At this moment these turtles are on their way inland to lay their eggs.

June 12. 

P . M. Up Assabet.

I find several Emys insculpta nests and eggs, and see two painted turtles going inland to lay at 3 P. M. 

At this moment these turtles are on their way inland to lay their eggs all over the State, warily drawing in their heads and waiting when you come by.

Here is a painted turtle just a rod inland, its back all covered with the fragments of green leaves blown off and washed up yesterday, which now line the shore . It has come out through this wrack. 

As the river has gone down, these green leaves mark the bank in lines just like sawdust. 

I see a young yellow-spot turtle in the Assabet, still quite broad and roundish though I count about seven striæ. It is very handsome. 

At 7. 30 P. M.  I hear many toads, it being a warm night, but scarcely any hylodes. [17th, have heard no more hylodes.]

River ten and one third above summer level.

H. D. Thoreau, Journal, June 12, 1860

I find several Emys insculpta nests and eggs. See June 11, 1858 ("Looking carefully to see where the ground had been recently disturbed, I dug with my hand and could directly feel the passage to the eggs, and so discovered two or three nests with their large and long eggs, – five eggs in one of them."). See also A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau,the Wood Turtle (Emys insculpta)

   

Warily drawing in their heads and waiting when you come by. See June 5, 1858 ("I now see a painted turtle in a rut, crossing a sandy road. They are now laying, then. When they get into a rut they find it rather difficult to get out, and, hearing a wagon coming, they draw in their heads, lie still, and are crushed")

A painted turtle just a rod inland . See . May 27, 1855 ("See a painted turtle on a hill forty or fifty feet above river, probably laying eggs."); June 7, 1860 ("A painted turtle beginning her hole for eggs at 4 P.M."); June 14, 1853 ("On the Strawberry Hill on the further side of White Pond, about fifty feet above the pond and a dozen rods from it, found a painted tortoise laying her eggs.") See also A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, the Painted Turtle (Emys picta)

Green leaves mark the bank in lines just like sawdust. See April 1, 1858 ("It is remarkable that the river seems rarely to rise or fall gradually, but rather by fits and starts, and hence the water-lines, as indicated now by the sawdust, are very distinct parallel lines four or five or more inches apart.”); April 1, 1860 ("We see lines of sawdust perfectly level and parallel to one another on the side of the steep dark bank at the Hemlocks, for thirty rods or more visible at once, reminding you of a coarse chalk line made by snapping a string, not more than half an inch wide much of it, but more true than that would be. The sawdust . . .probably marks the standstill or highest water for the time.”)

I see a young yellow-spot turtle in the Assabet, still quite broad and roundish though I count about seven striæ. See March 10, 1853 ("I am surprised to find on the rail a young tortoise, an inch and one sixteenth long in the shell, . . .which I think must be the Emys guttata, for there is a large and distinct yellow spot on each dorsal and lateral plate, . . . two yellow spots on each side of the hind head and one fainter on the top of the head. . . . It is about seven eighths of an inch wide. See also A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, The Yellow-Spotted Turtle

I hear many toads, it being a warm night, but scarcely any hylodes. See . June 12, 1855  (" I hear the toad . . . still. . . .This rich, sprayey note possesses all the shore. It diffuses itself far and wide over the water and enters into every crevice of the noon, and you cannot tell whence it proceeds") See also June 16, 1860 ("It appears to me that these phenomena occur simultaneously, say June 12th, viz.: -Heat about 85° at 2 P. M. True summer . Hylodes cease to peep . Purring frogs (Rana palustris) cease . Lightning - bugs first seen . Bullfrogs trump generally . Mosquitoes begin to be really troublesome . Afternoon thunder - showers almost regular . Sleep with open window ( 10th), and wear thin coat and ribbon on neck . Turtles fairly and generally begun to lay.")