Sunday.
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| November 2, 2019 |
The muskrat-houses are mostly covered by the rise of the river! — not a very unexpected one either.
Old wells as well as walls must be among the oldest monuments of civilized man here. How old may be the most ancient well which men use to-day.
Saw a canoe birch beyond Nawshawtuct, growing out of the middle of a white pine stump, which still showed the mark of the axe, sixteen inches in diameter at its bottom, or two feet from the ground, or where it had first taken root on the stump.
H. D. Thoreau, Journal, November 2, 1851
The muskrat-houses are mostly covered by the rise of the river. See November 11, 1855 ("The bricks of which the muskrat builds his house are little masses or wads of the dead weedy rubbish on the muddy bottom, which it probably takes up with its mouth. It consists of various kinds of weeds, now agglutinated together by the slime and dried confervae threads, utricularia, hornwort, etc., — a streaming, tuft-like wad. The building of these cabins appears to be coincident with the commencement of their clam diet, for now their vegetable food, excepting roots, is cut off.")
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