The bee tree felled

February 25

P. M. — To Walden and Fair Haven. 

The only bare ground is the railroad track, where the snow is thin. The crust still bears, and I leave the railroad at Andromeda Ponds and go through on crust to Fair Haven. 

Am surprised to see some little minnows only an inch long in an open place in Well Meadow Brook. 

As I stand there, see that they have just felled my bee tree, the hemlock. The chopper even now stands at its foot. I go over and see him cut into the cavity by my direction. He breaks a piece out of his axe as big as my nail against a hemlock knot in the meanwhile. There is no comb within. 

They have just been cutting wood at Bittern Cliff. The sweet syrup is out on the ends of the hickory logs there.

H. D. Thoreau, Journal, February 25, 1856

The crust still bears, and I leave the railroad at Andromeda Ponds and go through on crust to Fair Haven. See February 8, 1856 ("Yesterday’s snow turning to rain, which froze as it fell, there is now . . . a thin crust over all the snow."); February 12, 1856 ("The snow or crust and cold weather began December 26th, and not till February 7th was there any considerable relenting, when it rained a little . . .and no serious thaw till the 11th, or yesterday."); February 13, 1856 ("Avery firm and thick, uneven crust, on which I go in any direction."); February 14, 1856 ("I can now walk on the crust in every direction at the Andromeda Swamp;");  February 28, 1856 ("I go on the crust which we have had since the 13th,")

Am surprised to see some little minnows only an inch long. See March 18, 1856 ("Within the brook I see quite a school of little minnows, an inch long . . . Notwithstanding the backwardness of the season, all the town still under deep snow and ice, here they are, in the first open and smooth water, governed by the altitude of the sun.");  March 19, 1856 ("No sooner is some opening made in the river, a square rod in area, where some brook or rill empties in, than the fishes apparently begin to seek it for light and warmth . . . They are seen to ripple the water, darting out as you approach. ")See also March 9, 1854 ("I detect the trout minnows not an inch long by their quick motions or quirks, soon concealing themselves.") and A Book of the Seasons,  by Henry Thoreau, Signs of the Spring: Ripples made by Fishes

Felled my bee tree. See September 30, 1852 ("Custom gives the first finder of the nest a right to the honey and to cut down the tree "); February 10, 1852 ("I saw yesterday on the snow on the ice, on the south side of Fair Haven Pond, some hundreds of honey-bees, dead and sunk half an inch below the crust. They had evidently come forth from their hive (perhaps in a large hemlock on the bank close by), and had fallen on the snow chilled to death. Their bodies extended from the tree to about three rods from it toward the pond. Pratt says he would advise me to remove the dead bees, lest somebody else should be led to discover their retreat, and I may get five dollars for the swarm, and perhaps a good deal of honey.");  March 4, 1852 (" I cut my initials on the bee tree")

February 25. See  Book of the Seasons,  by Henry Thoreau, February 25

Well Meadow Brook–

am surprised to see minnows

in an open place. 

A Book of the Seasons,  by Henry Thoreau, The bee tree felled

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 ©  2009-2026

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