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diff --git a/old/31292.txt b/old/31292.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..bb2f13d --- /dev/null +++ b/old/31292.txt @@ -0,0 +1,4884 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of A Year in the Fields, by John Burroughs + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: A Year in the Fields + +Author: John Burroughs + +Release Date: February 16, 2010 [EBook #31292] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A YEAR IN THE FIELDS *** + + + + +Produced by Chris Curnow, Joseph Cooper and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + + + + + [Illustration: A HAWK IN SIGHT] + + + + + A Year in the Fields + + SELECTIONS FROM THE WRITINGS + OF JOHN BURROUGHS: WITH + ILLUSTRATIONS FROM + PHOTOGRAPHS + BY CLIFTON + JOHNSON + + + BOSTON AND NEW YORK + HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN AND COMPANY + The Riverside Press, Cambridge + + + Copyright, 1875, 1877, 1879, 1881, 1886, 1894, and 1895, + BY JOHN BURROUGHS. + + Copyright, 1896 and 1901, + BY HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN & CO. + + _All rights reserved_ + + + + + NOTE + + + Taking advantage of the opportunity afforded by the necessity + for again reprinting _A Year in the Fields_, the publishers + have added to the volume a biographical sketch of Mr. + Burroughs and a number of new illustrations. + + BOSTON, _September_, 1901. + + + + + CONTENTS + + + PAGE + JOHN BURROUGHS: A BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH vii + I. A SNOW-STORM 1 + II. WINTER NEIGHBORS 13 + III. A SPRING RELISH 41 + IV. APRIL 67 + V. BIRCH BROWSINGS 85 + VI. A BUNCH OF HERBS. + FRAGRANT WILD FLOWERS 125 + WEEDS 135 + VII. AUTUMN TIDES 159 + VIII. A SHARP LOOKOUT 179 + + + + + LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. + + + PAGE + A HAWK IN SIGHT _Frontispiece_ + RIVERBY, MR. BURROUGHS'S HOME ON THE HUDSON viii + "SLABSIDES" x + TRACKS IN THE SNOW 2 + THE STUDY 8 + OUT FOR A WALK 14 + THE OLD APPLE-TREE 18 + WINTER AT RIVERBY ON THE HUDSON 26 + WOOD FOR THE STUDY FIRE 38 + AN EVENING IN SPRING 42 + AT THE STUDY DOOR 50 + A WOODLAND BROOK 62 + AN APRIL DAY 70 + THE HOME OF A SPIDER 86 + A BIRD SONG 98 + IN THE WOODS 122 + PICKING WILD FLOWERS 134 + A FLOWER IN A WOODLAND ROADWAY 146 + A STALWART WEED 156 + AMONG THE ROCKS 160 + ON THE EDGE OF A CATSKILL "SUGAR BUSH" 166 + A CATSKILL ROADWAY 182 + BEECHNUTS 194 + (Mr. Burroughs's Boyhood Home seen in the distance.) + BY THE STUDY FIRE 206 + + + + + JOHN BURROUGHS + A BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH + + BY CLIFTON JOHNSON + + +In the town of Roxbury, among the western Catskills, was born April 3, +1837, John Burroughs. The house in which he first saw the light was an +unpainted, squarish structure, only a single story high, with a big +chimney in the middle. This house was removed a few years later, and a +better and somewhat larger one, which still stands, was built in its +place. The situation is very pleasing. Roundabout is a varied country +of heights, dales, woods and pastures, and cultivated fields. The +dwelling is in a wide upland hollow that falls away to the east and +south into a deep valley, beyond which rise line on line of great +mounding hills. These turn blue in the distance and look like immense +billows rolling in from a distant ocean. + +There were nine children in the Burroughs family, and John was one of +the younger members of this numerous household. He was a true country +boy, acquainted with all the hard work and all the pleasures of an +old-fashioned farm life. His people were poor and he had his own way +to make in the world, but the environment was on the whole a salutary +one. + +He has always had a marked affection for the place of his birth, and +he rejoices in the fact that from an eminence near his present home on +the Hudson he can see mountains that are visible from his native +hills. Two or three times every year he goes back to these hills to +renew his youth among the familiar scenes of his boyhood. + +"Johnny" Burroughs, as he was known to his home folks and the +neighbors, was very like the other youngsters of the region in his +interests, his ways, and his work. Yet as compared with them he +undoubtedly had a livelier imagination, and things made a keener +impression on his mind. In some cases his sensitiveness was more +disturbing than gratifying. When his grandfather told "spook" stories +to the children gathered around the evening blaze of the kitchen +fireplace, John's hair would almost stand on end and he was afraid of +every shadow. + + [Illustration: RIVERBY, MR. BURROUGHS'S HOME ON THE HUDSON] + +He went to school in the little red schoolhouse across the valley, and +as he grew older he aspired to attend an academy. But he had to make +the opportunity for himself, and only succeeded in doing so at the age +of seventeen, when he raised the needful money by six months of +teaching. This enabled him in the autumn of 1854 to enter the Heading +Literary Institute at Ashland. He found the life there enjoyable, but +his funds ran low by spring and he was obliged to return to the farm. +Until September he labored among his native fields, then took up +teaching again. When pay day came he set off for a seminary of some +note at Cooperstown, where a single term brought his student days +forever to a close, and after another period of farm work at home he +borrowed a small sum of money and journeyed to Illinois. Near Freeport +he secured a school at forty dollars a month, which was much more than +he could have earned in the East. Yet he gave up his position at the +end of six months. "I came back," he says, "because of 'the girl I +left behind me'; and it was pretty hard to stay even as long as I +did." + +Soon afterward he married. His total capital at the time was fifty +dollars, a sum which was reduced one fifth by the wedding expenses. +For several years he continued to teach, and at the age of twenty-five +we find him in charge of a school near West Point. Up to this time his +interest in nature and his aptitude for observation lay dormant. But +now it was awakened by reading a volume of Audubon which chanced to +fall into his hands. That was a revelation, and he went to the woods +with entirely new interest and enthusiasm. He began at once to get +acquainted with the birds, his vision grew keen and alert, and birds +he had passed by before, he now saw at once. + +Meanwhile the Civil War was going on, and it aroused in Burroughs a +strong desire to enlist. He visited Washington to get a closer view of +army life, but what he saw of it rather damped his military ardor. It +seemed to him that the men were driven about and herded like cattle; +and when a peaceful position in the Treasury Department was offered +him he accepted it, and for nine years was a Government clerk. + + [Illustration: "SLABSIDES"] + +At the Treasury he guarded a vault and kept a record of the money that +went in or out. The duties were not arduous, and in his long +intervals of leisure his mind wandered far afield. It dwelt on the +charm of flitting wings and bird melodies, on the pleasures of +rambling along country roads and into the woodlands; and, sitting +before the Treasury vault, at a high desk and facing an iron wall he +began to write. There was no need for notes. His memory was +all-sufficient, and the result was the essays which make +"Wake-Robin,"--his first book. + +By 1873 Burroughs had had enough of the routine of a Government +clerkship, and he resigned to become the receiver of a bank in +Middletown, New York. Later he accepted a position as bank examiner in +the eastern part of the State. But his longing to return to the soil +was growing apace, and presently he bought a little farm on the west +shore of the Hudson. He at once erected a substantial stone house and +started orchards and vineyards, yet it was not until 1885 that he felt +he could relinquish his Government position and dwell on his own land +with the assurance of a safe support. + +He has never been a great traveler. Still, he has been abroad twice +and has recently made a trip to Alaska. Lesser excursions have taken +him to Virginia and Kentucky, and to Canada, and he has camped in +Maine and the Adirondacks. But the district that he knows best and +that he puts oftenest into his nature studies is his home country in +the Catskills and the region about his "Riverby" farm. Very little of +his writing, however, has been done in the house in which he lives. +This was never a wholly satisfactory working-place. He felt he must +get away from all conventionalities, and he early put up on the +outskirts of his vineyards a little bark-covered study, to which it +has been his habit to retire for his indoor thinking and writing. He +still uses this study more or less, and often in the summer evenings +sits in an easy-chair, under an apple-tree just outside the door, and +listens to the voices of Nature while he looks off across the Hudson. + +But the spot that at present most engages his affection is a reclaimed +woodland swamp, back among some rocky hills, a mile or two from the +river. A few years ago the swamp was a wild tangle of brush and +stumps, fallen trees and murky pools. Now it has been cleared and +drained, and the dark forest mould produces wonderful crops of celery, +sweet corn, potatoes, and other vegetables. On a shoulder of rock near +the swamp borders Burroughs has built a rustic house, sheathed outside +with slabs, and smacking in all its arrangements of the woodlands and +of the days of pioneering. It has an open fireplace, where the flames +crackle cheerfully on chilly evenings, and over the fireplace coals +most of the cooking is done; but in really hot weather an oil stove +serves instead. + +On the other side of the hollow a delightfully cold spring bubbles +forth, and immediately back of the house is a natural cavern which +makes an ideal storage place for perishable foods. The descent to the +cavern is made by a rude ladder, and the sight of Burroughs coming and +going between it and the house has a most suggestive touch of the wild +and romantic. + +He is often at "Slabsides"--sometimes for weeks or months at a time, +though he always makes daily visits to the valley to look after the +work in his vineyards and to visit the post-office at the railway +station. He is a leisurely man, to whom haste and the nervous pursuit +of wealth or fame are totally foreign. He thoroughly enjoys country +loitering, and when he gets a hint of anything interesting or new +going on among the birds and little creatures of the fields, he likes +to stop and investigate. His ears are remarkably quick and his eyes +and sense of smell phenomenally acute, and much which to most of us +would be unperceived or meaningless he reads as if it were an open +book. Best of all, he has the power of imparting his enjoyment, and +what he writes is full of outdoor fragrance, racy, piquant, and +individual. His snap and vivacity are wholly unartificial. They are a +part of the man--a man full of imagination and sensitiveness, a +philosopher, a humorist, a hater of shams and pretension. The tenor of +his life changes little from year to year, his affections remain +steadfast, and this hardy, gray poet of things rural will continue, as +ever, the warm-hearted nature enthusiast, and inspirer of the love of +nature in others. + + + + + A YEAR IN THE FIELDS + + + + + I + + A SNOW-STORM + + +That is a striking line with which Emerson opens his beautiful poem of +the Snow-Storm:-- + + "Announced by all the trumpets of the sky, + Arrives the snow, and, driving o'er the fields, + Seems nowhere to alight." + +One seems to see the clouds puffing their cheeks as they sound the +charge of their white legions. But the line is more accurately +descriptive of a rain-storm, as, in both summer and winter, rain is +usually preceded by wind. Homer, describing a snow-storm in his time, +says:-- + + "The winds are lulled." + + [Illustration: TRACKS IN THE SNOW] + +The preparations of a snow-storm are, as a rule, gentle and quiet; a +marked hush pervades both the earth and the sky. The movements of the +celestial forces are muffled, as if the snow already paved the way of +their coming. There is no uproar, no clashing of arms, no blowing of +wind trumpets. These soft, feathery, exquisite crystals are formed as +if in the silence and privacy of the inner cloud-chambers. Rude winds +would break the spell and mar the process. The clouds are smoother, +and slower in their movements, with less definite outlines than those +which bring rain. In fact, everything is prophetic of the gentle and +noiseless meteor that is approaching, and of the stillness that is to +succeed it, when "all the batteries of sound are spiked," as Lowell +says, and "we see the movements of life as a deaf man sees it,--a mere +wraith of the clamorous existence that inflicts itself on our ears +when the ground is bare." After the storm is fairly launched the winds +not infrequently awake, and, seeing their opportunity, pipe the flakes +a lively dance. I am speaking now of the typical, full-born midwinter +storm that comes to us from the North or N. N. E., and that piles the +landscape knee-deep with snow. Such a storm once came to us the last +day of January,--the master-storm of the winter. Previous to that +date, we had had but light snow. The spruces had been able to catch +it all upon their arms, and keep a circle of bare ground beneath +them where the birds scratched. But the day following this fall, they +stood with their lower branches completely buried. If the Old Man of +the North had but sent us his couriers and errand-boys before, the old +graybeard appeared himself at our doors on this occasion, and we were +all his subjects. His flag was upon every tree and roof, his seal upon +every door and window, and his embargo upon every path and highway. He +slipped down upon us, too, under the cover of such a bright, seraphic +day,--a day that disarmed suspicion with all but the wise ones, a day +without a cloud or a film, a gentle breeze from the west, a dry, +bracing air, a blazing sun that brought out the bare ground under the +lee of the fences and farm-buildings, and at night a spotless moon +near her full. The next morning the sky reddened in the east, then +became gray, heavy, and silent. A seamless