June 30

Paid 3.00 for board.

EDK, June 30,1860

Summer foliage.

June 30.

It is a world of glossy leaves and grassy fields and meads. 

The foliage of deciduous trees is now so nearly as dark as evergreens that I am not struck by the contrast. The shadows under the edge of woods are less noticed now because the woods themselves are darker.

Standing on the side of Fair Haven Hill the verdure generally appears at its height, the air clear, and the water sparkling after the rain of yesterday. Seen through this clear, sparkling, breezy air, the fields, woods, and meadows are very brilliant and fair. 

H. D. Thoreau, Journal, June 30, 1860

The foliage of deciduous trees is now so nearly as dark as evergreens that I am not struck by the contrast. See May 18, 1852 (“[The dark green pines] are now being invested with the light, sunny, yellowish-green of the deciduous trees.");May 27, 1855 (“How important the dark evergreens now seen through the haze in the distance and contrasting with the gauze-like, as yet thin-clad deciduous trees!")

Dogdayish and showery, with thunder.

June 29, 2013 6:23 PM

June 29.

At 6 P.M. 91°, the hottest yet. 

A thunder-shower has passed northeast and grazed us, and at 6.30 or 7, another thunder-shower comes up from the southwest and there is a sudden burst from it with a remarkably strong, gusty wind, and the rain for fifteen minutes falls in a blinding deluge. 

The roof of the depot shed is taken off, many trees torn to pieces, the garden flooded at once, corn and potatoes, etc., beaten flat. You could not see distinctly many rods through the rain. It was the very strong gusts added to the weight of the rain that did the mischief. I think I never saw it rain so hard. 

Thus our most violent thunder-shower followed the hottest hour of the month.

H.D. Thoreau, Journal, June 29, 1860

At 6 P.M. 91°, the hottest yet. See June 30, 1855 (“2 P. M. -- Thermometer north side of house, 95°”); May 24, 1856 ("To-day is suddenly overpowering warm. Thermometer at 1 P. M., 94° in the shade!"); June 21, 1856 (”Very hot day, as was yesterday, -— 98° at 2 P. M., 99° at 3, and 128° in sun”); May 24, 1857(“At 3 p. m. the thermometer is at 88°).

Shadows of the twilight.

Walking out of the woods at dusk an overcast sky lights the colorless path, my noon-like shadow dimly underfoot.

Zphx 20100628

June 29

Recd from James Bliss    4.25

James Emery Dr

to 10 Galls. Rum @34     3.40

to 1 keg for "                   .85

carting .                          .25

                                     4.50

Credit by Cash                4.00

                                      .50

EDK, June 29, 1860

A wood turtle

June 28.

I see no tortoises laying nowadays, but I meet to-day with a wood tortoise which is eating the leaves of the early potentilla, and, soon after, another in Hosmer's sandy bank field north of Assabet Bridge, deliberately eating sorrel.

Its back is smooth and yellowish, - a venerable tortoise. It continues to eat when I am within a few feet, holding its head high and biting down at it, each time bringing away a piece of a leaf. When I come nearer, it at once draws in its head. When I move off, it withdraws into the woods.

H. D. Thoreau, Journal, June 28, 1860

Another in Hosmer's sandy bank field north of Assabet Bridge, deliberately eating sorrel. See July 6, 1856 ("On the sandy bank opposite [the bath place], see a wood tortoise voraciously eating sorrel leaves, under my face.”) See also A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau,the Wood Turtle (Emys insculpta); A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, Wood Sorrel

 

June 28

Recd from James Bliss         5.00

Elton T Buck Dr.

to 75 [] @ .03                     2.25

to Express Bill Paid July 10th .38

EDK, June 28, 1860

June 27

Very warm and sultry.

EDK, June 27, 1860

June 26

Bot one cotton jumper for which I had to pay .55.

Wrote to Amsden.

EDK, June 26, 1860

Up Assabet

June 27.

To-day it is cool and clear and quite windy, and the black willow down is now washed up and collected against the alders and weeds, and the river looking more sparkling.


