The old window of diamond squares, set in lead,

February 1. 

Surveying the Hunt farm. 

Saw a duck in the river; different kind from the last. 

Dr. Bartlett tells me that it was Adam Winthrop, a grandson of the Governor, who sold this farm to Hunt in 1701. I saw the old window, some eighteen inches square, of diamond squares, four or five inches across, set in lead, on the back side the house.

H. D. Thoreau, Journal, February 1, 1853

Saw a duck in the river; different kind from the last.  See January 29, 1853  ("Melvin calls the ducks which I saw yesterday sheldrakes; being small, then wood sheldrakes. [I judge from the plate they were velvet ducks, or white-winged coots.]")

Adam Winthrop, a grandson of the Governor sold this farm to Hunt in 1701. See March 18, 1857 ("It is to be observed that in the old deed of the Hunt farm, written in 1701, though the whole, consisting of something more than one hundred and fifty acres, is minutely described in thirteen different pieces, no part is described as woodland or wood-lot, only one piece as partly unimproved.")

 I saw the old window on the back side the house. See  February 17, 1857 ("To the old Hunt house. . . .This house is about forty-nine feet on the front by twenty."); December 20, 1857 ("The cellar stairs at the old Hunt house are made of square oak timbers "); February 9, 1858 ("The stairs of the old back part are white pine or spruce, each the half of a square log");  March 11, 1859 ("To Hunt house. I go to get one more sight of the old house which Hosmer is pulling down, but I am too late to see much of it."); March 13, 1859 ("The Hunt house, to draw from memory, . . .looked like this :

 

March 14, 1859 ("I judge by my eye that the house is fifteen feet high to the eaves. The posts are remarkably sawn and hewn away on account of the projection of the upper story, so that they are more than twice as large above as below."); March 18, 1859 ("I, with others, saw by the frame of the old Hunt house that an addition had been made to its west end in 1703.");March 27, 1859 ("Those chalk-marks on the chamber-floor joists and timbers of the Hunt house, one of which was read by many "Feb. 1666,""); September 22, 1859 ("I went past the Hunt cellar, where Hosmer pulled down the old house in the spring, );

Frost forms on windows.

February 1 

2 P.M. -- 5°. A cold day. 

Two or three inches of dry snow last night. Grows colder apace toward night. Frost forms on windows.

H. D. Thoreau, Journal, February 1, 1860

Frost forms on windows. See December 28, 1859 ("In the morning the windows are like ground glass (covered with frost), and we cannot see out."); 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 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.")

Only five degrees.

A cold day. Colder toward night.

Frost forms on windows.

A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, Frost forms on windows.

A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau

"A book, each page written in its own season,

out-of-doors, in its own locality."

~edited, assembled and rewritten by zphx © 2009-2025

An ice-belt adheres to the steep shores.

February 1

February 1, 2019

P. M.—Up Assabet. 

The river having suddenly gone down since the freshet, I see cakes of ice eight or ten feet across left two feet high or more above the banks, frozen to four or five maples or oaks. Indeed, each shore is lined with them, where wooded, a continuous row attached to alders, maples, swamp white oaks, etc., which grow through them or against their edges. 

They are somewhat like tables of a picnic party or a muster-field dinner. Rustic tables and seats. Sometimes a little inclined, having settled on one side. 

Also an ice-belt adheres to the steep shores, and the rain and melted snow, running down, has drifted over the edge of it, forming abundant and pretty icicles, and you see where this hard and thick ice has bent under its own weight. 

As for large oak leaves now, I think there is not much difference between the white and scarlet oaks; then come black, red, and swamp white, but the last one has scarcely any.

H. D. Thoreau, Journal, February 1, 1859

An ice-belt adheres to the steep shores.  See January 1, 1857 ("I observe a shelf of ice . . . adhering to the walls and banks at various heights, the river having fallen nearly two feet since it first froze."); February 14, 1859 ("Some of the belt itself, where three inches thick, has bent downward eighteen inches at four or five feet from the bank")

An ice-belt adheres

to the steep shores – thick ice bent

under its own weight.

