Thoreau writes in his journal:
Now begins the slightly sultryish morning air into which you awake early to hear the faint buzz of a fly or hum of other insect. The teeming air, deep and hollow, filled with some spiritus, pregnant as not in winter or spring, with room for imps . . .
10 A.M.—To Fair Haven by boat.
I see many young and tender dragon-flies, both large and small, hanging to the grass-tops and weeds and twigs which rise above the—water still going down. They are -weak and sluggish and tender-looking . . . I see their large gauze-like wings vibrating in the breeze . . .