September 27, 2014
Collecting fuel again this afternoon, up the Assabet.
Some single red maples now fairly make a show along the meadow. I see a blaze of red reflected from the troubled water.
Yesterday I traced the note of what I have falsely thought the Rana palustris, or cricket frog, to its true source. As usual it sounded loud and incessant above all ordinary crickets and led me at once to a bare and soft sandy shore: After long looking and listening, with my head directly over the spot from which the sound still came at intervals (as I had often done before), I concluded, as no creature was visible, that it must issue from the mud, or rather slimy sand. I noticed that the shore near the water was upheaved and cracked as by a small mole-track and, laying it open with my hand, I found a mole cricket (Gryllotalpa brevipennis).
H. D. Thoreau, Journal, September 27, 1855
Single red maples now fairly make a show. See September 27, 1857 ("At last, its labors for the year being consummated and every leaf ripened to its full, it flashes out conspicuous to the eye of the most casual observer, with all the virtue and beauty of a maple, – Acer rubrum."); September 26, 1854 ("Some single red maples are very splendid now, the whole tree bright-scarlet against the cold green pines; now, when very few trees are changed, a most remarkable object in the landscape; seen a mile off. It is too fair to be believed, especially seen against the light.")
Yesterday I traced the note of what I have falsely thought the Rana palustris, or cricket frog, to its true source. As usual it sounded loud and incessant above all ordinary crickets and led me at once to a bare and soft sandy shore: After long looking and listening, with my head directly over the spot from which the sound still came at intervals (as I had often done before), I concluded, as no creature was visible, that it must issue from the mud, or rather slimy sand. I noticed that the shore near the water was upheaved and cracked as by a small mole-track and, laying it open with my hand, I found a mole cricket (Gryllotalpa brevipennis).
H. D. Thoreau, Journal, September 27, 1855
Single red maples now fairly make a show. See September 27, 1857 ("At last, its labors for the year being consummated and every leaf ripened to its full, it flashes out conspicuous to the eye of the most casual observer, with all the virtue and beauty of a maple, – Acer rubrum."); September 26, 1854 ("Some single red maples are very splendid now, the whole tree bright-scarlet against the cold green pines; now, when very few trees are changed, a most remarkable object in the landscape; seen a mile off. It is too fair to be believed, especially seen against the light.")
Yesterday I traced the note of what I have falsely thought the Rana palustris, or cricket frog, to its true source. See September 20, 1855 ("Tried to trace by the sound a mole cricket, —- thinking it a frog, — advancing from two sides and looking where our courses intersected, but in vain.")
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