cloud covered it. The smoke +from the chimneys went up with a barely perceptible slant toward the +north. In the forenoon the cedar-birds, purple finches, yellowbirds, +nuthatches, bluebirds, were in flocks or in couples and trios about +the trees, more or less noisy and loquacious. About noon a thin white +veil began to blur the distant southern mountains. It was like a white +dream slowly descending upon them. The first flake or flakelet that +reached me was a mere white speck that came idly circling and eddying +to the ground. I could not see it after it alighted. It might have +been a scale from the feather of some passing bird, or a larger mote +in the air that the stillness was allowing to settle. Yet it was the +altogether inaudible and infinitesimal trumpeter that announced the +coming storm, the grain of sand that heralded the desert. Presently +another fell, then another; the white mist was creeping up the river +valley. How slowly and loiteringly it came, and how microscopic its +first siftings! + +This mill is bolting its flour very fine, you think. But wait a +little; it gets coarser by and by; you begin to see the flakes; they +increase in numbers and in size, and before one o'clock it is snowing +steadily. The flakes come straight down, but in a half hour they have +a marked slant toward the north; the wind is taking a hand in the +game. By mid-afternoon the storm is coming in regular pulse-beats or +in vertical waves. The wind is not strong, but seems steady; the +pines hum, yet there is a sort of rhythmic throb in the meteor; the +air toward the wind looks ribbed with steady-moving vertical waves of +snow. The impulses travel along like undulations in a vast suspended +white curtain, imparted by some invisible hand there in the northeast. +As the day declines the storm waxes, the wind increases, the snow-fall +thickens, and + + "the housemates sit + Around the radiant fireplace, inclosed + In a tumultuous privacy of storm," + +a privacy which you feel outside as well as in. Out-of-doors you seem +in a vast tent of snow; the distance is shut out, near-by objects are +hidden; there are white curtains above you and white screens about +you, and you feel housed and secluded in storm. Your friend leaves +your door, and he is wrapped away in white obscurity, caught up in a +cloud, and his footsteps are obliterated. Travelers meet on the road, +and do not see or hear each other till they are face to face. The +passing train, half a mile away, gives forth a mere wraith of sound. +Its whistle is deadened as in a dense wood. + +Still the storm rose. At five o'clock I went forth to face it in a +two-mile walk. It was exhilarating in the extreme. The snow was +lighter than chaff. It had been dried in the Arctic ovens to the last +degree. The foot sped through it without hindrance. I fancied the +grouse and the quail quietly sitting down in the open places, and +letting it drift over them. With head under wing, and wing snugly +folded, they would be softly and tenderly buried in a few moments. The +mice and the squirrels were in their dens, but I fancied the fox +asleep upon some rock or log, and allowing the flakes to cover him. +The hare in her form, too, was being warmly sepulchred with the rest. +I thought of the young cattle and the sheep huddled together on the +lee side of a haystack in some remote field, all enveloped in mantles +of white. + + "I thought me on the ourie cattle, + Or silly sheep, wha bide this brattle + O' wintry war, + Or thro' the drift, deep-lairing sprattle, + Beneath a scaur. + + "Ilk happing bird, wee helpless thing, + That in the merry months o' spring + Delighted me to hear thee sing, + What comes o' thee? + Where wilt thou cow'r thy chittering wing, + And close thy ee?" + +As I passed the creek, I noticed the white woolly masses that filled +the water. It was as if somebody upstream had been washing his sheep +and the water had carried away all the wool, and I thought of the +Psalmist's phrase, "He giveth snow like wool." On the river a heavy +fall of snow simulates a thin layer of cotton batting. The tide drifts +it along, and, where it meets with an obstruction alongshore, it folds +up and becomes wrinkled or convoluted like a fabric, or like cotton +sheeting. Attempt to row a boat through it, and it seems indeed like +cotton or wool, every fibre of which resists your progress. + +As the sun went down and darkness fell, the storm impulse reached its +full. It became a wild conflagration of wind and snow; the world was +wrapt in frost flame; it enveloped one, and penetrated his lungs and +caught away his breath like a blast from a burning city. How it +whipped around and under every cover and searched out every crack and +crevice, sifting under the shingles in the attic, darting its white +tongue under the kitchen door, puffing its breath down the chimney, +roaring through the woods, stalking like a sheeted ghost across the +hills, bending in white and ever-changing forms above the fences, +sweeping across the plains, whirling in eddies behind the buildings, +or leaping spitefully up their walls,--in short, taking the world +entirely to itself, and giving a loose rein to its desire. + + [Illustration: THE STUDY] + +But in the morning, behold! the world was not consumed; it was not the +besom of destruction, after all, but the gentle hand of mercy. How +deeply and warmly and spotlessly Earth's nakedness is clothed!--the +"wool" of the Psalmist nearly two feet deep. And as far as warmth and +protection are concerned, there is a good deal of the virtue of wool +in such a snow-fall. How it protects the grass, the plants, the roots +of the trees, and the worms, insects, and smaller animals in the +ground! It is a veritable fleece, beneath which the shivering earth +("the frozen hills ached with pain," says one of our young poets) is +restored to warmth. When the temperature of the air is at zero, the +thermometer, placed at the surface of the ground beneath a foot and a +half of snow, would probably indicate but a few degrees below +freezing; the snow is rendered such a perfect non-conductor of heat +mainly by reason of the quantity of air that is caught and retained +between the crystals. Then how, like a fleece of wool, it rounds and +fills out the landscape, and makes the leanest and most angular field +look smooth! + +The day dawned, and continued as innocent and fair as the day which +had preceded,--two mountain peaks of sky and sun, with their valley of +cloud and snow between. Walk to the nearest spring run on such a +morning, and you can see the Colorado valley and the great canons of +the West in miniature, carved in alabaster. In the midst of the plain +of snow lie these chasms; the vertical walls, the bold headlands, the +turrets and spires and obelisks, the rounded and towering capes, the +carved and buttressed precipices, the branch valleys and canons, and +the winding and tortuous course of the main channel are all here,--all +that the Yosemite or Yellowstone have to show, except the terraces and +the cascades. Sometimes my canon is bridged, and one's fancy runs +nimbly across a vast arch of Parian marble, and that makes up for the +falls and the terraces. Where the ground is marshy, I come upon a +pretty and vivid illustration of what I have read and been told of +the Florida formation. This white and brittle limestone is undermined +by water. Here are the dimples and depressions, the sinks and the +wells, the springs and the lakes. Some places a mouse might break +through the surface and reveal the water far beneath, or the snow +gives way of its own weight, and you have a minute Florida well, with +the truncated cone-shape and all. The arched and subterranean pools +and passages are there likewise. + +But there is a more beautiful and fundamental geology than this in the +snow-storm: we are admitted into Nature's oldest laboratory, and see +the working of the law by which the foundations of the material +universe were laid,--the law or mystery of crystallization. The earth +is built upon crystals; the granite rock is only a denser and more +compact snow, or a kind of ice that was vapor once and may be vapor +again. "Every stone is nothing else but a congealed lump of frozen +earth," says Plutarch. By cold and pressure air can be liquefied, +perhaps solidified. A little more time, a little more heat, and the +hills are but April snow-banks. Nature has but two forms, the cell and +the crystal,--the crystal first, the cell last. All organic nature is +built up of the cell; all inorganic, of the crystal. Cell upon cell +rises the vegetable, rises the animal; crystal wedded to and compacted +with crystal stretches the earth beneath them. See in the falling snow +the old cooling and precipitation, and the shooting, radiating forms +that are the architects of planet and globe. + +We love the sight of the brown and ruddy earth; it is the color of +life, while a snow-covered plain is the face of death; yet snow is but +the mask of the life-giving rain; it, too, is the friend of man,--the +tender, sculpturesque, immaculate, warming, fertilizing snow. + + + + + II + + WINTER NEIGHBORS + + +The country is more of a wilderness, more of a wild solitude, in the +winter than in the summer. The wild comes out. The urban, the +cultivated, is hidden or negatived. You shall hardly know a good field +from a poor, a meadow from a pasture, a park from a forest. Lines and +boundaries are disregarded; gates and bar-ways are unclosed; man lets +go his hold upon the earth; title-deeds are deep buried beneath the +snow; the best-kept grounds relapse to a state of nature; under the +pressure of the cold, all the wild creatures become outlaws, and roam +abroad beyond their usual haunts. The partridge comes to the orchard +for buds; the rabbit comes to the garden and lawn; the crows and jays +come to the ash-heap and corn-crib, the snow buntings to the stack and +to the barnyard; the sparrows pilfer from the domestic fowls; the pine +grosbeak comes down from the north and shears your maples of their +buds; the fox prowls about your premises at night; and the red +squirrels find your grain in the barn or steal the butternuts from +your attic. In fact, winter, like some great calamity, changes the +status of most creatures and sets them adrift. Winter, like poverty, +makes us acquainted with strange bedfellows. + + [Illustration: OUT FOR A WALK] + +For my part, my nearest approach to a strange bedfellow is the little +gray rabbit that has taken up her abode under my study floor. As she +spends the day here and is out larking at night, she is not much of a +bedfellow, after all. It is probable that I disturb her slumbers more +than she does mine. I think she is some support to me under there,--a +silent, wide-eyed witness and backer; a type of the gentle and +harmless in savage nature. She has no sagacity to give me or lend me, +but that soft, nimble foot of hers, and that touch as of cotton +wherever she goes, are worthy of emulation. I think I can feel her +goodwill through the floor, and I hope she can mine. When I have a +happy thought, I imagine her ears twitch, especially when I think of +the sweet apple I will place by her doorway at night. I wonder if that +fox chanced to catch a glimpse of her the other night when he +stealthily leaped over the fence near by and walked along between the +study and the house? How clearly one could read that it was not a +little dog that had passed there! There was something furtive in the +track; it shied off away from the house and around it, as if eying it +suspiciously; and then it had the caution and deliberation of the +fox,--bold, bold, but not too bold; wariness was in every footprint. +If it had been a little dog that had chanced to wander that way, when +he crossed my path he would have followed it up to the barn and have +gone smelling around for a bone; but this sharp, cautious track held +straight across all others, keeping five or six rods from the house, +up the hill, across the highway toward a neighboring farmstead, with +its nose in the air, and its eye and ear alert, so to speak. + +A winter neighbor of mine, in whom I am interested, and who perhaps +lends me his support after his kind, is a little red owl, whose +retreat is in the heart of an old apple-tree just over the fence. +Where he keeps himself in spring and summer, I do not know, but late +every fall, and at intervals all winter, his hiding-place is +discovered by the jays and nuthatches, and proclaimed from the +treetops for the space of half an hour or so, with all the powers of +voice they can command. Four times during one winter they called me +out to behold this little ogre feigning sleep in his den, sometimes in +one apple-tree, sometimes in another. Whenever I heard their cries, I +knew my neighbor was being berated. The birds would take turns at +looking in upon him, and uttering their alarm-notes. Every jay within +hearing would come to the spot, and at once approach the hole in the +trunk or limb, and with a kind of breathless eagerness and excitement +take a peep at the owl, and then join the outcry. When I approached +they would hastily take a final look, and then withdraw and regard my +movements intently. After accustoming my eye to the faint light of the +cavity for a few moments, I could usually make out the owl at the +bottom feigning sleep. Feigning, I say, because this is what he really +did, as I first discovered one day when I cut into his retreat with +the axe. The loud blows and the falling chips did not disturb him at +all. When I reached in a stick and pulled him over on his side, +leaving one of his wings spread out, he made no attempt to recover +himself, but lay among the chips and fragments of decayed wood, like a +part of themselves. Indeed, it took a sharp eye to distinguish him. +Not till I had pulled him forth by one wing, rather rudely, did he +abandon his trick of simulated sleep or death. Then, like a detected +pickpocket, he was suddenly transformed into another creature. His +eyes flew wide open, his talons clutched my finger, his ears were +depressed, and every motion and look said, "Hands off, at your peril." +Finding this game did not work, he soon began to "play 'possum" again. +I put a cover over my study wood-box and kept him captive for a week. +Look in upon him at any time, night or day, and he was apparently +wrapped in the profoundest slumber; but the live mice which I put into +his box from time to time found his sleep was easily broken; there +would be a sudden rustle in the box, a faint squeak, and then silence. +After a week of captivity I gave him his freedom in the full sunshine: +no trouble for him to see which way and where to go. + +Just at dusk in the winter nights, I often hear his soft _bur-r-r-r_, +very pleasing and bell-like. What a furtive, woody sound it is in the +winter stillness, so unlike the harsh scream of the hawk! But all the +ways of the owl are ways of softness and duskiness. His wings are shod +with silence, his plumage is edged with down. + + [Illustration: THE OLD APPLE-TREE] + +Another owl neighbor of mine, with whom I pass the time of day more +frequently than with the last, lives farther away. I pass his castle +every night on my way to the post-office, and in winter, if the hour +is late enough, am pretty sure to see him standing in his doorway, +surveying the passers-by and the landscape through narrow slits in his +eyes. For four successive winters now have I observed him. As the +twilight begins to deepen, he rises up out of his cavity in the +apple-tree, scarcely faster than the moon rises from behind the hill, +and sits in the opening, completely framed by its outlines of gray +bark and dead wood, and by his protective coloring virtually invisible +to every eye that does not know he is there. Probably my own is the +only eye that has ever penetrated his secret, and mine never would +have done so had I not chanced on one occasion to see him leave his +retreat and make a raid upon a shrike that was impaling a shrew-mouse +upon a thorn in a neighboring tree, and which I was watching. Failing +to get the mouse, the owl returned swiftly to his cavity, and ever +since, while going that way, I have been on the lookout for him. +Dozens of teams and foot-passengers pass him late in the day, but he +regards them not, nor they him. When I come along and pause to salute +him, he opens his eyes a little wider, and, appearing to recognize me, +quickly shrinks and fades into the background of his door in a very +weird and curious manner. When he is not at his outlook, or when he +is, it requires the best powers of the eye to decide the point, as the +empty cavity itself is almost an exact image of him. If the whole +thing had been carefully studied, it could not have answered its +purpose better. The owl stands quite perpendicular, presenting a front +of light mottled gray; the eyes are closed to a mere slit, the +ear-feathers depressed, the beak buried in the plumage, and the whole +attitude is one of silent, motionless waiting and observation. If a +mouse should be seen crossing the highway, or scudding over any +exposed part of the snowy surface in the twilight, the owl would +doubtless swoop down upon it. I think the owl has learned to +distinguish me from the rest of the passers-by; at least, when I stop +before him, and he sees himself observed, he backs down into his den, +as I have said, in a very amusing manner. Whether bluebirds, +nuthatches, and chickadees--birds that pass the night in cavities of +trees--ever run into the clutches of the dozing owl, I should be glad +to know. My impression is, however, that they seek out smaller +cavities. An old willow by the roadside blew down one summer, and a +decayed branch broke open, revealing a brood of half-fledged owls, and +many feathers and quills of bluebirds, orioles, and other songsters, +showing plainly enough why all birds fear and berate the owl. + +The English house sparrows, which are so rapidly increasing among us, +and which must add greatly to the food supply of the owls and other +birds of prey, seek to baffle their enemies by roosting in the densest +evergreens they can find, in the arbor-vitae, and in hemlock hedges. +Soft-winged as the owl is, he cannot steal in upon such a retreat +without giving them warning. + +These sparrows are becoming about the most noticeable of my winter +neighbors, and a troop of them every morning watch me put out the +hens' feed, and soon claim their share. I rather encouraged them in +their neighborliness, till one day I discovered the snow under a +favorite plum-tree where they most frequently perched covered with the +scales of the fruit-buds. On investigating, I found that the tree had +been nearly stripped of its buds,--a very unneighborly act on the part +of the sparrows, considering, too, all the cracked corn I had +scattered for them. So I at once served notice on them that our good +understanding was at an end. And a hint is as good as a kick with this +bird. The stone I hurled among them, and the one with which I followed +them up, may have been taken as a kick; but they were only a hint of +the shot-gun that stood ready in the corner. The sparrows left in high +dudgeon, and were not back again in some days, and were then very shy. +No doubt the time is near at hand when we shall have to wage serious +war upon these sparrows, as they long have had to do on the continent +of Europe. And yet it will be hard to kill the little wretches, the +only Old World bird we have. When I take down my gun to shoot them I +shall probably remember that the Psalmist said, "I watch, and am as a +sparrow alone upon the housetop," and maybe the recollection will +cause me to stay my hand. The sparrows have the Old World hardiness +and prolificness; they are wise and tenacious of life, and we shall +find it by and by no small matter to keep them in check. Our native +birds are much different, less prolific, less shrewd, less aggressive +and persistent, less quick-witted and able to read the note of danger +or hostility,--in short, less sophisticated. Most of our birds are yet +essentially wild, that is, little changed by civilization. In winter, +especially, they sweep by me and around me in flocks,--the Canada +sparrow, the snow bunting, the shore lark, the pine grosbeak, the +redpoll, the cedar-bird,--feeding upon frozen apples in the orchard, +upon cedar-berries, upon maple-buds, and the berries of the +mountain-ash, and the celtis, and upon the seeds of the weeds that +rise above the snow in the field, or upon the hayseed dropped where +the cattle have been foddered in the barnyard or about the distant +stack; but yet taking no heed of man, in no way changing their habits +so as to take advantage of his presence in nature. The pine grosbeaks +will come in numbers upon your porch to get the black drupes of the +honeysuckle or the woodbine, or within reach of your windows to get +the berries of the mountain-ash, but they know you not; they look at +you as innocently and unconcernedly as at a bear or moose in their +native north, and your house is no more to them than a ledge of rocks. + +The only ones of my winter neighbors that actually rap at my door are +the nuthatches and woodpeckers, and these do not know that it is my +door. My retreat is covered with the bark of young chestnut-trees, and +the birds, I suspect, mistake it for a huge stump that ought to hold +fat grubs (there is not even a book-worm inside of it), and their loud +rapping often makes me think I have a caller indeed. I place fragments +of hickory-nuts in the interstices of the bark, and thus attract the +nuthatches; a bone upon my window-sill attracts both nuthatches and +the downy woodpecker. They peep in curiously through the window upon +me, pecking away at my bone, too often a very poor one. A bone nailed +to a tree a few feet in front of the window attracts crows as well as +lesser birds. Even the slate-colored snowbird, a seed-eater, comes and +nibbles it occasionally. + +The bird that seems to consider he has the best right to the bone both +upon the tree and upon the sill is the downy woodpecker, my favorite +neighbor among the winter birds, to whom I will mainly devote the +remainder of this chapter. His retreat is but a few paces from my own, +in the decayed limb of an apple-tree which he excavated several +autumns ago. I say "he" because the red plume on the top of his head +proclaims the sex. It seems not to be generally known to our writers +upon ornithology that certain of our woodpeckers--probably all the +winter residents--each fall excavate a limb or the trunk of a tree in +which to pass the winter, and that the cavity is abandoned in the +spring, probably for a new one in which nidification takes place. So +far as I have observed, these cavities are drilled out only by the +males. Where the females take up their quarters I am not so well +informed, though I suspect that they use the abandoned holes of the +males of the previous year. + +The particular woodpecker to which I refer drilled his first hole in +my apple-tree one fall four or five years ago. This he occupied till +the following spring, when he abandoned it. The next fall he began a +hole in an adjoining limb, later than before, and when it was about +half completed a female took possession of his old quarters. I am +sorry to say that this seemed to enrage the male very much, and he +persecuted the poor bird whenever she appeared upon the scene. He +would fly at her spitefully and drive her off. One chilly November +morning, as I passed under the tree, I heard the hammer of the little +architect in his cavity, and at the same time saw the persecuted +female sitting at the entrance of the other hole as if she would fain +come out. She was actually shivering, probably from both fear and +cold. I understood the situation at a glance; the bird was afraid to +come forth and brave the anger of the male. Not till I had rapped +smartly upon the limb with my stick did she come out and attempt to +escape; but she had not gone ten feet from the tree before the male +was in hot pursuit, and in a few moments had driven her back to the +same tree, where she tried to avoid him among the branches. A few +days after, he rid himself of his unwelcome neighbor in the following +ingenious manner: he fairly scuttled the other cavity; he drilled a +hole into the bottom of it that let in the light and the cold, and I +saw the female there no more. I did not see him in the act of +rendering this tenement uninhabitable; but one morning, behold it was +punctured at the bottom, and the circumstances all seemed to point to +him as the author of it. There is probably no gallantry among the +birds except at the mating season. I have frequently seen the male +woodpecker drive the female away from the bone upon the tree. When she +hopped around to the other end and timidly nibbled it, he would +presently dart spitefully at her. She would then take up her position +in his rear and wait till he had finished his meal. The position of +the female among the birds is very much the same as that of woman +among savage tribes. Most of the drudgery of life falls upon her, and +the leavings of the males are often her lot. + + [Illustration: WINTER AT RIVERBY ON THE HUDSON] + +My bird is a genuine little savage, doubtless, but I value him as a +neighbor. It is a satisfaction during the cold or stormy winter nights +to know he is warm and cosy there in his retreat. When the day is bad +and unfit to be abroad in, he is there too. When I wish to know if he +is at home, I go and rap upon his tree, and, if he is not too lazy or +indifferent, after some delay he shows his head in his round doorway +about ten feet above, and looks down inquiringly upon me,--sometimes +latterly I think half resentfully, as much as to say, "I would thank +you not to disturb me so often." After sundown, he will not put his +head out any more when I call, but as I step away I can get a glimpse +of him inside looking cold and reserved. He is a late riser, +especially if it is a cold or disagreeable morning, in this respect +being like the barn fowls; it is sometimes near nine o'clock before I +see him leave his tree. On the other hand, he comes home early, being +in, if the day is unpleasant, by four P. M. He lives all alone; in +this respect I do not commend his example. Where his mate is, I should +like to know. + +I have discovered several other woodpeckers in adjoining orchards, +each of which has a like home, and leads a like solitary life. One of +them has excavated a dry limb within easy reach of my hand, doing the +work also in September. But the choice of tree was not a good one; the +limb was too much decayed, and the workman had made the cavity too +large; a chip had come out, making a hole in the outer wall. Then he +went a few inches down the limb and began again, and excavated a +large, commodious chamber, but had again come too near the surface; +scarcely more than the bark protected him in one place, and the limb +was very much weakened. Then he made another attempt still farther +down the limb, and drilled in an inch or two, but seemed to change his +mind; the work stopped, and I concluded the bird had wisely abandoned +the tree. Passing there one cold, rainy November day, I thrust in my +two fingers and was surprised to feel something soft and warm; as I +drew away my hand the bird came out, apparently no more surprised than +I was. It had decided, then, to make its home in the old limb; a +decision it had occasion to regret, for not long after, on a stormy +night, the branch gave way and fell to the ground:-- + + "When the bough breaks the cradle will fall, + And down will come baby, cradle and all." + +Such a cavity makes a snug, warm home, and when the entrance is on the +under side of the limb, as is usual, the wind and snow cannot reach +the occupant. Late in December, while crossing a high, wooded +mountain, lured by the music of fox-hounds, I discovered fresh yellow +chips strewing the new-fallen snow, and at once thought of my +woodpeckers. On looking around I saw where one had been at work +excavating a lodge in a small yellow birch. The orifice was about +fifteen feet from the ground, and appeared as round as if struck with +a compass. It was on the east side of the tree, so as to avoid the +prevailing west and northwest winds. As it was nearly two inches in +diameter, it could not have been the work of the downy, but must have +been that of the hairy, or else the yellow-bellied woodpecker. His +home had probably been wrecked by some violent wind, and he was thus +providing himself another. In digging out these retreats the +woodpeckers prefer a dry, brittle trunk, not too soft. They