See on the open grassy bank and shore, just this side the Hemlocks, a partridge with her little brood.


H. D. Thoreau,  Journal, June 27, 1860

To-day it is cool and clear and quite windy, and  the river looking more sparkling. See June 30, 1860 ("Standing on the side of Fair Haven Hill the verdure generally appears at its height, the air clear, and the water sparkling after the rain of yesterday. Seen through this clear, sparkling, breezy air, the fields, woods, and meadows are very brilliant and fair. ")

The black willow down is now washed up and collected against the alders and weeds. See June 26, 1859 ("The black willow down is now quite conspicuous on the trees, giving them a parti-colored or spotted white and green look, quite interesting, like a fruit. It also rests on the water by the sides of the stream, where caught by alders, etc., in narrow crescents ten and five feet long, at right angles with the bank, so thick and white as to remind me of a dense mass of hoar-frost crystals.") See also A Book of the Seasons,by Henry Thoreau, the Propogation of the Willow.

A partridge with her little brood. See June 27, 1852 ("I meet the partridge with her brood in the woods a perfect little hen. She spreads her tail into a fan and beats the ground with her wings fearlessly within a few feet of me, to attract my attention while her young disperse.");.See also A Book of Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, the Partridge.

Stone Fruit

Ancient artifacts dating back roughly 7,000 years ago to 5000 B.C., were found by state archeologists on land in Rutland Town recently.

Scott Dillon, a survey archeologist with the Vermont Division for Historic Preservation, said 16 projectiles were found at one location and appeared to be intentionally buried together in a pit.

The artifacts included stoneworking tools, fire-cracked rock and containers for cooking.  “They would heat up rock and drop the rock into the pot to heat up the food,” Dillon said.

Evening up the Assabet.

June 25.

At evening up the Assabet hear four or five screech owls on different sides of the river, uttering those peculiar low screwing or working, ventriloquial sounds. Probably young birds, some of them, lately taken flight.

H. D. Thoreau, Journal, June 25, 1860

Those peculiar low screwing or working, ventriloquial sounds. See June 2, 1860 ("I soon hear its mournful scream. . . not loud now but, though within twenty or thirty rods, sounding a mile off.”);  August 14, 1854 (“I hear the tremulous squealing scream of a screech owl in the Holden Woods.”); September 23, 1855 ("I hear from my chamber a screech owl about Monroe’s house this bright moonlight night, — a loud, piercing scream, much like the whinny  of a colt”)

The notes of this Owl are uttered in a tremulous, doleful manner, and somewhat resemble the chattering of the teeth of a person under the influence of extreme cold, although much louder. They are heard at a distance of several hundred yards. JJ Audubon

July 25. See A Book of the Seasons,, by Henry Thoreau, June 25

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 © 2009-2021

To Dugan Desert.

June 25.

I see a female marsh hawk, beating along a wall, suddenly give chase to a small bird, dashing to right and left twenty feet high about a pine.

There are no turtle-tracks now on the desert, but I see many crow-tracks there, and where they have pecked or scratched in the sand in many places, possibly smelling the eggs!?

Also the track of a fox over the sand, and find his excrement buried in the sand, and the crows have dabbled in the sand over it. It is full of fur as usual. What an unfailing supply of small game it secures that its excrement should be so generally of fur!

As near as I can make out with my glass, I see and hear the parti-colored warbler at Ledum Swamp on the larches and pines. A bluish back, yellow breast with a reddish crescent above, and white belly, and a continuous screeping note to the end.

H. D. Thoreau, Journal, June 25, 1860

Crow-tracks where they have pecked or scratched in the sand in many places, possibly smelling the turtle eggs. See June 10, 1858 ("I found an E. insculpta on its back with its head and feet drawn in and motionless, and what looked like the track of a crow on the sand. Undoubtedly the bird which I saw had been pecking at it, and perhaps they get many of the eggs."); December 30, 1860 ("I see a little snap-turtle on its back on the ice --shell, legs, and tail perfect, but head pulled off, and most of the inwards with it. . . I see two crows on the next swamp white oak westward, and I can scarcely doubt that they did it.")

