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October 6.

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De Kay calls the pine marten the American sable.

H. D. Thoreau, Journal, October 6, 1855

De Kay:  James Dekay (October 12, 1792 – November 21, 1851) was an American zoologist involved with the Geological Survey of New York, who published the multi-volume Zoology of New York, or The New-York Fauna covering mammals, birds, reptiles and amphibians and fish -- the nearly 2,300 animals they estimated to exist in New York. This work was illustrated by John William Hill. 

Hill and De Kay used a camera lucia for the rough drafts of the drawings. Hill's drawings of birds represented the first time hand-colored lithographs were used to illustrate a state bird book. De Kay collected the first specimen of a species of small brown snake on Long Island, which was named for him as Storeria dekayi. ~ Wikipedia

Foul weather all day.

March 15

March 15, 2015

Jacob Farmer gave me to-day the foot of an otter, also of a fisher, – to put with my pine marten’s foot. He cut them off of recent furs in Boston. 

He sells about a hundred mink skins in a year. Thinks not more than thirty or forty are caught in Concord in a year. He says (I think) a mink’s skin is worth two dollars! They are sent to Europe to be worn there, not for hats. 

Foul weather all day, -- at first a fine snow, and finally rain. Now, at 9 P. M., a clear sky. And so the storm which began evening of 13th ends.

H. D. Thoreau, Journal, March 15, 1855

Jacob Farmer gave me to-day the foot of an otter . . .See March 10, 1855 ("Jacob Farmer gave me to-day a part of the foot probably of a pine marten, which he found two or three days ago in a trap he had set in his brook for a mink, -- under water, baited with a pickerel.")

And so the storm which began evening of 13th ends. See March 14, 1855 ("Three inches of snow in the morning, and it snows a little more during the day, with occasional gleams of sunshine.")