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March 18, 2016 March 18, 2026 |
It is still quite tight at Hubbard’s Bath Bend and at Clamshell, though I hesitate a little to cross at these places. There are dark spots in the soft, white ice, which will be soon worn through.
What a solid winter we have had! No thaw of any consequence; no bare ground since December 25th; but an unmelting mass of snow and ice, hostile to all greenness. Have not seen a green radical leaf even, as usual, all being covered up.
Nut Meadow Brook is open for a dozen rods from its mouth, and for a rod into the river. Higher up, it is still concealed by a snowy bridge two feet thick.
I see the ripples made by some fishes, which were in the small opening at its mouth, making haste to hide themselves in the ice-covered river. This square rod and one or two others like it in the town are the only places where I could see this phenomenon now. Thus early they appear, ready to be the prey of the fish hawk.
Within the brook I see quite a school of little minnows, an inch long, amid or over the bare dead stems of polygonums, and one or two little water-bugs (apple seeds). The last also in the broad ditch on the Corner road, in Wheeler’s meadow.
Notwithstanding the backwardness of the season, all the town still under deep snow and ice, here they are, in the first open and smooth water, governed by the altitude of the sun.
I see many small furrows, freshly made, in the sand at the bottom of the brook, from half an inch to three quarters wide, which I suspect are made by some small shellfish already moving, perhaps Paludina!
H. D. Thoreau, Journal, March 18, 1856
It is still quite tight at Hubbard’s Bath Bend and at Clamshell. See March 10, 1856 ("There is no opening yet in the main stream at Prichard's, Hubbard Bath, or the Clamshell, or probably anywhere but at Merrick's, and that a dozen rods long by. ten feet; and it is tight and strong under the bridges.")
Nut Meadow Brook is open for a dozen rods from its mouth. See February 1, 1856 ("Nut Meadow Brook open for some distance in the meadow. I was affected by the sight of some green polygonum leaves there. Some kind of minnow darted off.")
I see the ripples made by some fishes . . . making haste to hide themselves in the ice-covered river. See February 1, 1856 (“Nut Meadow Brook open for some distance in the meadow. I am affected by the sight of some green polygonum leaves there. Some kind of minnow darts off.”); February 25, 1856 ("Am surprised to see some little minnows only an inch long in an open place in Well Meadow Brook."); March 9, 1854 ("I detect the trout minnows not an inch long by their quick motions or quirks, soon concealing themselves"); See also A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, Signs of the Spring: Ripples made by Fishes
One or two little water-bugs (apple seeds). See March 10, 1855 (" When on the 6th I saw the gyrinus at Second Division Brook, I saw no peculiarity in the water or the air to remind me of them, but to-day they are here and yesterday they were not. I go looking deeper for tortoises, when suddenly my eye rests on these black circling apple seeds in some smoother bay.); See also A Book of the Seasons , by Henry Thoreau, Signs of the Spring, the water-bug (Gyrinus)
Notwithstanding the backwardness of the season . . . here they are. . . governed by the altitude of the sun. See March 18, 1853 ("The season is so far advanced that the sun affects me as I have not been affected for a long time."); March 15, 1853 ("Notwithstanding this day is so cold . . . the sidewalks melt in the sun, such is its altitude.”); See also A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, Signs of the Spring: the new warmth of the sun
Many small furrows, freshly made, in the sand at the bottom of the brook. . . made by some small shellfish already moving, perhaps Paludina. See March 20, 1856 ("Where I saw those furrows in the sand in Nut Meadow Brook the other day, I now explore, and find within a square foot or two half a dozen of Paludina decisa with their feet out . . .Maybe it is the love season."); March 22, 1856 ("Crows .. . visit the edge of water—this and brooks —before any ground is exposed. Is it for small shellfish?"); March 22, 1860 ("The phenomena of an average March . . .trout glance in the brooks, brook minnows are seen; see furrows on sandy bottoms, and small shell snails copulate")
March 18. See A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, March 18
The small opening
in the ice-covered river –
ripples made by fish.
Furrows in the sand
at the bottom of the brook –
perhaps small shell snails.
A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, What a solid winter we have had!
A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau
"A book, each page written in its own season,
out-of-doors, in its own locality."
~edited, assembled and rewritten by zphx © 2009-2026
https://tinyurl.com/hdt-560318
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