Log Search Results

8 April 1843. Concord, Mass.

Nathaniel Hawthorne writes in his journal:

  Mr. [Ralph Waldo] Emerson came, with a sunbeam in his face; and we had as good a talk as I ever remember experiencing with him . . . Mr. Thoreau was discussed, and his approaching departure; in respect to which we agreed pretty well; but Mr. Emerson appears to have suffered some inconveniency from his experience of Mr. Thoreau as an inmate. It may well be that such a sturdy and uncompromising person is fitter to meet occasionally in the open air, than to have as a permanent guest at table and fireside.
(The American Notebooks, 176)

8 April 1847. Walden Pond.

Thoreau writes in Walden:

  In 1845 Walden was first completely open on the 1st of April . . . in ‘47, the 8th of April (Walden, 334).
8 April 1852. Concord, Mass.

Thoreau writes in his journal:

  To-day I hear the croak of frogs in small pond-holes in the woods, and see dimples on the surface, which I suppose that they make, for when I approach they are silent and the dimples are no longer seen. They are very shy . . .
(Journal, 3:392-393)
8 April 1853. Concord, Mass.

Thoreau writes in his journal:

  6 A. M.—To Abel Hosmer’s ring-post . . . The male Populus grandidentata appears to open very gradually, beginning sooner than I supposed. It shows some of its red anthers long before it opens. There is a female on the left, on Warren’s Path at Deep Cut.
(Journal, 5:103)
8 April 1854. Concord, Mass.

Thoreau writes in his journal:

  6 A.M.—To Clamshell Hill . . .

  P.M.—To Lee’s Cliff via Clamshell . . .

  At Nut Meadow Brook saw, or rather heard, a muskrat plunge into the brook before me, and saw him endeavoring in vain to bury himself in the sandy bottom, looking like an amphibious animal . . . At Heart-leaf Pond the croaking frogs are in full blast . . .

  Saw a large bird sail along over the edge of Wheeler’s cranberry meadow just below Fair Haven . . .

  Saw several yellow redpolls (Sylvia petechia) on the willows by the Hubbard Bridge . . .

(Journal, 6:187-191)
8 April 1855. Concord, Mass.

Thoreau writes in his journal:

  6 A.M.—Up Assabet

  A fine clear morning. The ground white with frost, and all the meadows also, and a low mist curling over the smooth water now in the sunlight, which gives the water a silver-plated look. The frost covers the willows and alders and other trees on the sides of the river fifteen or twenty feet high. Quite a wintry sight.

  When taking the brain out of my duck yesterday, I perceived that the brain was the marrow of the head, and it is probably only a less sentient brain that runs down the backbone,—the spinal marrow.

  P.M.—Up Assabet to G. Barrett’s meadow.

  Hear at a distance in the sprout-lands the croaks of frogs from some shallow pool. Saw six muskrats’ bodies, just skinned, on the bank,—two large yellowish, fatty-looking masses of (I suppose) musk on each side the lower part of the abdomen. Every part of the animal now emits a very strong scent of musk. A foot which I brought home (together with a head) scented me all over. The fore feet are small and white on the palm, while the hind ones are black. All the skin being stripped off except on the nose and feet, the fore feet look like hands clothed in gauntlets of fur.

(Journal, 7:294-297)
8 April 1856. Concord, Mass.

Thoreau writes in his journal:

  1 P.M.—To boat at Cardinal Shore, and thence to Well Meadow and back to port . . .

  Hear the crack of Goodwin’s piece close by, just as I reach my boat. He has killed another rat. Asks if I am bound up-stream . . .

  About 8.30 P.M., hear geese passing quite low over the river . . .

(Journal, 8:258-262)
8 April 1857. New Bedford, Mass.

Thoreau writes in his journal:

  I discovered one convenient use the bayberries served,— that if you got your hands pitched in pine woods, you had only rub a parcel of these berries between your hands to start the pitch off. Arthur [Ricketson] said the shoemakers at the Head of the River used to the tallow to rub the soles of their shoes with to make them shine. I gathered a quart in bout twenty minutes with my hands . . .
(Journal, 9:321)

Daniel Ricketson also writes in his journal:

  Clear and fine, spent the day at home. Mr. [Amos Bronson] Alcott dined at B. Rodman’s. Thoreau made some bayberry tallow in the shanty; walked with him to the rocky cliff beyond Acushnet . . .(Ricketson, 300).
8 April 1858. Concord, Mass.

Thoreau writes in his journal:

  Surveying Kettell farm . . .

  Polly Houghton comes along and says, half believing it, of my compass, “This is what regulates the moon and stars” (Journal, 10:362).

8 April 1859. Concord, Mass.

Thoreau writes in his journal:

  P.M.—To epigæa and Well Meadow . . .

  C. [William Ellery Channing] says that he found a musquash’s skull (which he showed me) at the fox-burrow in Laurel Glen, from which it would appear that they kill the musquash . . . I saw Heavy Haynes fishing for trout down the Mill Brook this morning, cold and blustering as it was . . .

(Journal, 12:119-127)

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