Facing the sun

January 19.

P. M. — Down river. 2 p. m. — Thermometer 38. Somewhat cloudy at first. The open water at Barrett's Bar is very small compared with that at Hubbard's Bath yesterday, and I think it could not have frozen much last night. It is evident mere shallowness is not enough to prevent freezing, for that shallowest space of all, in middle of river at Barrett's Bar, has been frozen ever since the winter began. It is the swifter though deeper, but not deep, channels on each side that remain open

Facing the sun when I reach the lowest part of the Great Meadows, the neck of the Holt, I see that the ice before me, thickly covered with snow, is of two shades, white and darker in parallel sections as far as I can see. This is owing to fine snow blown low over the first - hence white - portion. It is probably the last light snow of the morning (when half an inch fell), blown by the strong northwest wind just risen.

This snow looks just like vapor curling along over the surface, long waving lines producing the effect of a watered surface in motion, a low, thin, but infinitely broad stream made up of a myriad meandering rills of vapor flowing over the surface, curving about swellings in the ice like the grain of wood.

As you look down on it around you, you only see it moving straight forward in a thin sheet; but when you look at it several rods off in the sun, it has that waving or devious motion like vapor and flames, very agreeable and surprising, very interesting to look at.

H. D. Thoreau, Journal, January 19, 1860


This snow looks just like vapor curling along over the surface, long waving lines producing the effect of a watered surface in motion. See January 19, 1852 ("The snow blowing far off in the sun . . .looks like the mist that rises from rivers in the morning.") also December 24, 1850 (" ... like steam curling up, as from a wet roof when the sun comes out after a rain."); February 16, 1852 ("I see the steam-like snow-dust curling up and careering along over the fields. . . .like the spray on a beach before the northwest wind."); February 23, 1854 (“The fine snow drives along over the field like steam curling from a roof, forming architectural drifts. ”) February 3, 1855 (" . . .alive with flowing streams of snow, in form like the steam which curls along a river’s surface at sunrise.”); February 5, 1855 (“the fine snow, blowing over the meadow in parallel streams between which the darker ice was seen, looked just like the steam curling along the surface of a river.”)






When I reached the lowest part of the Great Meadows, the neck of the Holt, I saw that the ice, thickly covered with snow, before me was of two shades, white and darker, as far as I could see in parallel sec tions. This was owing to fine snow blown low over the first — hence white — portion. I noticed it when I was returning toward the sun. This snow looks just like vapor curling along over the surface, — long waving lines producing the effect of a watered surface, very interesting to look at, when you face the sun, waving or curving about swellings in the ice like the grain of wood, the whole surface in motion, like a low, thin, but infinitely broad stream made up of a myriad meandering rills of vapor flowing over the surface. It seemed to rise a foot or two, yet when I laid my finger on the snow I did not perceive that any of the drifting snow rose above it or passed over it; it rather turned and went round it. It was the snow, probably the last light snow of the morning (when half an inch fell), blown by the strong northwest wind just risen, and apparently blown only where the surface beneath was smooth enough to let it slide. On such a surface it would evidently be blown a mile very quickly. Here the distance over which it was moving may have been half a mile. As you look down on it around you, you only see it moving straight forward in a thin sheet; but when you look at it several rods off in the sun, it has that waving or devious motion like vapor and flames, very agreeable and surprising.