York
and Staten Island - A Turtle Dove's Nest - Emys meleagris
- A Hen-Harrier's Nest - A Wild Mouse - A Sea-Turn.
of Gnats - The Seriousness of Life - Handsome Willow Catkins - A Scrniriparial Walk - A Willow Creel - The Spring
Revival of the Fishes and of all Nature - Interesting Houses
- Gulls and Ducks - A Flock of Shore Larks - Fox-colored
Sparrows - Sheldrakes - Hazel Blossoms - Spring Gossamer
- Painted Tortoises - A Large Bird of Prey -- Croaking
Frogs - A Lively Party of Sheldrakes - Black Ducks Asleep
- The Early Turtles .
CHAPTER IX . April, 1858 (fF,T. 40)
CHAPTER XI . June, 1858 (lET . 40)
338
Squirrels' Nests - A Little Snapping Turtle - An Hour's
Conversation - Two Striped Snakes - The Foolishness of the
Wise Philosophers - The Purple Finch's Song - Rana halecina - A Curious Kind of Spawn - The Gregariousness of
Men - Studying Frogs - Boys Fishing - Frog-Spawn The Booming of the Snipe - An 011d Rats' Nest - A Partridge on the Railroad - Fro;;-Spawn - Hylodes - A Near
View of a !Plink - Hatching Fishes - Hatching Tadpoles The Study of Frogs - Geese at Fair Haven Pond - A Versatile Goldfinch - Rice on Lamprey Eels - Apron Lichens
- liana pal ustris - Frog-Spawn and Pollywogs - A Fish
Hawk - Young Fishes -The Fish Hawk again -'Mistaken
Identity .
CHAPTER X . May, 1858 (lET . 40)
Individuality - Rana palustria -- Fish Hawk and Crows Frog Hawks - Frogs - A Fish Talk with Witherell - A
Frog in a Firkin - Thc Notes of Rana palustris - The
Thinker - A Wood Tortoise -- Stone-Heaps in the Assabet The Bullfrog's 'frump - Viola pelota- Pickerel in a Ditch
- Frog-Spawn and Tadpoles - A Large Water AdderChestnut Planks -- Red Squirrel and Maple Keys - I'halictrunz dioirunt -- A Hummingbird in the House - A Treeclimbing Black Snake -- An Agreeable Rain - A Talk with
Puffer - A Distant Mountain-Mange - The :Mysteries of
Nature - Swallows over the River - The Home of a Fox
389
Ascending Monadnock - Pitching Camp - Fringilla hyemalis and its Nest - Defacers of Mountain-Tops - Nighthawks - Dawn on -Monadnock - The Plants of the Summit
- The Rocks of Monadnock - Spawn in a Rock Cistern The Spruce of the Mountain-Top - Lichens on the Mountain
Top -Pools and Bogs - A Mountain-Top Walk-Clouds and
their Shadows -The Descent of the Mountain - The Changing Form of a Mountain - The Walk to Winchend0n Some Handsome White Pines -The Effects of a Fire in a
Swamp - Evidence against Marauding Birds - A Pout and
her Nest - Bullfrogs in Full Blast - Breams' Nests - A
Marsh Hawk -A Maryland Yellow-Throat's Nest - Turtles'
Eggs - Ledum - A Song Sparrow's Nest - Plants growing
in Circles -Boys and Birds' Eggs - A Handsome Turtle -- More Birds' Eggs - A Talk with Mr . Henry Bryant at the
Natural History Rooms - A Tanager's Nest - A Veery's
Nest - More Eggs - Young Striped Squirrels - Two Wood
Pewees' Nests-Bathing .
452
ILLUSTRATIONS
NATURE ' S
DECORATION
OF
AN
STUMP (page 160)
OLD
PINE
Frontispiece
IN THE EASTERBROOKS COUNTRY
112
CURLY-PATE HILL S ABOVE BATEMAN ' S POND
154
WILLOW CATKINS
310
A TURTLE DOVE ' S NEST
444