go in +horizontally to the centre and then turn downward, enlarging the +tunnel as they go, till when finished it is the shape of a long, deep +pear. + +Another trait our woodpeckers have that endears them to me, and that +has never been pointedly noticed by our ornithologists, is their habit +of drumming in the spring. They are songless birds, and yet all are +musicians; they make the dry limbs eloquent of the coming change. Did +you think that loud, sonorous hammering which proceeded from the +orchard or from the near woods on that still March or April morning +was only some bird getting its breakfast? It is downy, but he is not +rapping at the door of a grub; he is rapping at the door of spring, +and the dry limb thrills beneath the ardor of his blows. Or, later in +the season, in the dense forest or by some remote mountain lake, does +that measured rhythmic beat that breaks upon the silence, first three +strokes following each other rapidly, succeeded by two louder ones +with longer intervals between them, and that has an effect upon the +alert ear as if the solitude itself had at last found a voice,--does +that suggest anything less than a deliberate musical performance? In +fact, our woodpeckers are just as characteristically drummers as is +the ruffed grouse, and they have their particular limbs and stubs to +which they resort for that purpose. Their need of expression is +apparently just as great as that of the song-birds, and it is not +surprising that they should have found out that there is music in a +dry, seasoned limb which can be evoked beneath their beaks. + +A few seasons ago, a downy woodpecker, probably the individual one who +is now my winter neighbor, began to drum early in March in a partly +decayed apple-tree that stands in the edge of a narrow strip of +woodland near me. When the morning was still and mild I would often +hear him through my window before I was up, or by half-past six +o'clock, and he would keep it up pretty briskly till nine or ten +o'clock, in this respect resembling the grouse, which do most of their +drumming in the forenoon. His drum was the stub of a dry limb about +the size of one's wrist. The heart was decayed and gone, but the outer +shell was hard and resonant. The bird would keep his position there +for an hour at a time. Between his drummings he would preen his +plumage and listen as if for the response of the female, or for the +drum of some rival. How swift his head would go when he was +delivering his blows upon the limb! His beak wore the surface +perceptibly. When he wished to change the key, which was quite often, +he would shift his position an inch or two to a knot which gave out a +higher, shriller note. When I climbed up to examine his drum he was +much disturbed. I did not know he was in the vicinity, but it seems he +saw me from a near tree, and came in haste to the neighboring +branches, and with spread plumage and a sharp note demanded plainly +enough what my business was with his drum. I was invading his privacy, +desecrating his shrine, and the bird was much put out. After some +weeks the female appeared; he had literally drummed up a mate; his +urgent and oft-repeated advertisement was answered. Still the drumming +did not cease, but was quite as fervent as before. If a mate could be +won by drumming, she could be kept and entertained by more drumming; +courtship should not end with marriage. If the bird felt musical +before, of course he felt much more so now. Besides that, the gentle +deities needed propitiating in behalf of the nest and young as well as +in behalf of the mate. After a time a second female came, when there +was war between the two. I did not see them come to blows, but I saw +one female pursuing the other about the place, and giving her no rest +for several days. She was evidently trying to run her out of the +neighborhood. Now and then, she, too, would drum briefly, as if +sending a triumphant message to her mate. + +The woodpeckers do not each have a particular dry limb to which they +resort at all times to drum, like the one I have described. The woods +are full of suitable branches, and they drum more or less here and +there as they are in quest of food; yet I am convinced each one has +its favorite spot, like the grouse, to which it resorts especially in +the morning. The sugar-maker in the maple-woods may notice that this +sound proceeds from the same tree or trees about his camp with great +regularity. A woodpecker in my vicinity has drummed for two seasons on +a telegraph pole, and he makes the wires and glass insulators ring. +Another drums on a thin board on the end of a long grape-arbor, and on +still mornings can be heard a long distance. + +A friend of mine in a Southern city tells me of a red-headed +woodpecker that drums upon a lightning-rod on his neighbor's house. +Nearly every clear, still morning at certain seasons, he says, this +musical rapping may be heard. "He alternates his tapping with his +stridulous call, and the effect on a cool, autumn-like morning is very +pleasing." + +The high-hole appears to drum more promiscuously than does downy. He +utters his long, loud spring call, _whick--whick--whick--whick_, and +then begins to rap with his beak upon his perch before the last note +has reached your ear. I have seen him drum sitting upon the ridge of +the barn. The log-cock, or pileated woodpecker, the largest and +wildest of our Northern species, I have never heard drum. His blows +should wake the echoes. + +When the woodpecker is searching for food, or laying siege to some +hidden grub, the sound of his hammer is dead or muffled, and is heard +but a few yards. It is only upon dry, seasoned timber, freed of its +bark, that he beats his reveille to spring and wooes his mate. + +Wilson was evidently familiar with this vernal drumming of the +woodpeckers, but quite misinterprets it. Speaking of the red-bellied +species, he says: "It rattles like the rest of the tribe on the dead +limbs, and with such violence as to be heard in still weather more +than half a mile off; and listens to hear the insect it has alarmed." +He listens rather to hear the drum of his rival, or the brief and coy +response of the female; for there are no insects in these dry limbs. + +On one occasion I saw downy at his drum when a female flew quickly +through the tree and alighted a few yards beyond him. He paused +instantly, and kept his place apparently without moving a muscle. The +female, I took it, had answered his advertisement. She flitted about +from limb to limb (the female may be known by the absence of the +crimson spot on the back of the head), apparently full of business of +her own, and now and then would drum in a shy, tentative manner. The +male watched her a few moments, and, convinced perhaps that she meant +business, struck up his liveliest tune, then listened for her +response. As it came back timidly but promptly, he left his perch and +sought a nearer acquaintance with the prudent female. Whether or not a +match grew out of this little flirtation I cannot say. + +Our smaller woodpeckers are sometimes accused of injuring the apple +and other fruit trees, but the depredator is probably the larger and +rarer yellow-bellied species. One autumn I caught one of these fellows +in the act of sinking long rows of his little wells in the limb of an +apple-tree. There were series of rings of them, one above another, +quite around the stem, some of them the third of an inch across. They +are evidently made to get at the tender, juicy bark, or cambium layer, +next to the hard wood of the tree. The health and vitality of the +branch are so seriously impaired by them that it often dies. + +In the following winter the same bird (probably) tapped a maple-tree +in front of my window in fifty-six places; and when the day was sunny, +and the sap oozed out, he spent most of his time there. He knew the +good sap-days, and was on hand promptly for his tipple; cold and +cloudy days he did not appear. He knew which side of the tree to tap, +too, and avoided the sunless northern exposure. When one series of +well-holes failed to supply him, he would sink another, drilling +through the bark with great ease and quickness. Then, when the day was +warm, and the sap ran freely, he would have a regular sugar-maple +debauch, sitting there by his wells hour after hour, and as fast as +they became filled sipping out the sap. This he did in a gentle, +caressing manner that was very suggestive. He made a row of wells near +the foot of the tree, and other rows higher up, and he would hop up +and down the trunk as these became filled. He would hop down the tree +backward with the utmost ease, throwing his tail outward and his head +inward at each hop. When the wells would freeze up or his thirst +become slaked, he would ruffle his feathers, draw himself together, +and sit and doze in the sun on the side of the tree. He passed the +night in a hole in an apple-tree not far off. He was evidently a young +bird, not yet having the plumage of the mature male or female, and yet +he knew which tree to tap and where to tap it. I saw where he had +bored several maples in the vicinity, but no oaks or chestnuts. I +nailed up a fat bone near his sap-works: the downy woodpecker came +there several times a day to dine; the nuthatch came, and even the +snowbird took a taste occasionally; but this sapsucker never touched +it--the sweet of the tree sufficed for him. This woodpecker does not +breed or abound in my vicinity; only stray specimens are now and then +to be met with in the colder months. As spring approached, the one I +refer to took his departure. + + [Illustration: WOOD FOR THE STUDY FIRE] + +I must bring my account of my neighbor in the tree down to the latest +date; so after the lapse of a year I add the following notes. The last +day of February was bright and spring-like. I heard the first sparrow +sing that morning and the first screaming of the circling hawks, and +about seven o'clock the first drumming of my little friend. His first +notes were uncertain and at long intervals, but by and by he warmed up +and beat a lively tattoo. As the season advanced he ceased to lodge in +his old quarters. I would rap and find nobody at home. Was he out on a +lark, I said, the spring fever working in his blood? After a time his +drumming grew less frequent, and finally, in the middle of April, +ceased entirely. Had some accident befallen him, or had he wandered +away to fresh fields, following some siren of his species? Probably +the latter. Another bird that I had under observation also left his +winter-quarters in the spring. This, then, appears to be the usual +custom. The wrens and the nuthatches and chickadees succeed to these +abandoned cavities, and often have amusing disputes over them. The +nuthatches frequently pass the night in them, and the wrens and +chickadees nest in them. I have further observed that in excavating a +cavity for a nest the downy woodpecker makes the entrance smaller than +when he is excavating his winter-quarters. This is doubtless for the +greater safety of the young birds. + +The next fall the downy excavated another limb in the old apple-tree, +but had not got his retreat quite finished when the large hairy +woodpecker appeared upon the scene. I heard his loud _click, click_, +early one frosty November morning. There was something impatient and +angry in the tone that arrested my attention. I saw the bird fly to +the tree where downy had been at work, and fall with great violence +upon the entrance to his cavity. The bark and the chips flew beneath +his vigorous blows, and, before I fairly woke up to what he was doing, +he had completely demolished the neat, round doorway of downy. He had +made a large, ragged opening, large enough for himself to enter. I +drove him away and my favorite came back, but only to survey the ruins +of his castle for a moment and then go away. He lingered about for a +day or two and then disappeared. The big hairy usurper passed a night +in the cavity; but on being hustled out of it the next night by me, he +also left, but not till he had demolished the entrance to a cavity in +a neighboring tree where downy and his mate had reared their brood +that summer, and where I had hoped the female would pass the winter. + + + + + III + + A SPRING RELISH + + +It is a little remarkable how regularly severe and mild winters +alternate in our climate for a series of years,--a feminine and a +masculine one, as it were, almost invariably following each other. +Every other season now for ten years the ice-gatherers on the river +have been disappointed of a full harvest, and every other season the +ice has formed from fifteen to twenty inches thick. From 1873 to 1884 +there was no marked exception to this rule. But in the last-named +year, when, according to the succession, a mild winter was due, the +breed seemed to have got crossed, and a sort of mongrel winter was the +result; neither mild nor severe, but very stormy, capricious, and +disagreeable, with ice a foot thick on the river. The winter which +followed, that of 1884-85, though slow and hesitating at first, fully +proved itself as belonging to the masculine order. The present winter +of 1885-86 shows a marked return to the type of two years ago--less +hail and snow, but by no means the mild season that was due. By and +by, probably, the meteorological influences will get back into the old +ruts again, and we shall have once more the regular alternation of +mild and severe winters. During very open winters, like that of +1879-80, nature in my latitude, eighty miles north of New York, hardly +shuts up house at all. That season I heard a little piping frog on the +7th of December, and on the 18th of January, in a spring run, I saw +the common bullfrog out of his hibernaculum, evidently thinking it was +spring. A copperhead snake was killed here about the same date; +caterpillars did not seem to retire, as they usually do, but came +forth every warm day. The note of the bluebird was heard nearly every +week all winter, and occasionally that of the robin. Such open winters +make one fear that his appetite for spring will be blunted when spring +really does come; but he usually finds that the April days have the +old relish. April is that part of the season that never cloys upon the +palate. It does not surfeit one with good things, but