Fox excrement buried in the sand, full of fur as usual. See February 26, 1855 ("Examine with glass some fox-dung from a tussock of grass amid the ice on the meadow. It appears to be composed two thirds of clay, and the rest a slate-colored fur and coarser white hairs, black-tipped . . . mingled with small bones. A mass as long as one’s finger."); May 20, 1858 ("There were half a dozen holes or more, and what with the skulls and feathers and skin and bones about, I was reminded of Golgotha."); September 23, 1860 ("I see on the top of the Cliffs to-day the dung of a fox, consisting of fur, with part of the jaw and one of the long rodent teeth of a woodchuck in it, and the rest of it huckleberry seeds with some whole berries")

I see and hear the parti-colored warbler at Ledum Swamp . See June 22, 1856 ("The woods still resound with the note of my tweezer-bird, or Sylvia Americana."); May 4, 1858 ("I heard the tweezer note, or screeper note, of the particolored warbler, bluish above, yellow or orange throat and breast, white vent, and white on wings, neck above yellowish, going restlessly over the trees — maples, etc. — by the swamp, in creeper fashion.") See also A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, the parti-colored warbler (Sylvia Americana)

July 25. See A Book of the Seasons,, by Henry Thoreau, June 25

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 © 2009-2021

June 25

Nothing worthy of Note.

EDK, June 25, 1860

June 24

Sunday. Very pleasant. Attend FB Thayer's Church in the morning. Wrote to mother this afternoon.

EDK, June 24, 1860

Summer commenced

June 24.

The dogdayish weather continues.

That hilly road through Baker's land to Bare Hill is a true up-country road with the scent of ferns along it.

Start a  woodcock from amid ferns.


All plants leafed, and summer commenced.

H. D. Thoreau,  Journal, June 24, 1860

Start a woodcock from amid ferns. See June 15, 1851 ("A solitary woodcock in the shade goes off with a startled, rattling, hurried note."); July 15, 1857 ("Scare up . . . two woodcocks in the shady alder marsh at Well Meadow, which go off with a whistling flight."); July 18, 1856 ("Again scare up a woodcock, apparently seated or sheltered in shadow of ferns in the meadow on the cool mud in the hot afternoon.")

All plants leafed, and summer commenced. See May 17, 1852 ("Does not summer begin after the May storm? "); May 27, 1853 ("A new season has commenced - summer - leafy June.”); May 30, 1852 (Now is the summer come. . . . A day for shadows, even of moving clouds, over fields in which the grass is beginning to wave."); June 4, 1860 (''The leafy season has fairly commenced . . . making already a grateful but thin shade, like a coarse sieve, so open that we see the fluttering of each leaf in its shadow."); June 21, 1853 ("The farmers have commenced haying. With this the summer culminates.")

The first half of June is cooler than the last half of May.

June 23. 

River at 7 a.m. fifteen inches above summer level, having fallen. 

A sparrow's nest with three fresh eggs in a hollow of a willow, two and a half feet from ground, at my boat's place. The bird has the usual marks, except perhaps the spot on the breast is more obvious, and the lines over the eyes more white and distinct. The eggs have a much bluer-white ground than those I have, and beside are but slightly spotted with brown except toward the larger end. The chip of the bird is metallic, not the hoarse chip of the spring song sparrow. Vide eggs in collection. 

2 p. m. — To Bare Hill road. 

This is a decidedly dogdayish day,* foretold by the red moon of last evening. The sunlight, even this fore noon, was peculiarly yellow, passing through misty clouds, and this afternoon the atmosphere is decidedly blue. 

I see it in the street within thirty rods, and perceive a distinct musty odor. First bluish, musty dog-day, and sultry. Thermometer at two only 85°, however, and wind comes easterly soon and rather cool.

The foliage is now thick and for the most part dark, and this kind of weather is probably the result of this amount of shadow; but it grows cooler with easterly wind before night.

