P. M. — To Walden.
Returning, I saw a fox on the railroad, at the crossing below the shanty site, eight or nine rods from me.
He looked of a dirty yellow and lean. I did not notice the white tip to his tail.
Seeing me, he pricked up his ears and at first ran up and along the east bank on the crust, then changed his mind and came down the steep bank, crossed the railroad before me, and, gliding up the west bank, disappeared in the woods.
He coursed, or glided, along easily, appearing not to lift his feet high, leaping over obstacles, with his tail extended straight behind.
He leaped over the ridge of snow about two feet high and three wide between the tracks, very easily and gracefully.
I followed, examining his tracks.
There was about a quarter of an inch of recent snow above the crust, but for the most part he broke in two or three inches. I slumped from one to three feet. Sometimes I thought his tail had scraped the snow.
He went off at an easy gliding pace such as he might keep up for a long time, pretty direct after his first turning.
H. D. Thoreau, Journal, February 10, 1856
See February 2, 1860 ("As we were kindling a fire on the pond by the side of the island, we saw the fox himself at the inlet of the river."); see also January 21, 1857 ("It is remarkable how many tracks of foxes you will see quite near the village, where they have been in the night, and yet a regular walker will not glimpse one oftener than once in eight or ten years.”); February 5, 1854 ("Near the bathing-place, came across a fox's track, which I think was made last night or since. The tracks were about two inches long, or a little less, by one and a half wide"); December 24, 1856 ("Do not see a track of any animal till returning near the Well Meadow Field, where many foxes, one of whom I have a glimpse of, had been coursing back and forth in the path and near it for three quarters of a mile. They had made quite a path.") See also A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, The Fox,
See February 2, 1860 ("As we were kindling a fire on the pond by the side of the island, we saw the fox himself at the inlet of the river."); see also January 21, 1857 ("It is remarkable how many tracks of foxes you will see quite near the village, where they have been in the night, and yet a regular walker will not glimpse one oftener than once in eight or ten years.”); February 5, 1854 ("Near the bathing-place, came across a fox's track, which I think was made last night or since. The tracks were about two inches long, or a little less, by one and a half wide"); December 24, 1856 ("Do not see a track of any animal till returning near the Well Meadow Field, where many foxes, one of whom I have a glimpse of, had been coursing back and forth in the path and near it for three quarters of a mile. They had made quite a path.") See also A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, The Fox,
February 10. See A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, February 10
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 © 2009-2022
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