provokes and +stimulates the curiosity. One is on the alert; there are hints and +suggestions on every hand. Something has just passed, or stirred, or +called, or breathed, in the open air or in the ground about, that we +would fain know more of. May is sweet, but April is pungent. There is +frost enough in it to make it sharp, and heat enough in it to make it +quick. + + [Illustration: AN EVENING IN SPRING] + +In my walks in April, I am on the lookout for watercresses. It is a +plant that has the pungent April flavor. In many parts of the country +the watercress seems to have become completely naturalized, and is +essentially a wild plant. I found it one day in a springy place, on +the top of a high, wooded mountain, far from human habitation. We +gathered it and ate it with our sandwiches. Where the walker cannot +find this salad, a good substitute may be had in our native spring +cress, which is also in perfection in April. Crossing a wooded hill in +the regions of the Catskills on the 15th of the month, I found a +purple variety of the plant, on the margin of a spring that issued +from beneath a ledge of rocks, just ready to bloom. I gathered the +little white tubers, that are clustered like miniature potatoes at the +root, and ate them, and they were a surprise and a challenge to the +tongue; on the table they would well fill the place of mustard, and +horseradish, and other appetizers. When I was a schoolboy, we used to +gather, in a piece of woods on our way to school, the roots of a +closely allied species to eat with our lunch. But we generally ate it +up before lunch-time. Our name for this plant was "Crinkle-root." The +botanists call it the toothwort (_Dentaria_), also pepper-root. + +From what fact or event shall one really date the beginning of spring? +The little piping frogs usually furnish a good starting-point. One +spring I heard the first note on the 6th of April; the next on the +27th of February; but in reality the latter season was only two weeks +earlier than the former. When the bees carry in their first pollen, +one would think spring had come; yet this fact does not always +correspond with the real stage of the season. Before there is any +bloom anywhere, bees will bring pollen to the hive. Where do they get +it? + +I have seen them gathering it on the fresh sawdust in the woodyard, +especially on that of hickory or maple. They wallow amid the dust, +working it over and over, and searching it like diamond-hunters, and +after a time their baskets are filled with the precious flour, which +is probably only a certain part of the wood, doubtless the soft, +nutritious inner bark. + +In fact, all signs and phases of life in the early season are very +capricious, and are earlier or later just as some local or exceptional +circumstance favors or hinders. It is only such birds as arrive after +about the 20th of April that are at all "punctual" according to the +almanac. I have never known the arrival of the barn swallow to vary +much from that date in this latitude, no matter how early or late the +season might be. Another punctual bird is the yellow redpoll warbler, +the first of his class that appears. Year after year, between the 20th +and the 25th, I am sure to see this little bird about my place for a +day or two only, now on the ground, now on the fences, now on the +small trees and shrubs, and closely examining the buds or just-opening +leaves of the apple-trees. He is a small olive-colored bird, with a +dark-red or maroon-colored patch on the top of his head. His ordinary +note is a smart "chirp." His movements are very characteristic, +especially that vertical, oscillating movement of the hind part of his +body, like that of the wagtails. There are many birds that do not come +here till May, be the season never so early. The spring of 1878 was +very forward, and on the 27th of April I made this entry in my +notebook: "In nature it is the middle of May, and, judging from +vegetation alone, one would expect to find many of the later birds, as +the oriole, the wood thrush, the kingbird, the catbird, the tanager, +the indigo-bird, the vireos, and many of the warblers, but they have +not arrived. The May birds, it seems, will not come in April, no +matter how the season favors." + +Some birds passing north in the spring are provokingly silent. Every +April I see the hermit thrush hopping about the woods, and in case of +a sudden snow-storm seeking shelter about the outbuildings; but I +never hear even a fragment of his wild, silvery strain. The +white-crowned sparrow also passes in silence. I see the bird for a few +days about the same date each year, but he will not reveal to me his +song. On the other hand, his congener, the white-throated sparrow, is +decidedly musical in passing, both spring and fall. His sweet, +wavering whistle is at times quite as full and perfect as when heard +in June or July in the Canadian woods. The latter bird is much more +numerous than the white-crowned, and its stay with us more protracted, +which may in a measure account for the greater frequency of its song. +The fox sparrow, who passes earlier (sometimes in March), is also +chary of the music with which he is so richly endowed. It is not every +season that I hear him, though my ear is on the alert for his strong, +finely-modulated whistle. + +Nearly all the warblers sing in passing. I hear them in the orchards, +in the groves, in the woods, as they pause to feed in their northward +journey, their brief, lisping, shuffling, insect-like notes requiring +to be searched for by the ear, as their forms by the eye. But the ear +is not tasked to identify the songs of the kinglets, as they tarry +briefly with us in spring. In fact, there is generally a week in April +or early May,-- + + "On such a time as goes before the leaf, + When all the woods stand in a mist of green + And nothing perfect,"-- + +during which the piping, voluble, rapid, intricate, and delicious +warble of the ruby-crowned kinglet is the most noticeable strain to be +heard, especially among the evergreens. + +I notice that during the mating season of the birds the rivalries and +jealousies are not all confined to the males. Indeed, the most +spiteful and furious battles, as among the domestic fowls, are +frequently between females. I have seen two hen robins scratch and +pull feathers in a manner that contrasted strongly with the courtly +and dignified sparring usual between the males. One March a pair of +bluebirds decided to set up housekeeping in the trunk of an old +apple-tree near my house. Not long after, an unwedded female appeared, +and probably tried to supplant the lawful wife. I did not see what +arts she used, but I saw her being very roughly handled by the jealous +bride. The battle continued nearly all day about the orchard and +grounds, and was a battle at very close quarters. The two birds would +clinch in the air or on a tree, and fall to the ground with beaks and +claws locked. The male followed them about, and warbled and called, +but whether deprecatingly or encouragingly, I could not tell. +Occasionally he would take a hand, but whether to separate them or +whether to fan the flames, that I could not tell. So far as I could +see, he was highly amused, and culpably indifferent to the issue of +the battle. + +The English spring begins much earlier than ours in New England and +New York, yet an exceptionally early April with us must be nearly, if +not quite, abreast with April as it usually appears in England. The +blackthorn sometimes blooms in Britain in February, but the swallow +does not appear till about the 20th of April, nor the anemone bloom +ordinarily till that date. The nightingale comes about the same time, +and the cuckoo follows close. Our cuckoo does not come till near June; +but the water-thrush, which Audubon thought nearly equal to the +nightingale as a songster (though it certainly is not), I have known +to come by the 21st. I have seen the sweet English violet, escaped +from the garden, and growing wild by the roadside, in bloom on the +25th of March, which is about, its date of flowering at home. During +the same season, the first of our native flowers to appear was the +hepatica, which I found on April 4. The arbutus and the dicentra +appeared on the 10th, and the coltsfoot--which, however, is an +importation--about the same time. The bloodroot, claytonia, saxifrage, +and anemone were in bloom on the 17th, and I found the first blue +violet and the great spurred violet on the 19th (saw the little +violet-colored butterfly, dancing about the woods the same day). I +plucked my first dandelion on a meadow slope on the 23d, and in the +woods, protected by a high ledge, my first trillium. During the month +at least twenty native shrubs and wild flowers bloomed in my vicinity, +which is an unusual showing for April. + + [Illustration: AT THE STUDY DOOR] + +There are many things left for May, but nothing fairer, if as fair, as +the first flower, the hepatica. I find I have never admired this +little firstling half enough. When at the maturity of its charms, it +is certainly the gem of the woods. What an individuality it has! No +two clusters alike; all shades and sizes; some are snow-white, some +pale pink, with just a tinge of violet, some deep purple, others the +purest blue, others blue touched with lilac. A solitary blue-purple +one, fully expanded and rising over the brown leaves or the green +moss, its cluster of minute anthers showing like a group of pale stars +on its little firmament, is enough to arrest and hold the dullest eye. +Then, as I have elsewhere stated, there are individual hepaticas, or +individual families among them, that are sweet-scented. The gift seems +as capricious as the gift of genius in families. You cannot tell which +the fragrant ones are till you try them. Sometimes it is the large +white ones, sometimes the large purple ones, sometimes the small pink +ones. The odor is faint, and recalls that of the sweet violets. A +correspondent, who seems to have carefully observed these fragrant +hepaticas, writes me that this gift of odor is constant in the same +plant; that the plant which bears sweet-scented flowers this year will +bear them next. + +There is a brief period in our spring when I like more than at any +other time to drive along the country roads, or even to be shot along +by steam and have the landscape presented to me like a map. It is at +that period, usually late in April, when we behold the first +quickening of the earth. The waters have subsided, the roads have +become dry, the sunshine has grown strong and its warmth has +penetrated the sod; there is a stir of preparation about the farm and +all through the country. One does not care to see things very closely: +his interest in nature is not special but general. The earth is coming +to life again. All the genial and more fertile places in the landscape +are brought out; the earth is quickened in spots and streaks; you can +see at a glance where man and nature have dealt the most kindly with +it. The warm, moist places, the places that have had the wash of some +building or of the road, or have been subjected to some special +mellowing influence, how quickly the turf awakens there and shows the +tender green! See what the landscape would be, how much earlier spring +would come to it, if every square yard of it was alike moist and +fertile. As the later snows lay in patches here and there, so now the +earliest verdure is irregularly spread over the landscape, and is +especially marked on certain slopes, as if it had blown over from the +other side and lodged there. + +A little earlier the homesteads looked cold and naked; the old +farmhouse was bleak and unattractive; now Nature seems especially to +smile upon it; her genial influences crowd up around it; the turf +awakens all about as if in the spirit of friendliness. See the old +barn on the meadow slope; the green seems to have oozed out from it, +and to have flowed slowly down the hill; at a little distance it is +lost in the sere stubble. One can see where every spring lies buried +about the fields; its influence is felt at the surface, and the turf +is early quickened there. Where the cattle have loved to lie and +ruminate in the warm summer twilight, there the April sunshine loves +to linger too, till the sod thrills to new life. + +The home, the domestic feeling in nature, is brought out and enhanced +at this time; what man has done tells, especially what he has done +well. Our interest centres in the farmhouses, and in the influence +that seems to radiate from there. The older the home, the more genial +nature looks about it. The new architectural palace of the rich +citizen, with the barns and outbuildings concealed or disguised as +much as possible,--spring is in no hurry about it; the sweat of long +years of honest labor has not yet fattened the soil it stands upon. + +The full charm of this April landscape is not brought out till the +afternoon. It seems to need the slanting rays of the evening sun to +give it the right mellowness and tenderness, or the right perspective. +It is, perhaps, a little too bald in the strong white light of the +earlier part of the day; but when the faint four-o'clock shadows begin +to come out, and we look through the green vistas and along the farm +lanes toward the west, or out across long stretches of fields above +which spring seems fairly hovering, just ready to alight, and note the +teams slowly plowing, the brightened mould-board gleaming in the sun +now and then,--it is at such times we feel its fresh, delicate +attraction the most. There is no foliage on the trees yet; only here +and there the red bloom of the soft maple, illuminated by the +declining sun shows vividly against the tender green of a slope +beyond, or a willow, like a thin veil, stands out against a leafless +wood. Here and there a little meadow watercourse is golden with marsh +marigolds, or some fence border, or rocky streak of neglected pasture +land is thickly starred with the white flowers of the bloodroot. The +eye can devour a succession of landscapes at such a time; there is +nothing that sates or entirely fills it, but every spring token +stimulates it, and makes it more on the alert. + +April, too, is the time to go budding. A swelling bud is food for the +fancy, and often food for the eye. Some buds begin to glow as they +begin to swell. The bud scales change color and become a delicate rose +pink. I note this especially in the European maple. The bud scales +flush as if the effort to "keep in" brought the blood into their +faces. The scales of the willow do not flush, but shine like ebony, +and each one presses like a hand upon the catkin that will escape from +beneath it. + +When spring pushes pretty hard, many buds begin to sweat as well as to +glow; they exude a brown, fragrant, gummy substance that affords the +honey-bee her first cement and hive varnish. The hickory, the +horse-chestnut, the plane-tree, the poplars, are all coated with this +April myrrh. That of certain poplars, like the Balm of Gilead, is the +most noticeable and fragrant,--no spring incense more agreeable. Its +perfume is often upon the April breeze. I pick up the bud scales of +the poplars along the road, long brown scales like the beaks of birds, +and they leave a rich gummy odor in my hand that lasts for hours. I +frequently detect the same odor about my hives when the bees are +making all snug against the rains, or against the millers. When used +by the bees, we call it propolis. Virgil refers to it as a "glue more +adhesive than bird-lime and the pitch of Phrygian Ida." Pliny says it +is extracted from the tears of the elm, the willow, and the reed. The +bees often have serious work to detach it from their leg-baskets, and +make it stick only where they want it to. + +The bud scales begin to drop in April, and by May Day the scales have +fallen from the eyes of every branch in the forest. In most cases the +bud has an inner wrapping that does not fall so soon. In the hickory +this inner wrapping is like a great livid membrane, an inch or more in +length, thick, fleshy, and shining. It clasps the tender leaves about +as if both protecting and nursing them. As the leaves develop, these +membranous wrappings curl back, and finally wither and fall. In the +plane-tree, or sycamore, this inner wrapping of the bud is a little +pelisse of soft yellow or tawny fur. When it is cast off, it is the +size of one's thumb nail, and suggests the delicate skin of some +golden-haired mole. The young sycamore balls lay aside their fur +wrappings early in May. The flower tassels of the European maple, too, +come packed in a slightly furry covering. The long and fleshy inner +scales that enfold the flowers and leaves are of a clear olive green, +thinly covered with silken hairs like the young of some animals. Our +sugar maple is less striking and beautiful in the bud, but the flowers +are more graceful and fringelike. + +Some trees have no bud scales. The sumac presents in early spring a +mere fuzzy knot, from which, by and by, there emerges a soft, furry, +tawny-colored kitten's paw. I know of nothing in vegetable nature that +seems so really to be _born_ as the ferns. They emerge from the ground +rolled up, with a rudimentary and "touch-me-not" look, and appear to +need a maternal tongue to lick them into shape. The sun plays the +wet-nurse to them, and very soon they are out of that uncanny covering +in which they come swathed, and take their places with other green +things. + +The bud scales strew the ground in spring as the leaves do in the +fall, though they are so small that we hardly notice them. All +growth, all development, is a casting off, a leaving of something +behind. First the bud scales drop, then the flower drops, then the +fruit drops, then the leaf drops. The first two are preparatory and +stand for spring; the last two are the crown and stand for autumn. +Nearly the same thing happens with the seed in the ground. First the +shell, or outer husk, is dropped or cast off; then the cotyledons, +those nurse leaves of the young plant; then the fruit falls, and at +last the stalk and leaf. A bud is a kind of seed planted in the branch +instead of in the soil. It bursts and grows like a germ. In the +absence of seeds and fruit, many birds and animals feed upon buds. The +pine grosbeaks from the north are the most destructive budders that +come among us. The snow beneath the maples they frequent is often +covered with bud scales. The ruffed grouse sometimes buds in an +orchard near the woods, and thus takes the farmer's apple crop a year +in advance. Grafting is but a planting of buds. The seed is a +complete, independent bud; it has the nutriment of the young plant +within itself, as the egg holds several good lunches for the young +chick. When the spider, or the wasp, or the carpenter bee, or the sand +hornet lays an egg in a cell, and deposits food near it for the young +when hatched, it does just what nature does in every kernel of corn or +wheat, or bean, or nut. Around or within the chit or germ, she stores +food for the young plant. Upon this it feeds till the root takes hold +of the soil and draws sustenance from thence. The bud is rooted in the +branch, and draws its sustenance from the milk of the pulpy cambium +layer beneath the bark. + +Another pleasant feature of spring, which I have not mentioned, is the +full streams. Riding across the country one bright day in March, I saw +and felt, as if for the first time, what an addition to the +satisfaction one has in the open air at this season are the clear, +full watercourses. They come to the front, as it were, and lure and +hold the eye. There are no weeds, or grasses, or foliage to hide them; +they are full to the brim, and fuller; they catch and reflect the +sunbeams, and are about the only objects of life and motion in nature. +The trees stand so still, the fields are so hushed and naked, the +mountains so exposed and rigid, that the eye falls upon the blue, +sparkling, undulating watercourses with a peculiar satisfaction. By +and by the grass and trees will be waving, and the streams will be +shrunken and hidden, and our delight will not be in them. The still +ponds and lakelets will then please us more. + +The little brown brooks,--how swift and full they ran! One fancied +something gleeful and hilarious in them. And the large creeks,--how +steadily they rolled on, trailing their ample skirts along the edges +of the fields and marshes, and leaving ragged patches of water here +and there! Many a gentle slope spread, as it were, a turfy apron in +which reposed a little pool or lakelet. Many a stream sent little +detachments across lots, the sparkling water seeming to trip lightly +over the unbroken turf. Here and there an oak or an elm stood +knee-deep in a clear pool, as if rising from its bath. It gives one a +fresh, genial feeling to see such a bountiful supply of pure, running +water. One's desires and affinities go out toward the full streams. +How many a parched place they reach and lap in one's memory! How many +a vision of naked pebbles and sun-baked banks they cover and blot +out! They give eyes to the fields; they give dimples and laughter; +they give light and motion. _Running water!_ What a delightful +suggestion the words always convey! One's thoughts and sympathies are +set flowing by them; they unlock a fountain of pleasant fancies and +associations in one's memory; the imagination is touched and +refreshed. + +March water is usually clean, sweet water; every brook is a +trout-brook, a mountain brook; the cold and the snow have supplied the +condition of a high latitude; no stagnation, no corruption, comes +downstream now as on a summer freshet. Winter comes down, liquid and +repentant. Indeed, it is more than water that runs then: it is frost +subdued; it is spring triumphant. No obsolete watercourses now. The +larger creeks seek out their abandoned beds, return to the haunts of +their youth, and linger fondly there. The muskrat is adrift, but not +homeless; his range is vastly extended, and he evidently rejoices in +full streams. Through the tunnel of the meadow-mouse the water rushes +as through a pipe; and that nest of his, that was so warm and cosy +beneath the snowbank in the meadow-bottom, is sodden or afloat. But +meadow-mice are not afraid of water. On various occasions I have seen +them swimming about the spring pools like muskrats, and, when alarmed, +diving beneath the water. Add the golden willows to the full streams, +with the red-shouldered starlings perched amid their branches, sending +forth their strong, liquid, gurgling notes, and the picture is +complete. The willow branches appear to have taken on a deeper yellow +in spring; perhaps it is the effect of the stronger sunshine, perhaps +it is the effect of the swift, vital water laving their roots. The +epaulettes of the starlings, too, are brighter than when they left us +in the fall, and they appear to get brighter daily until the nesting +begins. The males arrive many days before the females, and, perched +along the marshes and watercourses, send forth their liquid, musical +notes, passing the call from one to the other, as if to guide and +hurry their mates forward. + + [Illustration: A WOODLAND BROOK] + +The noise of a brook, you may observe, is by no means in proportion to +its volume. The full March streams make far less noise relatively to +their size than the shallower streams of summer, because the rocks and +pebbles that cause the sound in summer are deeply buried beneath the +current. "Still waters run deep" is not so true as "deep waters run +still." I rode for half a day along the upper Delaware, and my +thoughts almost unconsciously faced toward the full, clear river. Both +the Delaware and the Susquehanna have a starved, impoverished look in +summer,--unsightly stretches of naked drift and bare, bleaching rocks. +But behold them in March, after the frost has turned over to them the +moisture it has held back and stored up as the primitive forests used +to hold the summer rains. Then they have an easy, ample, triumphant +look, that is a feast to the eye. A plump, well-fed stream is as +satisfying to behold as a well-fed animal or a thrifty tree. One +source of charm in the English landscape is the full, placid stream +the season through; no desiccated watercourses will you see there, nor +any feeble, decrepit brooks, hardly able to get over the ground. + +This condition of our streams and rivers in spring is evidently but a +faint reminiscence of their condition during what we may call the +geological springtime, the March or April of the earth's history, +when the annual rainfall appears to have been vastly greater than at +present, and when the watercourses were consequently vastly larger and +fuller. In pleistocene days the earth's climate was evidently much +damper than at present. It was the rainiest of March weather. On no +other theory can we account for the enormous erosion of the earth's +surface, and the plowing of the great valleys. Professor Newberry +finds abundant evidence that the Hudson was, in former times, a much +larger river than now. Professor Zittel reaches the same conclusion +concerning the Nile, and Humboldt was impressed with the same fact +while examining the Orinoco and the tributaries of the Amazon. All +these rivers appear to be but mere fractions of their former selves. +The same is true of all the great lakes. If not Noah's flood, then +evidently some other very wet spell, of which this is a tradition, +lies far behind us. Something like the drought of summer is beginning +upon the earth; the great floods have dried up; the rivers are slowly +shrinking; the water is penetrating farther and farther into the +cooling crust of the earth; and what was ample to drench and cover its +surface, even to make a Noah's flood, will be but a drop in the bucket +to the vast interior of the cooled sphere. + + + + + IV + + APRIL + + +If we represent the winter of our northern climate by a rugged +snow-clad mountain, and summer by a broad fertile plain, then the +intermediate belt, the hilly and breezy uplands, will stand for +spring, with March reaching well up into the region of the snows, and +April lapping well down upon the greening fields and unloosened +currents, not beyond the limits of winter's sallying storms, but well +within the vernal zone,--within the reach of the warm breath and +subtle, quickening influences of the plain below. At its best, April +is the tenderest of tender salads made crisp by ice or snow water. Its +type is the first spear of grass. The senses--sight, hearing, +smell--are as hungry for its delicate and almost spiritual tokens as +the cattle are for the first bite of its fields. How it touches one +and makes him both glad and sad! The voices of the arriving birds, the +migrating fowls, the clouds of pigeons sweeping across the sky or +filling the woods, the elfin horn of the first honey-bee venturing +abroad in the middle of the day, the clear piping of the little frogs +in the marshes at sundown, the camp-fire in the sugar-bush, the smoke +seen afar rising over the trees, the tinge of green that comes so +suddenly on the sunny knolls and slopes, the full translucent streams, +the waxing and warming sun,--how these things and others like them are +noted by the eager eye and ear! April is my natal month, and I am born +again into new delight and new surprises at each return of it. Its +name has an indescribable charm to me. Its two syllables are like the +calls of the first birds,--like that of the phoebe-bird, or of the +meadow-lark. Its very snows are fertilizing, and are called the poor +man's manure. + +Then its odors! I am thrilled by its fresh and indescribable +odors,--the perfume of the bursting sod, of the quickened roots and +rootlets, of the mould under the leaves, of the fresh furrows. No +other month has odors like it. The west wind the other day came +fraught with a perfume that was to the sense of smell what a wild and +delicate strain of music is to the ear. It was almost transcendental. +I walked across the hill with my nose in the air taking it in. It +lasted for two days. I imagined it came from the willows of a distant +swamp, whose catkins were affording the bees their first pollen; or +did it come from much farther,--from beyond the horizon, the +accumulated breath of innumerable farms and budding forests? The main +characteristic of these April odors is their uncloying freshness. They +are not sweet, they are oftener bitter, they are penetrating and +lyrical. I know well the odors of May and June, of the world of +meadows and orchards bursting into bloom, but they are not so +ineffable and immaterial and so