I suspect that it may be true, as said, that the first half of June is cooler than the last half of May, on this account.

Smilacina racemosa, how long? 

Agrostis scabra, pond path at east end of Walden.

Poa compressa may fairly begin on the railroad at Walden; also piper grass just begun. 

I see a young Rana sylvatica in the woods, only five eighths of an inch long. Or is it a hylodes ? — for I see a faint cross-like mark on the back and yet the black dash on the sides of the face. 

At 7 p. m. the river is fifteen and three fourths inches above summer level. It rained hard on the 20th and part of the following night, — two and one eighth inches of rain in all, there being no drought, — raising the river from some two or three inches above summer level to seven and a half inches above summer level at 7 a. m. of the 21st. 

At 7 p. m. of the 21st, 11 inches above summer level. 

At 7 p. m. of the 23rd, 15 3/4 inches above summer level. 

Thus two and one eighth inches of rain at this season, falling in one day, with little or no wind, raises the river while it is falling some four inches; on the next day it rises four more; the next night it rises seven sixteenths inch more; the next day (second after the rain) it rises three and three sixteenths inches ; the next night it falls one eighth of an inch; it rises again three fourths of an inch, or five eighths absolutely; i. e., it rises still the third day after the rain. 

That is, after a remarkably heavy rain of one day it does not rise as much in a night as it ordinarily falls in a day at this season.

H. D. Thoreau,  Journal, June 23, 1860

A sparrow's nest with three fresh eggs in a hollow of a willow, two and a half feet from ground. The eggs have a much bluer-white ground than those I have, and beside are but slightly spotted with brown except toward the larger end. See May 21, 1852 ("A song sparrow's nest and eggs so placed in a bank that none could tread on it; bluish-white, speckled."); June 13, 1858 ("I see a song sparrow's nest here in a little spruce . . . Some of the eggs have quite a blue ground."); June 14, 1855 ("A song sparrow’s nest in ditch bank under Clamshell, of coarse grass lined with fine, and five eggs nearly hatched and a peculiar dark end to them.") See also  A Book of the Seasons,  by Henry Thoreau, The Song Sparrow

This is a decidedly dogdayish day, See June 23, 1853 ("Looking down on it through the woods in middle of this sultry dogdayish afternoon, the water is a misty bluish-green. "); June 23, 1859 ("A foggy, Cape-Cod day, with an easterly wind.")

I see a young Rana sylvatica in the woods, only five eighths of an inch long. Or is it a hylodes ? — for I see a faint cross-like mark on the back and yet the black dash on the sides of the face.  Compare  August 10, 1858 ("I notice several of the hylodes hopping through the woods like wood frogs,. . . They are probably common in the woods, but not noticed, on account of their size, or not distinguished from the wood frog. I also saw a young wood frog, with the dark line through the eye, no bigger than the others. One hylodes which I bring home has a perfect cross on its back"). See September 12, 1857 ("There was a conspicuous dark-brown patch along the side of the [wood frog's] head, whose upper edge passed directly through the eye horizontally, just above its centre, so that the pupil and all below were dark and the upper portion of the iris golden") See also A Book of the Seasons,  by Henry Thoreau, The  Wood Frog (Rana sylvatica)

June 23

Very busy day indeed,
paid 3.00 for Board
paid for C Oil .12


EDK, June 23, 1860

Unseasonable cold

June 22.

There is a strong northeast wind this afternoon, the thermometer 60° only at 12.30 P.M. and 65 at 5 P.M. But it is remarkably cold in the wind, and you require a thick coat. 65° now, with wind, is uncomfortably cold.

The heavy rain of the 20th with the cold of the 21st has killed some birds. A martin and another bird were found dead in Wheildon's garden. Frost last night kills the tops of the flowering fern along the south edge of the Great Meadows.

On the northeast side of the Great Fields there are two or three little patches of sand one to two rods across with a few slivers of arrowhead stone sprinkled over them. These spots are plowed only by the wind and rain, and yet I rarely cross them but I find a new arrowhead.

The pretty new moon in the west is quite red this evening.

