There is a great difference between this season and a month ago.

October 7.

October 7

To river; by boat to Corner Bridge.  It is a remarkable difference between night and day on the river, that there is no fog by day.  This morning the fog over the river and the brooks and meadows running into it has risen to the height of forty or fifty feet.


A very still, warm, bright, clear afternoon. Our boat so small and low that we are close to the water. The weeds being dead and the weather cooler, the water is more transparent. The fishes are plainly seen. See a pickerel that has swallowed a smaller fish, with the tail projecting from his mouth.


There is a great difference between this season and a month ago, -- warm as this happens to be, -- as between one period of your life and another.  A little frost is at the bottom of it.


H. D. Thoreau, Journal, October 7, 1851