A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, An ice-belt adheres to the steep shores.

A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau

"A book, each page written in its own season,

out-of-doors, in its own locality."

~edited, assembled and rewritten by zphx © 2009-2025

The floating surface of Gowing's Swamp

February  1

Measured Gowing's Swamp two and a half rods northeast of the middle of the hole, i. e. in the andromeda and sphagnum near its edge, where I stand in the summer; also five rods northeast of the middle of the open hole, or in the midst of the andromeda. 

In both these places the pole went hard at first, but broke through a crust of roots and sphagnum at about three feet beneath the surface, and I then easily pushed the pole down just twenty feet. This being a small pole, I could not push it any further holding it by the small end; it bent then. With a longer and stiffer pole I could probably have fathomed thirty feet. 

It seems, then, that there is, over this andromeda swamp, a crust about three feet thick, of sphagnum, andromeda (calyculata and Polifolia), and Kalmia glauca, etc., beneath which there is almost clear water, and, under that, an exceedingly thin mud.

There can be no soil above that mud, and yet there were three or four larch trees three feet high or more between these holes, or over exactly the same water, and there were small spruces near by. For aught that appears, the swamp is as deep under the andromeda as in the middle. 

The two andromedas and the Kalmia glauca may be more truly said to grow in water than in soil there. When the surface of a swamp shakes for a rod around you, you may conclude that it is a network of roots two or three feet thick resting on water or a very thin mud. The surface of that swamp, composed in great part of sphagnum, is really floating. 

It evidently begins with sphagnum, which floats on the surface of clear water, and, accumulating, at length affords a basis for that large-seeded sedge (?), andromedas, etc. The filling up of a swamp, then, in this case at least, is not the result of a deposition of vegetable matter washed into it, settling to the bottom and leaving the surface clear, so filling it up from the bottom to the top; but the vegetation first extends itself over it as a film, which gradually thickens till it supports shrubs and completely conceals the water, and the under part of this crust drops to the bottom, so that it is filled up first at the top and the bottom, and the middle part is the last to be reclaimed from the water. 

Perhaps this swamp is in the process of becoming peat. 

This swamp has been partially drained by a ditch. 

I fathomed also two rods within the edge of the blue berry bushes, in the path, but I could not force a pole down more than eight feet five inches; so it is much more solid there, and the blueberry bushes require a firmer soil than the water andromeda. 

This is a regular quag, or shaking surface, and in this way, evidently, floating islands are formed. I am not sure but that meadow, with all its bushes in it, would float a man-of-war.

H. D. Thoreau, Journal, February 1, 1858

There is a crust about three feet thick of sphagnum, andromeda  and Kalmia glauca, beneath which there is almost clear water. See January 30, 1858 ("To my surprise, I found clear water under this crust of sphagnum"); February 3, 1860 ("I accurately pace the swamp in two directions and find it to be shaped thus"): —

August 23, 1854 ("There is . . . an abrupt edge next the water, this on a dense bed of quaking sphagnum, in which I sink eighteen inches in water, upheld by its matted roots, where I fear to break through”).

This swamp has been partially drained by a ditch. See November 23, 1857 ("This swamp appears not to have had any natural outlet, though an artificial one has been dug. The same is perhaps the case with the C. Miles Swamp. And is it so with Beck Stow's These three are the only places where I have found the Andromeda Polifolia. The Kalmia glauca in Gowing's, C. Miles's, and Holden's swamps. The latter has no outlet of any kind.")

The shaking surface

composed in part of sphagnum

is really floating.

A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, The floating surface of Gowing's Swamp

A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau

"A book, each page written in its own season,

out-of-doors, in its own locality."

~edited, assembled and rewritten by zphx © 2009-2025

I see a large flock of snow buntings on the railroad causeway.

