To Bateman's Pond- signs of fall.

September 3.

To Bateman's Pond. 

2 P. M. — River six and seven eighths above [summer level].

Here is a beautiful, and perhaps first decidedly autumnal, day, -- a cloudless sky, a clear air, with, maybe, veins of coolness. 

The dense fresh green grass which has sprung up since it was mowed reflects a blaze of light, as if it were morning all the day. The meads and slopes are enamelled with it, for there has been no drought nor withering.

We see the smokes of burnings on various sides. The farmers are thus clearing up their pastures, - some, it may be, in preparation for plowing.

Though it is warm enough, I notice again the swarms of fuzzy gnats dancing in the cooler air, which also is decidedly autumnal.

H. D. Thoreau, Journal, September 3, 1860

Here is a beautiful, and perhaps first decidedly autumnal, day. See August 19, 1853 (“The first bright day of the fall, the earth reflector. The dog-day mists are gone; the washed earth shines; the cooler air braces man. No summer day is so beautiful as the fairest spring and fall days.”); September 18, 1860 ("This is a beautiful day, . . . the first unquestionable and conspicuous autumnal day. . . . If you are not happy to-day you will hardly be so to-morrow") See also A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, The world can never be more beautiful than now.

I notice again the swarms of fuzzy gnats dancing in the cooler air. See  September 19, 1858 ("I see in the air between me and the sun those interesting swarms of minute light-colored gnats, looking like motes in the sun. . . . Do they not first appear with cooler and frosty weather, when we have had a slight foretaste of winter? . . .. It is to me a very agreeable reminder of cooler weather") See also A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, Fuzzy Gnats (tipulidæ)