the second important snow

December 22.

This evening and night, 

the second important snow, 

there having been sleighing

since the 4th, and now, --

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

The second important snow. See December 4, 1860 ("The first snow, four or five inches, this evening.") See also December 22, 1853 (“A slight whitening of snow last evening, the second whitening of the winter,”); January 22, 1854 ("No second snow-storm in the winter can be so fair and interesting as the first") Compare  January 13, 1853 ("A drifting snow-storm last night and to day, the first of consequence; and the first sleighing this winter.")