February 1

3 P.M. — Down railroad. 

Thermometer at 42°. Warm as it is, I see a large flock of snow buntings on the railroad causeway. Their wings are white above next the body, but black or dark beyond and on the back. This produces that regular black and white effect when they fly past you.

A laborer on the railroad tells me it is Candlemas Day (February 2d) to-morrow and the winter half out. "Half your wood and half your hay," etc., etc.; and, as that day is, so will be the rest of the winter.

H. D. Thoreau, Journal, February 1, 1857

That regular black and white effect when they fly past you. See January 21,1857 ("As they flew past me they presented a pretty appearance, somewhat like broad bars of white alternating with bars of black.") Also A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, the Snow Bunting

A snow bunting flock

and that black and white effect

when they fly past you

A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, I see a large flock of snow buntings

A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau

"A book, each page written in its own season,

out-of-doors, in its own locality."

~edited, assembled and rewritten by zphx © 2009-2025

https://tinyurl.com/hdt-570201

A Book of the Seasons: February 1.

February 1

The river is one

level white blanket of snow

quite to each shore now.

February 1, 1855

I see a pitch pine

seed blown thirty rods from J.

Hosmer’s little grove.

February 1, 1856

Old-fashioned winter

memorable snow and cold

summer forgotten

February 1, 1856

Blue jays chickadees

common in the village –

more than usual.

February 1, 1856

A snow bunting flock

and that black and white effect

when they fly past you

February 1, 1857

The shaking surface

composed in part of sphagnum

is really floating.

February 1, 1858

An ice-belt adheres

to the steep shores – thick ice bent

under its own weight.

February 1. 1859

Only five degrees.

A cold day. Colder toward night.

Frost forms on windows.

February 1, 1860

A Book of the Seasons,  by Henry Thoreau

 "A book, each page written in its own season,

out-of-doors, in its own locality."

 ~edited, assembled and rewritten by zphx ©  2009-2025

“An old-fashioned winter.”

February 1 

P. M. — Up river. 

What gives to the excrements of the fox that clay color often, even at this season? Left on an eminence. 

I scent a fox’s trail this afternoon (and have done so several times before), where he crossed the river, just three rods distant. Looked sharp, and discover where it had stopped by a prominence. Yet he could not have passed since last night, or twelve hours before, it being near the village. How widely they range these nights! 

The snow is somewhat banked toward the sides of the river, but shows darker-yellowish or icy in the middle. 

Lichens, blown from the black willows, lie here and there on the snow. 

Nut Meadow Brook open for some distance in the meadow. I am affected by the sight of some green polygonum leaves there. Some kind of minnow darts off. 

I see where a crow has walked along its side. In one place it hopped, and its feet were side by side, as in the track of yesterday, though a little more spread, the toes. I have but little doubt that yesterday’s track was a crow’s. The two inner toes are near together; the middle, more or less curved often. 

I see a gray rabbit amid the young oaks in Hubbard’s riverside grove, curled and shrunk up, squatting on the snow. I advance and begin to sketch it, when it plunges into a little hole in the snow by its side, the entrance to its burrow, three inches wide by a little more in length. The track of its foot is about one inch wide. 

I see a pitch pine seed, blown thirty rods from J. Hosmer’s little grove. 

This has been a memorable January for snow and cold. 

It has. been excellent sleighing ever since the 26th of December, — not less than a foot at any time since January 6th on a level in open fields, in swamps much more. Cars have been detained; the wood-lots for the most part inaccessible. The river has been closed up from end to end, with the exception of one or two insignificant openings on a few days. No bare ice. 

The crows have been remarkably bold, coming to eat the scraps cast out behind the houses. They alight in our yard. 

I think I have not noticed a tree sparrow during the month. Blue jays and chickadees also common in the village, more than usual. 

We have completely forgotten the summer. There has been no January thaw, though one prophesied it a fortnight ago because he saw snow-fleas. 