H. D. Thoreau, Journal,  June 22, 1860

vide March 22, 1859

65° now, with wind, is uncomfortably cold See June 22, 1855 ("At 6 P. M. the temperature of the air is 77°, of river one rod from shore 72°. Warmest day yet.")

The pretty new moon in the west is quite red this evening See June 23, 1860 ("This is a decidedly dogdayish day, foretold by the red moon of last evening.") See also December 23, 1851 (“The evening star is shining brightly, and, beneath all, the west horizon is glowing red . . . and just above the horizon, the narrowest imaginable white sickle of the new moon.”);J uly 20, 1852 ("The horns of the moon only three or four days old look very sharp , still cloud like , in the midst of a blue space , prepared to shine a brief half - hour before it sets . . ..the crescent moon . . ., grows more silvery, and, as it sinks in the west, more yellowish, and the outline of the old moon in its arms is visible if you do not look directly at it. Some dusky redness lasts almost till the last traces of daylight disappear, about 10 o'clock, the same time the moon goes down") and A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, June Moonlight

June 22

Quite warm. Trade very good.

EDK, June 22, 1860

A cold wind.

June 21.

June 21, 2020

The wind is still northeast, and the air is now so cold (cooled by the rain) that most have fires, and it is uncomfortably cool out of the sun, which does not shine much this forenoon.

At 12 m. it is only 59° above zero, and I am surprised to hear some toads ring, which I have not heard lately by day; as if this degree of coolness is agreeable to them.

At noon the sun comes fairly out and the wind rises, now blowing quite strong from the northeast.

H. D. Thoreau, Journal,  June 21, 1860

At 12 m. it is only 59° above zero, See June 21, 1856 ("Very hot day, as was yesterday, –– 98° at 2 P. M., 99° at 3, and 128° in sun. ")

I am surprised to hear some toads ring, as if this degree of coolness is agreeable to them. Compare June 21, 1852 ("I hear neither toads nor bullfrogs at present; they want a warmer night. ")

Pollinometers

June 21.

June 21, 2013

Having noticed the pine pollen washed up on the shore of three or four ponds in the woods lately and at Ripple Lake, a dozen rods from the nearest pine, it suggested to me that the air must be full of this fine dust at this season, that it must be carried to great distances, and its presence might be detected remote from pines by examining the edges of bodies of water, where it would be collected to one side by the wind and waves from a large area. The time to examine the ponds this year was, I should say, from the 15th to the 20th of this month.

As chemists detect the presence of ozone in the atmosphere by exposing to it a delicately prepared paper, so the lakes detect for us thus the presence of the pine pollen in the atmosphere. They are our pollinometers.

A large pond will collect the most, and you will find most at the bottom of long deep bays into which the wind blows.

How much of this invisible dust must be floating in the atmosphere, and be inhaled by us at this season!! I do not believe that there is any part of this town on which the pollen of the pine may not fall.

H. D. Thoreau, Journal, June 21, 1860

See June 21, 1850 ("The flowers of the white pine are now in their prime, but I see none of their pollen on the pond."); June 21, 1856 ("Much pine pollen is washed up on the northwest side of the pond. Must it not have come from pines at a distance?"); June 18, 1860 ("I see in the southerly bays of Walden the pine pollen now washed up thickly; only at the bottom of the bays, especially the deep long bay, where it is a couple of rods long by six to twenty-four inches wide and one inch deep; pure sulphur-yellow, and now has no smell. It has come quite across the pond from where the pines stand, full half a mile, probably washed across most of the way."); June 14, 1853 ("The pollen of the pine yellowed the driftwood on the shore and the stems of bushes which stood in the water, and in little flakes extended out some distance on the surface, until at four or five rods in this cove it was suddenly and distinctly bounded by an invisible fence on the surface")

June 21

Very cold indeed for this month.

Mr. B.C. as the Devil. 

EDK, June 21, 1860

A warm rain.

June 20.

June 20, 2017

Heavy rain all day and part of the following night. It comes down perpendicularly. 