stimulating to the sense as the +incense of April. + +The season of which I speak does not correspond with the April of the +almanac in all sections of our vast geography. It answers to March in +Virginia and Maryland, while in parts of New York and New England it +laps well over into May. It begins when the partridge drums, when the +hyla pipes, when the shad start up the rivers, when the grass greens +in the spring runs, and it ends when the leaves are unfolding and the +last snowflake dissolves in mid-air. It may be the first of May before +the first swallow appears, before the whippoorwill is heard, before +the wood thrush sings; but it is April as long as there is snow upon +the mountains, no matter what the almanac may say. Our April is, in +fact, a kind of Alpine summer, full of such contrasts and touches of +wild, delicate beauty as no other season affords. The deluded citizen +fancies there is nothing enjoyable in the country till June, and so +misses the freshest, tenderest part. It is as if one should miss +strawberries and begin his fruit-eating with melons and peaches. These +last are good,--supremely so, they are melting and luscious,--but +nothing so thrills and penetrates the taste, and wakes up and teases +the papillae of the tongue, as the uncloying strawberry. What midsummer +sweetness half so distracting as its brisk sub-acid flavor, and what +splendor of full-leaved June can stir the blood like the best of +leafless April? + +One characteristic April feature, and one that delights me very much, +is the perfect emerald of the spring runs while the fields are yet +brown and sere,--strips and patches of the most vivid velvet green on +the slopes and in the valleys. How the eye grazes there, and is filled +and refreshed! I had forgotten what a marked feature this was until I +recently rode in an open wagon for three days through a mountainous, +pastoral country, remarkable for its fine springs. Those delicious +green patches are yet in my eye. The fountains flowed with May. Where +no springs occurred, there were hints and suggestions of springs about +the fields and by the roadside in the freshened grass,--sometimes +overflowing a space in the form of an actual fountain. The water did +not quite get to the surface in such places, but sent its influence. + + [Illustration: AN APRIL DAY] + +The fields of wheat and rye, too, how they stand out of the April +landscape,--great green squares on a field of brown or gray! + +Among April sounds there is none more welcome or suggestive to me than +the voice of the little frogs piping in the marshes. No bird-note can +surpass it as a spring token; and as it is not mentioned, to my +knowledge, by the poets and writers of other lands, I am ready to +believe it is characteristic of our season alone. You may be sure +April has really come when this little amphibian creeps out of the mud +and inflates its throat. We talk of the bird inflating its throat, +but you should see this tiny minstrel inflate _its_ throat, which +becomes like a large bubble, and suggests a drummer-boy with his drum +slung very high. In this drum, or by the aid of it, the sound is +produced. Generally the note is very feeble at first, as if the frost +was not yet all out of the creature's throat, and only one voice will +be heard, some prophet bolder than all the rest, or upon whom the +quickening ray of spring has first fallen. And it often happens that +he is stoned for his pains by the yet unpacified element, and is +compelled literally to "shut up" beneath a fall of snow or a heavy +frost. Soon, however, he lifts up his voice again with more +confidence, and is joined by others and still others, till in due +time, say toward the last of the month, there is a shrill musical +uproar, as the sun is setting, in every marsh and bog in the land. It +is a plaintive sound, and I have heard people from the city speak of +it as lonesome and depressing, but to the lover of the country it is a +pure spring melody. The little piper will sometimes climb a bulrush, +to which he clings like a sailor to a mast, and send forth his shrill +call. There is a Southern species, heard when you have reached the +Potomac, whose note is far more harsh and crackling. To stand on the +verge of a swamp vocal with these, pains and stuns the ear. The call +of the Northern species is far more tender and musical.[1] + + [1] The Southern species is called the green hyla. I have + since heard them in my neighborhood on the Hudson. + +Then is there anything like a perfect April morning? One hardly knows +what the sentiment of it is, but it is something very delicious. It is +youth and hope. It is a new earth and a new sky. How the air transmits +sounds, and what an awakening, prophetic character all sounds have! +The distant barking of a dog, or the lowing of a cow, or the crowing +of a cock, seems from out the heart of Nature, and to be a call to +come forth. The great sun appears to have been reburnished, and there +is something in his first glance above the eastern hills, and the way +his eye-beams dart right and left and smite the rugged mountains into +gold, that quickens the pulse and inspires the heart. + +Across the fields in the early morning I hear some of the rare April +birds,--the chewink and the brown thrasher. The robin, bluebird, song +sparrow, phoebe-bird, etc., come in March; but these two ground-birds +are seldom heard till toward the last of April. The ground-birds are +all tree-singers or air singers; they must have an elevated stage to +speak from. Our long-tailed thrush, or thrasher, like its congeners +the catbird and mocking-bird, delights in a high branch of some +solitary tree, whence it will pour out its rich and intricate warble +for an hour together. This bird is the great American chipper. There +is no other bird that I know of that can chip with such emphasis and +military decision as this yellow-eyed songster. It is like the click +of a giant gun-lock. Why is the thrasher so stealthy? It always seems +to be going about on tiptoe. I never knew it to steal anything, and +yet it skulks and hides like a fugitive from justice. One never sees +it flying aloft in the air and traversing the world openly, like most +birds, but it darts along fences and through bushes as if pursued by a +guilty conscience. Only when the musical fit is upon it does it come +up into full view, and invite the world to hear and behold. + +The chewink is a shy bird also, but not stealthy. It is very +inquisitive, and sets up a great scratching among the leaves, +apparently to attract your attention. The male is perhaps the most +conspicuously marked of all the ground-birds except the bobolink, +being black above, bay on the sides, and white beneath. The bay is in +compliment to the leaves he is forever scratching among,--they have +rustled against his breast and sides so long that these parts have +taken their color; but whence come the white and black? The bird seems +to be aware that his color betrays him, for there are few birds in the +woods so careful about keeping themselves screened from view. When in +song, its favorite perch is the top of some high bush near to cover. +On being disturbed at such times, it pitches down into the brush and +is instantly lost to view. + +This is the bird that Thomas Jefferson wrote to Wilson about, greatly +exciting the latter's curiosity. Wilson was just then upon the +threshold of his career as an ornithologist, and had made a drawing of +the Canada jay, which he sent to the President. It was a new bird, and +in reply Jefferson called his attention to a "curious bird" which was +everywhere to be heard, but scarcely ever to be seen. He had for +twenty years interested the young sportsmen of his neighborhood to +shoot one for him, but without success. "It is in all the forests, +from spring to fall," he says in his letter, "and never but on the +tops of the tallest trees, from which it perpetually serenades us with +some of the sweetest notes, and as clear as those of the nightingale. +I have followed it for miles, without ever but once getting a good +view of it. It is of the size and make of the mocking-bird, lightly +thrush-colored on the back, and a grayish white on the breast and +belly. Mr. Randolph, my son-in-law, was in possession of one which had +been shot by a neighbor," etc. Randolph pronounced it a flycatcher, +which was a good way wide of the mark. Jefferson must have seen only +the female, after all his tramp, from his description of the color; +but he was doubtless following his own great thoughts more than the +bird, else he would have had an earlier view. The bird was not a new +one, but was well known then as the ground-robin. The President put +Wilson on the wrong scent by his erroneous description, and it was a +long time before the latter got at the truth of the case. But +Jefferson's letter is a good sample of those which specialists often +receive from intelligent persons who have seen or heard something in +their line very curious or entirely new, and who set the man of +science agog by a description of the supposed novelty,--a description +that generally fits the facts of the case about as well as your coat +fits the chairback. Strange and curious things in the air, and in the +water, and in the earth beneath, are seen every day except by those +who are looking for them, namely, the naturalists. When Wilson or +Audubon gets his eye on the unknown bird, the illusion vanishes, and +your phenomenon turns out to be one of the commonplaces of the fields +or woods. + +A prominent April bird, that one does not have to go to the woods or +away from his own door to see and hear, is the hardy and ever-welcome +meadow-lark. What a twang there is about this bird, and what vigor! It +smacks of the soil. It is the winged embodiment of the spirit of our +spring meadows. What emphasis in its "_z-d-t, z-d-t_," and what +character in its long, piercing note! Its straight, tapering, sharp +beak is typical of its voice. Its note goes like a shaft from a +crossbow; it is a little too sharp and piercing when near at hand, +but, heard in the proper perspective, it is eminently melodious and +pleasing. It is one of the major notes of the fields at this season. +In fact, it easily dominates all others. "_Spring o' the year! spring +o' the year!_" it says, with a long-drawn breath, a little plaintive, +but not complaining or melancholy. At times it indulges in something +much more intricate and lark-like while hovering on the wing in +mid-air, but a song is beyond the compass of its instrument, and the +attempt usually ends in a breakdown. A clear, sweet, strong, +high-keyed note, uttered from some knoll or rock, or stake in the +fence, is its proper vocal performance. It has the build and walk and +flight of the quail and the grouse. It gets up before you in much the +same manner, and falls an easy prey to the crack shot. Its yellow +breast, surmounted by a black crescent, it need not be ashamed to turn +to the morning sun, while its coat of mottled gray is in perfect +keeping with the stubble amid which it walks. + +The two lateral white quills in its tails seem strictly in character. +These quills spring from a dash of scorn and defiance in the bird's +make-up. By the aid of these, it can almost emit a flash as it struts +about the fields and jerks out its sharp notes. They give a rayed, a +definite and piquant expression to its movements. This bird is not +properly a lark, but a starling, say the ornithologists, though it is +lark-like in its habits, being a walker and entirely a ground-bird. +Its color also allies it to the true lark. I believe there is no bird +in the English or European fields that answers to this hardy +pedestrian of our meadows. He is a true American, and his note one of +our characteristic April sounds. + +Another marked April note, proceeding sometimes from the meadows, but +more frequently from the rough pastures and borders of the woods, is +the call of the high-hole, or golden-shafted woodpecker. It is quite +as strong as that of the meadow-lark, but not so long-drawn and +piercing. It is a succession of short notes rapidly uttered, as if the +bird said "_if-if-if-if-if-if-if_." The notes of the ordinary downy +and hairy woodpeckers suggest, in some way, the sound of a steel +punch; but that of the high-hole is much softer, and strikes on the +ear with real springtime melody. The high-hole is not so much a +wood-pecker as he is a ground-pecker. He subsists largely on ants and +crickets, and does not appear till they are to be found. + +In Solomon's description of spring, the voice of the turtle is +prominent, but our turtle, or mourning dove, though it arrives in +April, can hardly be said to contribute noticeably to the open-air +sounds. Its call is so vague, and soft, and mournful,--in fact, so +remote and diffused,--that few persons ever hear it at all. + +Such songsters as the cow blackbird are noticeable at this season, +though they take a back seat a little later. It utters a peculiarly +liquid April sound. Indeed, one would think its crop was full of +water, its notes so bubble up and regurgitate, and are delivered with +such an apparent stomachic contraction. This bird is the only +feathered polygamist we have. The females are greatly in excess of the +males, and the latter are usually attended by three or four of the +former. As soon as the other birds begin to build, they are on the +_qui vive_, prowling about like gypsies, not to steal the young of +others, but to steal their eggs into other birds' nests, and so shirk +the labor and responsibility of hatching and rearing their own young. +As these birds do not mate, and as therefore there can be little or no +rivalry or competition between the males, one wonders--in view of +Darwin's teaching--why one sex should have brighter and richer plumage +than the other, which is the fact. The males are easily distinguished +from the dull and faded females by their deep glossy-black coats. + +The April of English literature corresponds nearly to our May. In +Great Britain, the swallow and the cuckoo usually arrive by the middle +of April; with us, their appearance is a week or two later. Our April, +at its best, is a bright, laughing face under a hood of snow, like the +English March, but presenting sharper contrasts, a greater mixture of +smiles and tears and icy looks than are