The ponds are yielding a good crop of ice. The eaves have scarcely run at all. 

It has been what is called “an old-fashioned winter.”

H. D. Thoreau, Journal, February 1, 1856

I scent a fox’s trail this afternoon (and have done so several times before) . . . See February 24, 1854 ("The other day I thought that I smelled a fox very strongly, and went a little further and found that it was a skunk.")

The snow is somewhat banked toward the sides of the river, but shows darker-yellowish or icy in the middle. Compare February 1, 1855 ("[The river] is now one uninterrupted level white blanket of snow quite to the shore on every side.").

The crows have been remarkably bold, coming to eat the scraps cast out behind the houses. See January 7, 1856("The cold weather has brought the crows, and for the first time this winter I hear them cawing amid the houses.");January 14, 1856 ("The crows are flitting about the houses and alight upon the elms."): 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.").  Also A Book of Seasons, by Henry Thoreau: The American Crow

We have completely forgotten the summer. See February 3, 1852 ("The landscape covered with snow two feet thick, . . .The scenery is wholly arctic. See if a man can think his summer thoughts now.");
February 9, 1851 ("We have forgotten summer and autumn. Though the days are much longer, the cold sets in stronger than ever.");February 27, 1852 (" We have almost completely forgotten summer."); December 29, 1853 ("The thoughts and associations of summer and autumn are now as completely departed from our minds as the leaves are blown from the trees. ")

Old-fashioned winter

memorable snow and cold

summer forgotten

A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, “An old-fashioned winter.” 

A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau

"A book, each page written in its own season,

out-of-doors, in its own locality."

~edited, assembled and rewritten by zphx © 2009-2025

The river is now one uninterrupted level white blanket of snow quite to the shore on every side.

February 1

As usual these broad fields of ice could not be left uncovered over the third day. It begins to spit a little snow at noon, just enough to show on the ice, the thickness of a blanket.

At 4 P.M., I find that the river rose last evening to within eight and a half inches of the rise of April 23d, 1852, and then began to fall. It has now fallen about four inches. 

Accordingly, the river falling all day, no water has burst out through the ice next the shore, and it is now one uninterrupted level white blanket of snow quite to the shore on every side.

Apparently the thin recent ice of the night, which connects the main body with the shore, bends and breaks with the rising of the mass, especially in the morning, under the influence of the sun and wind, and the water establishes itself at a new level.

February 1, 2015

You are commonly repaid for a longer excursion than usual, and being outdoors all day, by seeing some rarer bird for the season, as yesterday a great hawk. 

H. D. Thoreau, Journal, February 1, 1855

Apparently the thin recent ice of the night, which connects the main body with the shore, bends and breaks with the rising of the mass. See January 1, 1857 ("I observe a shelf of ice . . .adhering to the walls and banks at various heights, the river having fallen nearly two feet since it first froze. . . .")

The river it is now one uninterrupted level white blanket of snow quite to the shore on every side. See February 1, 1856 ("The river has been closed up from end to end, with the exception of one or two insignificant openings on a few days. No bare ice. "); February 7, 1854 ("The river has not been so concealed by snow before. The snow does not merely lie level on it so many inches deep, but great drifts, perchance beginning on the land, stretch quite across it, so that you cannot always tell where it is.")

A longer excursion than usual. . . yesterday a great hawk. See January 31,1855 ("An unprecedented expanse of ice. At 10 A. M., skated up the river to explore further than I had been. . . .
Returning, I see a large hawk flapping and sailing low over the meadow.")

The river is one

level white blanket of snow

quite to each shore now.

A Book of the Seasons,  by Henry Thoreau,  One level white blanket of snow

A Book of the Seasons,  by Henry Thoreau

"A book, each page written in its own season,

out-of-doors, in its own locality.”

~edited, assembled and rewritten by zphx © 2009-2025

https://tinyurl.com/hdt550102