Thoreau writes in his journal:
The water has risen one and a half inches at six this morning since last night. It is now, then, (light and a half inches above the iron truss, i.e. the horizontal part of it. There is absolutely no passing, in carriages or otherwise, over Hubbard’s and the Red Bridge roads, and over none [sic] of the bridges for foot-travellers. Throughout this part of the country most people do not remember so great a flood, but, judging from some accounts, it was probably as high here thirty-five years ago . . .
The storm may be said to have fairly ended last night. I observed yesterday that it was drier in most fields, pastures, and even meadows that were not reached by the flood, immediately after this remarkable fall of water than at the beginning . . .