By noon nearly an inch and a quarter falls into a large tin pail with upright sides placed in the garden for the purpose, and by the next morning there is two and one eighth inches, - which is the whole of it.

More rain falls to-day than any day since March, if not this year.

It is a warm rain, and I sit all the day and evening with my window open.

H. D. Thoreau, Journal, June 20, 1860

More rain falls to-day than any day since March, if not this year. See note to June 17, 1860 ("A steady gentle rain here for several hours, and in the night again, the thunder, as yesterday, mostly forerunning or superficial to the shower. This the third day of thunder-showers in afternoon, though the 14th it did not rain here.");  See also June 14, 1858 ("The river is raised surprisingly by the rain of the 12th. The Mill Brook has been over the Turnpike.");   June 15, 1858 ("Rains steadily again, and we have had no clear weather since the 11th. The river is remarkably high, far higher than before, this year, and is rising."); June 17, 1859 ("Rain, especially heavy rain, raising the river in the night of the 17th."); June 17, 1859 ("Heavy rain, raising the river in the night.")

June 20. See A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, June 20

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 © 2009-2021

June 20

Decidedly a day of umbrellas. Recd. a letter from Mother.

EDK, June 20, 1860

June 19

Warm and sultry.


EDK, June 19, 1860

To Flint's Pond

June 19.

June 19, 2020

The devil's-needles now abound in wood-paths and about the Ripple Lakes. Even if your eyes were shut you would know they were there, hearing the rustling of their wings as they flit by in pursuit of one another.


I follow a distinct fox-path amid the grass and bushes for some forty rods beyond Britton's Hollow, leading from the great fox-hole. It branches on reaching the peach-orchard. 


No doubt by these routes they oftenest go and return to their hole. As broad as a cart-wheel, and at last best seen when you do not look too hard for it.


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

A fox-path beyond Britton's Hollow, leading from the great fox-hole. See April 9, 1859 ("A large fox-hole in Britton's hollow, lately dug; an ox-cartload of sand, or more, thrown up on the hill side.")

June 18

Grand celebration of the Battle of Bunker Hill. Splendid parade of the Boston Heavy Artillery. Baltimore convention assembles today.

EDK, June 18, 1860

1860

Standing on Emerson's Cliff

June 18.

The tumultuous singing of birds, a burst of melody poured into my slumber, wakes me this morning at dawn.

Standing on Emerson's Cliff, I see very distinctly the redness of a luxuriant field of clover on the top of Fair Haven Hill, some two thirds of a mile off, the day being cloudy and misty, the sun just ready to break out.

On this Emerson hill the sedge P. Pennsylvanica has shot up into large and luxuriant and densely set tufts, giving quite a grassy appearance to the spaces between the little oak sprouts.

I notice huckleberry and blueberry, and those remarkable galls on a shrub oak, two or three together, each with a grub in it.


H. D. Thoreau, Journal, June 18, 1860

The tumultuous singing of birds, a burst of melody poured into my slumber . See June 4, 1852 (“What sounds to be awakened by! If only our sleep, our dreams, are such as to harmonize with the song, the warbling of the birds, ushering in the day!”)

I see very distinctly the redness of a luxuriant field of clover on the top of Fair Haven Hill. See June 15, 1853 (“What more luxuriant than a clover-field? . . . This is perhaps the most characteristic feature of June, resounding with the hum of insects. It is so massive, such a blush on the fields. The rude health of the sorrel cheek has given place to the blush of clover.”)

The tumultuous singing of birds, a burst of melody, wakes me up (the window being open) these mornings at dawn. What a matinade to have poured into your slumber!

. . .
I see in the southerly bays of Walden the pine pollen now washed up thickly; only at the bottom of the bays, especially the deep long bay, where it is a couple of rods long by six to twenty-four inches wide and one inch deep; pure sulphur-yellow, and now has no smell. It has come quite across the pond from where the pines stand, full half a mile, probably washed across most of the way. 

I have scarcely seen a warbler for a fortnight, or since the leaves have been developed, though I hear plenty of them in the tree-tops.

