The signs of cold weather./ Open places on the river.between Lee's Bridge and Carlisle Bridge

 December  28.

December 28, 2019

 In the morning the windows  are like ground glass (covered with frost), and we cannot see out. Sleds creak or squeak along the dry and hard snow-path. Crows come near the houses. These are among the signs of cold weather.

The open places in the river yesterday between Lee's Bridge and Carlisle Bridge were : 

• 1st, below Nut Meadow Brook, a rather shoal place; 
• 2d, at Clamshell Bend, longer; 
• 3d, at Hubbard's Bath Bend; 
• 31/2, was there not a little open at ash tree? '); 
• 4th, I think there was a short opening at Lee's Bend;[Or, rather, I think it was thinly frozen ?]
• 5th, from Monroe's to Merrick's pasture; 
• 6th, below junction to bridge; 
• 7th, below French's Rock;
•  8th, Barrett's Bar. 
• N. B. — Did not observe or examine between this and the shoal below the Holt.It was no doubt open at the last place and perhaps more. 
• There was no opening between the Holt shoal and Carlisle Bridge, for there was none on the 25th. 

The most solidly frozen portions are the broad and straight reaches. All broad bays are frozen hard. When you come to where the river is winding, there is shallower and swifter water — and open places as yet.

It is remarkable that the river should so suddenly contract at Pelham Pond. It begins to be Musketaquid there. 

The places where the river was certainly (i. e. except 4th) open yesterday were all only five feet or less in depth, according to my map, and all except 8th at bends or else below the mouth of a brook. And all places not more than five and a quarter feet deep were open (I am doubtful only about behind Rhodes) except above Holt Bend and perhaps Pad Island, or possibly none need be excepted. 

Hence, I should say, if you wish to ascertain where the river is five feet, or less than five feet, deep in Concord, wait till it is open for not more than half a dozen rods below Nut Meadow (it was probably 'some twenty the 27th), and then all open places will be five or less than five feet deep.

H. D. Thoreau, Journal, December 28, 1859

In the morning the windows are like ground glass (covered with frost), and we cannot see out. See January 4, 1856 ("It is snapping cold this night (10 P. M.). I see the frost on the windows sparkle as I go through the passageway with a light ")'; February 1, 1860 ("Grows colder apace toward night. Frost forms on windows."); February 5, 1855 ("It was quite cold last evening, and I saw the scuttle window reflecting the lamp from a myriad brilliant points when I went up to bed."); February 17, 1860 ("Grows colder yet at evening, and frost forms on the windows.")

Crows come near the houses. These are among the signs of cold weather, See January 23, 1852 ("The snow is so deep and the cold so intense that the crows are compelled to be very bold in seeking their food, and come very near the houses in the village.”); December 27, 1853 (“The crows come nearer to the houses, alight on trees by the roadside, apparently being put to it for food.”) January 7, 1856 ("The cold weather has brought the crows, and for the first time this winter I hear them cawing amid the houses")

It is remarkable that the river should so suddenly contract at Pelham Pond. It begins to be Musketaquid there. See January 31, 1855 ("I skated up as far as the boundary between Wayland and Sudbury just above Pelham’s Pond, about twelve miles, . . . It was, all the way that I skated, a chain of meadows, with the muskrat-houses still rising above the ice.")

The open places in the river. See March 26, 1860 ("Tried by various tests, this season fluctuates more or less.. . .The river may be either only transiently closed, as in '52-'53 and '57-'58, or it may not be open entirely (up to pond) till April 4th.");  January 28. 1853 ("These two or three have been the coldest days of the winter, and the river is generally closed. . .and the sun-sparkles where the river is open are very cheerful to behold."); December 19, 1854 ("Last night was so cold that the river closed up almost everywhere, and made good skating where there had been no ice to catch the snow of the night before"); January 19, 1856 (“The only open place in the river between Hunt’s Bridge and the railroad bridge is a small space against Merrick’s pasture just below the Rock”); January 20, 1856 ("It is remarkable that the short strip in the middle below the Island yesterday should be the only'open place between Hunt’s Bridge and Hubbard’s, at least, -—-probably as far as Lee’s. The river has been frozen solidly ever since the 7th,");  January 24, 1856(“You may walk anywhere on the river now. Even the open space against Merrick’s, below the Rock, has been closed again . . .”); February 27, 1856 "(The river has been frozen solidly for seven weeks"); March 20, 1856 ("The river has just begun to open at Hubbard’s Bend. It has been closed there since January 7th, i. e. ten weeks and a half."); January 20, 1857 ("The river has been frozen everywhere except at the very few swiftest places since about December 18th, and everywhere since about January 1st."); January 23, 1858 ("I have not been able to walk up the North Branch this winter, nor along the channel of the South Branch at any time."); January 24, 1858 ("The river is broadly open, as usual this winter. . . . What is a winter without snow and ice in this latitude? ")