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Thoreau writes in his journal:

Friday. At 7.15 P.M. with W. E. C. [William Ellery Channing] go forth to see the moon, the glimpses of the moon . . . We go toward Bear Garden Hill . . . So we went through the aspens at the base of the Cliffs, their round leaves reflecting the lingering twilight on the one side, the waxing moonlight on the other . . . Passing now near Well Meadow Head toward Baker’s orchard . . . I hear the sound of Heywood’s Brook falling into Fair Haven Pond, inexpressibly refreshing to my senses . . . And now, at half-past 10 o’clock, I hear the cockerels crow in Hubbard’s barns, and morning is already anticipated.

(Journal, 2:297-302)

11 July 1852. Concord, Mass.

Thoreau writes in his journal:

4.30 A.M.—To the river.

The shore is strewn with quite a long grove of young red maples two inches high, with the samaræ attached. So they are dispersed. The heart-leaf flower is abundant more than ever, but shut up at this hour. The first lily I noticed opened about half an hour after sunrise, or at 5 o’clock . . .

(Journal, 4:216-219)

11 July 1853. Concord, Mass.

Thoreau writes in his journal:

Centaurea nigra, some time, Union Turnpike, against E. Wood’s, low ground, and Ludwigia alternifolia, apparently just begun, at entrance to poke-logan near Assabet Bathing-Place . . .

(Journal, 5:314)

11 July 1854. Concord, Mass.

Thoreau writes in his journal:

P.M.—By boat to Fair Haven . . .

Sun set when I was off Nut Meadow. A straight edge of massy cloud had advanced from the south-southeast and now stretched overhead from west-southwest to east-northeast, and after sunset reflected a soft fawn-colored (?) light on the landscape, lighting up with harmonious light the dry parched and shorn hillsides . . .

(Journal, 6:390-391)

11 July 1855. North Truro, Mass.

Thoreau writes in his journal:

A bar wholly made within three months; first exposed about the first of May; as I paced, now seventy-five rods long and six or eight rods wide at high water . . . Bank at lighthouse one hundred and seventy feet on the slope, perpendicular one hundred and ten . . .

(Journal, 7:438-439)

11 July 1856. Concord, Mass.

Thoreau writes in his journal:

A.M.—To Tarbell Swamp Hill all day with W. E. C. [William Ellery Channing].

Landed at path end, Great Meadows . . .

Bathed and lunched under the oak at Tarbell’s first shore . . . It is about as cool a place as you can find, where you get the southwest breeze from over the broad meadow, for it draws through the valley behind. While sitting there, saw, some twenty-five rods up-stream, amid the pads on the south side, where we had passed, several apparently young ducks, which soon disappeared again in the meadow-grass . . .

(Journal, 8:406-407)

11 July 1857. Concord, Mass.

Thoreau writes in his journal:

To Corner Spring and Cliffs.

Haying is fairly begun, and for some days I have heard the sound of the mowing-machine, and now the lark must look out for the mowers . . .

Thermometer at 93º+ this afternoon.

Am surprised to find the water of Corner Spring spoiled for the present, however much I clear it out, by the numbers of dead and dying frogs in it (Rana palustris). There is a mortality among [them] which has made them hop to this spring to die . . .

(Journal, 9:476)

Thoreau writes to George Thatcher:

Dear Cousin,

Finding myself somewhat stronger than for 2 or 3 years past, I am bent on making a leisurely & economical excursion into your woods—say in a canoe, with two companions, through Moosehead to the Allegash Lakes, and possibly down that river to the French settlements, & so homeward by whatever course we may prefer. I wish to go at an earlier season than formerly or within 10 days, notwithstanding the flies &c and we should want a month at our disposal.

I have just written to Mr. [Eben J.] Loomis, one of the Cambridgeport men who went through Bangor last year, & callus on you, inviting him to me one of the party, and for a third have thought of your son Charles, who has had some fresh, as well as salt, water experience. The object of this note is to ask if he would like to go, and you would like to have him go, on such an excursion. If so I will come to Bangor, spend a day or 2 with you on my way, buy a canoe &c &c be ready the time my other man comes along. If Charles cannot go, we man find another man here, or possibly take an Indian. A friend of mine would like to accompany me, but I think that he has neither woodcraft nor strength enough.

Please let me hear from you as soon as possible.

Father has arrived safe & sound, and, he says, the better for his journey, though he has no longer his Bangor appetite. He intends writing to you.

Yours truly,
Henry D. Thoreau

“George Thatcher must have said no to the suggested excursion for it was finally made with a Concord neighbor, Edward Hoar, and an Indian guide, Joe Polis, as Thoreau’s only companion.”

(The Correspondence of Henry David Thoreau, 485-486)

11 July 1858. Mt. Washington, N.H.

Thoreau writes in his journal:

Were visited by three men from Glen House, who thought it was well named “Tucker’s Ravine,” because it tuckered a man out to get to it! . . . (Journal, 11:36).

11 July 1859. Concord, Mass.

Thoreau writes in his journal:

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 . . . (Journal, 12:233-235).

11 July 1860. Concord, Mass.

Thoreau writes in his journal:

2 P.M.—To Pine Hill . . .

River at 7 P. M. eight and a half inches above summer level (Journal, 13:396-398).