June18. See A Book of the Seasons,  by Henry Thoreau, June 18

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 © 2009-2020

Afternoon thunder-showers

June 17. 

Quite a fog this morning.

About 1 P.M., notice thunder-clouds in west and hear the muttering. As yesterday, it splits at sight of Concord and goes south and north. Nevertheless about 3 P. M. begins a steady gentle rain here for several hours, and in the night again, the thunder, as yesterday, mostly forerunning or superficial to the shower.

This the third day of thunder-showers in afternoon, though the 14th it did not rain here.

Carex flava out, possibly a week.

H. D. Thoreau, Journal, June 17, 1860

The thunder, as yesterday, mostly forerunning or superficial to the shower. See June 17, 1852 ("A small thunder-shower comes up . . . We see the increasing outline of the slate-colored falling rain from the black cloud. It passes mainly to the south. We feel only the wind of it at first, but after it appears to back up and we get some rain.”)  See also  June 15, 1860 (“A thunder-shower in the north goes down the Merrimack.”);   June 16, 1854 ("Three days in succession, — the 13th, 14th, and 15th, — thunder-clouds, with thunder and lightning, have risen high in the east, threatening instant rain, and yet each time it has failed to reach us.”); June 16, 1860 ("Thunder-showers show themselves about 2 P.M. in the west, but split at sight of Concord and go east on each side.”)

June 17

Sunday. Attended church at Mercantile Hall with Merritt Orville and George. Came into town in the P.M.

EDK, June 17, 1860

June 16

Very Warm and dry during the week.

Rec'd from James Bliss six dollars on account.

Paid J. Adams for Board 3.00.

EDK, June 16, 1860

True summer.

June 16.

June 16, 2020

At 2 P.M. 85°, and about same for several days past. 

I have heard no hylodes since the 12th, and no purring frogs (Rana palusiris). Think they ceased about the same time, or with the 85° heat. 

Thunder-showers show themselves about 2 P.M. in the west, but split at sight of Concord and go east on each side, we getting only a slight shower. 

Channing found a marsh hawk's nest on the Great Meadows this afternoon, with three eggs considerably developed. The meadows full of lightning-bugs to-night; first seen the 14th.

It appears to me that these phenomena occur simultaneously, say June 12th, viz.: -

• Heat about. 85° at 2 P.M.

• Hylodes cease to peep.

• Purring frogs (Rana palustris) cease.

• Lightning-bugs first seen.

• Bullfrogs trump generally.

• Mosquitoes begin to be really troublesome.

• Afternoon thunder-showers almost regular.

• Sleep with open window.

• Turtles fairly and generally begun to lay.

H.D. Thoreau, Journal, June 16, 1860

These phenomena occur simultaneously . . . See June 1, 1853 ("The birds have now all come and no longer fly in flocks. The hylodes are no longer heard. The bullfrogs begin to trump.... It is now the season of growth.”); June 15, 1860 ("The bullfrogs now commonly trump at night, and the mosquitoes are now really troublesome. For some time I have not heard toads by day, and the hylodes appear to have done. A thunder-shower in the north goes down the Merrimack.”); June 16, 1858 (“I see a yellow-spotted turtle digging its hole at midafternoon, ”); June 16, 1855 (“A painted tortoise just burying three flesh-colored eggs in the dry, sandy plain near the thrasher’s nest. It leaves no trace on the surface. Find near by four more about this business”)

Thunder-showers show themselves about 2 P.M. in the west, but split at sight of Concord and go east on each side. . . See June 16, 1854 ("Three days in succession, — the 13th, 14th, and 15th, — thunder-clouds, with thunder and lightning, have risen high in the east, threatening instant rain, and yet each time it has failed to reach us.”)

A new season begun.

June 15.

We have had warmer weather for several days. A new season begun.

The bullfrogs now commonly trump at night, and the mosquitoes are now really troublesome. For some time I have not heard toads by day, and the hylodes appear to have done.

A thunder-shower in the north goes down the Merrimack.

