In a freshet the water rises higher as you go down the river.

July 8. 

Friday. 

I see an emperor moth (Attacus Cecropia), which came out the 6th. 

P. M. — To Clamshell by river. 

The Carex Muhlenbergii is common on Clamshell slope, just beyond the ravine. 

Thimble-berries have begun. 

The islands of the river, below the Assabet especially, — as Hosmer's, and the one just below French's Rock, — are now covered with 

• canary grass, which has almost entirely done and closed up; 
• fowl-meadow (Poa serotina), now fairly begun to bloom (first noticed the middle of June its slender green panicles shaped like a green red-top);
• Glyceria fluitans, going out of bloom; also
•  the sensitive fern (the "hand leaf" of haymakers); 
• pipes; 
• (and sedges, which might be named as soon as any, as the crinita which overhangs the water). 

I judge that in a freshet the water rises higher as you go down the river, both from the height to which it rose last March, as shown me at several bridges, and from the height of the bridges themselves, which the builders have been gradually compelled to raise, for the most part just above high-water mark.

H. D. Thoreau, Journal, July 8, 1859

I see an emperor moth (Attacus Cecropia), which came out the 6th. See May 6, 1858 ("A boy brings me to-day an Attacus Cecropia moth . . ., the male, a dark brown above, and considerably larger than mine. It must be about seven inches in alar extent."); June 2, 1855 ("It was surprising to see the creature unfold and expand before our eyes, the wings gradually elongating, . . .at dusk, when apparently it was waving its wings preparatory to its evening flight, I gave it ether and so saved it in a perfect state.");June 18, 1857 ("They brought me an Attacus Cecropia . . . Its body was large like the one I have preserved"); June 22, 1857 ("It seems that Sophia found an Attacus Cecropia out in my chamber last Monday, or the 15th. It soon went to laying eggs on the window-sill, ")

Thimble-berries have begun.  See July 13, 1856 ("Thimble-berries are now fairly ripe and abundant");  July 17, 1856 ("On Linnaea Hill many thimble-berries and some raspberries."); July 18, 1854 ("As I go along the Joe Smith road, every bush and bramble bears its fruit; the sides of the road are a fruit garden; blackberries, huckleberries, thimble-berries, fresh and abundant, no signs of drought; all fruits in abundance; the earth teems. "); July 21, 1856 ("Low blackberries thick enough to pick in some places, three or four days. Thimble-berries about the 12th, and V. Pennsylvanicum much longer.").

The sensitive fern (the "hand leaf" of haymakers.) See September 6, 1856 ("The sensitiveness of the sensitive fern. If you take a tender plant by the stem, the warmth of your hand will cause the leaves to curl."); August 19, 1854 ("The very light yellowish-green of the sensitive fern which the mowers have left.")