Thoreau writes in his journal:
I have an old account-book, found in Deacon R. Brown’s garret since his death . . . Attended the auction of Deacon Brown’s effects a little while to-day . . . Cut this afternoon a cake of ice out of Walden and brought it home in a pail, another from the river, and got a third, a piece of last year’s ice form Sam Barrett’s Pond, at Brown’s ice-house, and placed them side by side . . .