H. D. Thoreau, Journal, June 15, 1860

Bullfrogs trump, mosquitoes troublesome, toads and hylodes cease, and thundershowers. See June 15, 1852 ("The crickets creak louder and more steadily; the bullfrogs croak in earnest. The drouth begins. The dry z-ing of the locust is heard."); June 16, 1860 ("It appears to me that these phenomena occur simultaneously, say June 12th :• Heat about. 85° at 2 P.M.• Hylodes cease to peep.• Purring frogs (Rana palustris) cease.• Lightning-bugs first seen.• Bullfrogs trump generally.• Mosquitoes begin to be really troublesome.• Afternoon thunder-showers almost regular.• Sleep with open window.• Turtles fairly and generally begun to lay.")

June 15 . 2 P . M . — River four and one half above summer level . For some time I have not heard toads by day , ' and not for a long time in numbers ; yet they still ring at night . Perhaps it is entirely a matter of temperature , – that in June and maybe the latter half of May ( ? ) they require the coolness of the evening to arouse them . The hylodes appear to have done . I paddle to Clamshell . Notice the down of the white willow near the bridge , twenty rods off , whitening Sassafras Shore for two or three rods like a dense white foam . It is all full of lit tle seeds not sprouted , is as dense as fur , and has first blown fifteen rods overland . This is a late willow to ripen , but the black willow shows no down yet , as I notice . It is very conspicuously white along the shore , a foot or two wide , – a dense downy coat or fleece on the water . Has blown northeast . See froth about the base of some grass in a meadow . The large early wool - grass of the meadows will shed pollen in a day or two — can see stamens — on Hos mer ' s Flat shore . This it is grows in circles . As I stood there I heard that peculiar hawk - like ( for rhythm ) but more resonant or clanging kind of scream which I may have heard before this year , plover - like , indefinitely far , — over the Clamshell plain . After proceeding half a dozen rods toward the hill , I heard the familiar willet note of the upland plover and , looking up , saw one standing erect — like a large tell tale , or chicken with its head stretched up — on the rail fence . After a while it flew off southwest and low , then wheeled and went a little higher down the river . Of pigeon size , but quick quivering wings . Finally rose higher and flew more or less zigzag , as if uncertain where it would alight , and at last , when almost out of sight , it pitched down into a field near Cyrus Hubbard ' s . It was the same note I heard so well on Cape Cod in July , ' 55 , and probably the same I heard in the Shaw sheen valley , May 15 , 1858 . I suspect , then , that it breeds here . The button - bush is now fairly green . The Carex stricta tufts are now as large as ever , and , the culms falling over , they are like great long - haired 355 heads , now drooping around the great tussocks . I know of no other sedge that make so massive and conspicuous a tussock , yet with a slender leaf . This the one that reflects the peculiar glaucous sheen from its bent surfaces . The turtles are apparently now in the midst of their laying . I go looking for them , to see where they have left the water for this purpose . See a snapping turtle whose shell is about ten inches long making her hole on the top of the sand - bank at the steam - mill site , within four rods of the road . She pauses warily at sound of my boat , but I should have mistaken her for a dark stone if she had [ not ] lifted her snout above her shell . I went to her as she lay and hissed by the hole at 4 P . M . It was about three and a half inches across , and not perpendicular but chiefly on one side ; say five inches deep ( as yet ) , and four plus inches wide beneath , but only about one inch of the bottom exposed when you looked straight down , — in short , like the common Emys picta ' s hole . She had copiously wet the ground before or while digging , as the picta does . Saw two or three similar holes made by her afterward . There was her broad track ( some ten inches wide ) up the sandy or gravelly bank , and I saw where she had before dug , or begun to dig , within a rod of this , but had retreated to the river . I withdrew to the bridge to observe her ( not having touched her ) , but she took the occasion to hasten to the river . A thunder - shower in the north goes down the Merrimack . We have had warmer weather for several days , say since 12th . A new season begun , — daily baths , thin coat , etc . The bullfrogs now commonly trump at night , and the mosquitoes are now really troublesome .