Perhaps it might have waded anywhere in it.

October 4.


Rode to Westport, where R. wished to consult the Proprietors' Records of Dartmouth to find the names, etc., of his ancestors.

Passed through Smith's Mills village, the older settlement in Dartmouth, on the stream which comes from Sassacowens Pond, then Westport, about three miles beyond, and crossed the Westport River to Gifford's, a mile beyond, where the Records were.

Returning, lunched by Westport Pond in Dartmouth, said to contain sixty acres but to be only about two feet deep.

Saw a blue heron in it some rods from the shore, where the water did not come up to its body. Perhaps it might have waded anywhere in it. It stood with the side of its head towards us, being wary of us. When it moved, walked with a peculiar stooping and undulating gait in the water. At length thrust its bill in as if feeding.

That must be a rare place for it to catch frogs and perhaps minnows in, though we were told that there [were] only turtles, snakes, and pouts in it.

The vanes on this ride were often a whale, rather a lumpish form, but reminding us that the farmer had, perhaps, been a whaler.

H. D. Thoreau, Journal, October 4, 1855

See September 29, 1855 ("Go to Daniel Ricketson’s, New Bedford.")


The stream which comes from Sassacowens Pond. See June 24, 1856 ("To Sassacowen Pond and to Long Pond"); September 30, 1856 ("Rode with R. to Sassacowens Pond, in the north part of New Bedford on the Taunton road, called also Toby’s Pond")