known to our ancestral +climate. Indeed, Winter sometimes retraces his steps in this month, +and unburdens himself of the snows that the previous cold has kept +back; but we are always sure of a number of radiant, equable +days,--days that go before the bud, when the sun embraces the earth +with fervor and determination. How his beams pour into the woods till +the mould under the leaves is warm and emits an odor! The waters +glint and sparkle, the birds gather in groups, and even those unwont +to sing find a voice. On the streets of the cities, what a flutter, +what bright looks and gay colors! I recall one preeminent day of this +kind last April. I made a note of it in my notebook. The earth seemed +suddenly to emerge from a wilderness of clouds and chilliness into one +of these blue sunlit spaces. How the voyagers rejoiced! Invalids came +forth, old men sauntered down the street, stocks went up, and the +political outlook brightened. + +Such days bring out the last of the hibernating animals. The woodchuck +unrolls and creeps out of his den to see if his clover has started +yet. The torpidity leaves the snakes and the turtles, and they come +forth and bask in the sun. There is nothing so small, nothing so +great, that it does not respond to these celestial spring days, and +give the pendulum of life a fresh start. + +April is also the month of the new furrow. As soon as the frost is +gone and the ground settled, the plow is started upon the hill, and at +each bout I see its brightened mould-board flash in the sun. Where the +last remnants of the snowdrift lingered yesterday the plow breaks the +sod to-day. Where the drift was deepest the grass is pressed flat, and +there is a deposit of sand and earth blown from the fields to +windward. Line upon line the turf is reversed, until there stands out +of the neutral landscape a ruddy square visible for miles, or until +the breasts of the broad hills glow like the breasts of the robins. + +Then who would not have a garden in April? to rake together the +rubbish and burn it up, to turn over the renewed soil, to scatter the +rich compost, to plant the first seed or bury the first tuber! It is +not the seed that is planted, any more than it is I that is planted; +it is not the dry stalks and weeds that are burned up, any more than +it is my gloom and regrets that are consumed. An April smoke makes a +clean harvest. + +I think April is the best month to be born in. One is just in time, so +to speak, to catch the first train, which is made up in this month. My +April chickens always turn out best. They get an early start; they +have rugged constitutions. Late chickens cannot stand the heavy dews, +or withstand the predaceous hawks. In April all nature starts with +you. You have not come out your hibernaculum too early or too late; +the time is ripe, and, if you do not keep pace with the rest, why, the +fault is not in the season. + + + + + V + + BIRCH BROWSINGS + + +The region of which I am about to speak lies in the southern part of +the State of New York, and comprises parts of three counties,--Ulster, +Sullivan, and Delaware. It is drained by tributaries of both the +Hudson and Delaware, and, next to the Adirondack section, contains +more wild land than any other tract in the State. The mountains which +traverse it, and impart to it its severe northern climate, belong +properly to the Catskill range. On some maps of the State they are +called the Pine Mountains, though with obvious local impropriety, as +pine, so far as I have observed, is nowhere found upon them. "Birch +Mountains" would be a more characteristic name, as on their summits +birch is the prevailing tree. They are the natural home of the black +and yellow birch, which grow here to unusual size. On their sides +beech and maple abound; while, mantling their lower slopes and +darkening the valleys, hemlock formerly enticed the lumberman and +tanner. Except in remote or inaccessible localities, the latter tree +is now almost never found. In Shandaken and along the Esopus it is +about the only product the country yielded, or is likely to yield. +Tanneries by the score have arisen and flourished upon the bark, and +some of them still remain. Passing through that region the present +season, I saw that the few patches of hemlock that still lingered high +up on the sides of the mountains were being felled and peeled, the +fresh white boles of the trees, just stripped of their bark, being +visible a long distance. + +Among these mountains there are no sharp peaks, or abrupt declivities, +as in a volcanic region, but long, uniform ranges, heavily timbered to +their summits, and delighting the eye with vast, undulating horizon +lines. Looking south from the heights about the head of the Delaware, +one sees twenty miles away a continual succession of blue ranges, one +behind the other. If a few large trees are missing on the sky line, +one can see the break a long distance off. + + [Illustration: THE HOME OF A SPIDER] + +Approaching this region from the Hudson River side, you cross a rough, +rolling stretch of country, skirting the base of the Catskills, which +from a point near Saugerties sweep inland; after a drive of a few +hours you are within the shadow of a high, bold mountain, which forms +a sort of butt-end to this part of the range, and which is simply +called High Point. To the east and southeast it slopes down rapidly to +the plain, and looks defiance toward the Hudson, twenty miles distant; +in the rear of it, and radiating from it west and northwest, are +numerous smaller ranges, backing up, as it were, this haughty chief. + +From this point through to Pennsylvania, a distance of nearly one +hundred miles, stretches the tract of which I speak. It is a belt of +country from twenty to thirty miles wide, bleak and wild, and but +sparsely settled. The traveler on the New York and Erie Railroad gets +a glimpse of it. + +Many cold, rapid trout streams, which flow to all points of the +compass, have their source in the small lakes and copious mountain +springs of this region. The names of some of them are Mill Brook, Dry +Brook, Willewemack, Beaver Kill, Elk Bush Kill, Panther Kill, +Neversink, Big Ingin, and Callikoon. Beaver Kill is the main outlet on +the west. It joins the Delaware in the wilds of Hancock. The +Neversink lays open the region to the south, and also joins the +Delaware. To the east, various Kills unite with the Big Ingin to form +the Esopus, which flows into the Hudson. Dry Brook and Mill Brook, +both famous trout streams, from twelve to fifteen miles long, find +their way into the Delaware. + +The east or Pepacton branch of the Delaware itself takes its rise near +here in a deep pass between the mountains. I have many times drunk at +a copious spring by the roadside, where the infant river first sees +the light. A few yards beyond, the water flows the other way, +directing its course through the Bear Kill and Schoharie Kill into the +Mohawk. + +Such game and wild animals as still linger in the State are found in +this region. Bears occasionally make havoc among the sheep. The +clearings at the head of a valley are oftenest the scene of their +depredations. + +Wild pigeons, in immense numbers, used to breed regularly in the +valley of the Big Ingin and about the head of the Neversink. The +treetops for miles were full of their nests, while the going and +coming of the old birds kept up a constant din. But the gunners soon +got wind of it, and from far and near were wont to pour in during the +spring, and to slaughter both old and young. This practice soon had +the effect of driving the pigeons all away, and now only a few pairs +breed in these woods. + +Deer are still met with, though they are becoming scarcer every year. +Last winter near seventy head were killed on the Beaver Kill alone. I +heard of one wretch, who, finding the deer snowbound, walked up to +them on his snowshoes, and one morning before breakfast slaughtered +six, leaving their carcasses where they fell. There are traditions of +persons having been smitten blind or senseless when about to commit +some heinous offense, but the fact that this villain escaped without +some such visitation throws discredit on all such stories. + +The great attraction, however, of this region is the brook trout, with +which the streams and lakes abound. The water is of excessive +coldness, the thermometer indicating 44 deg. and 45 deg. in the springs, and +47 deg. or 48 deg. in the smaller streams. The trout are generally small, but +in the more remote branches their number is very great. In such +localities the fish are quite black, but in the lakes they are of a +lustre and brilliancy impossible to describe. + +These waters have been much visited of late years by fishing parties, +and the name of Beaver Kill is now a potent word among New York +sportsmen. + +One lake, in the wilds of Callikoon, abounds in a peculiar species of +white sucker, which is of excellent quality. It is taken only in +spring, during the spawning season, at the time "when the leaves are +as big as a chipmunk's ears." The fish run up the small streams and +inlets, beginning at nightfall, and continuing till the channel is +literally packed with them, and every inch of space is occupied. The +fishermen pounce upon them at such times, and scoop them up by the +bushel, usually wading right into the living mass and landing the fish +with their hands. A small party will often secure in this manner a +wagon load of fish. Certain conditions of the weather, as a warm south +or southwest wind, are considered most favorable for the fish to run. + +Though familiar all my life with the outskirts of this region, I have +only twice dipped into its wilder portions. Once in 1860 a friend and +myself traced the Beaver Kill to its source, and encamped by Balsam +Lake. A cold and protracted rainstorm coming on, we were obliged to +leave the woods before we were ready. Neither of us will soon forget +that tramp by an unknown route over the mountains, encumbered as we +were with a hundred and one superfluities which we had foolishly +brought along to solace ourselves with in the woods; nor that halt on +the summit, where we cooked and ate our fish in a drizzling rain; nor, +again, that rude log house, with its sweet hospitality, which we +reached just at nightfall on Mill Brook. + +In 1868 a party of three of us set out for a brief trouting excursion +to a body of water called Thomas's Lake, situated in the same chain of +mountains. On this excursion, more particularly than on any other I +have ever undertaken, I was taught how poor an Indian I should make, +and what a ridiculous figure a party of men may cut in the woods when +the way is uncertain and the mountains high. + +We left our team at a farmhouse near the head of the Mill Brook, one +June afternoon, and with knapsacks on our shoulders struck into the +woods at the base of the mountain, hoping to cross the range that +intervened between us and the lake by sunset. We engaged a +good-natured but rather indolent young man, who happened to be +stopping at the house, and who had carried a knapsack in the Union +armies, to pilot us a couple of miles into the woods so as to guard +against any mistakes at the outset. It seemed the easiest thing in the +world to find the lake. The lay of the land was so simple, according +to accounts, that I felt sure I could go to it in the dark. "Go up +this little brook to its source on the side of the mountain," they +said. "The valley that contains the lake heads directly on the other +side." What could be easier! But on a little further inquiry, they +said we should "bear well to the left" when we reached the top of the +mountain. This opened the doors again: "bearing well to the left" was +an uncertain performance in strange woods. We might bear so well to +the left that it would bring us ill. But why bear to the left at all, +if the lake was directly opposite? Well, not quite opposite; a little +to the left. There were two or three other valleys that headed in near +there. We could easily find the right one. But to make assurance +doubly sure, we engaged a guide, as stated, to give us a good start, +and go with us beyond the bearing-to-the-left point. He had been to +the lake the winter before and knew the way. Our course, the first +half hour, was along an obscure wood-road which had been used for +drawing ash logs off the mountain in winter. There was some hemlock, +but more maple and birch. The woods were dense and free from +underbrush, the ascent gradual. Most of the way we kept the voice of +the creek in our ear on the right. I approached it once, and found it +swarming with trout. The water was as cold as one ever need wish. +After a while the ascent grew steeper, the creek became a mere rill +that issued from beneath loose, moss-covered rocks and stones, and +with much labor and puffing we drew ourselves up the rugged declivity. +Every mountain has its steepest point, which is usually near the +summit, in keeping, I suppose, with the providence that makes the +darkest hour just before day. It is steep, steeper, steepest, till you +emerge on the smooth level or gently rounded space at the top, which +the old ice-gods polished off so long ago. + +We found this mountain had a hollow in its back where the ground was +soft and swampy. Some gigantic ferns, which we passed through, came +nearly to our shoulders. We passed also several patches of swamp +honeysuckles, red with blossoms. + +Our guide at length paused on a big rock where the land began to dip +down the other way, and concluded that he had gone far enough, and +that we would now have no difficulty in finding the lake. "It must lie +right down there," he said, pointing with his hand. But it was plain +that he was not quite sure in his own mind. He had several times +wavered in his course, and had shown considerable embarrassment when +bearing to the left across the summit. Still we thought little of it. +We were full of confidence, and, bidding him adieu, plunged down the +mountain-side, following a spring run that we had no doubt led to the +lake. + +In these woods, which had a southeastern exposure, I first began to +notice the wood thrush. In coming up the other side I had not seen a +feather of any kind, or heard a note. Now the golden _trillide-de_ of +the wood thrush sounded through the silent woods. While looking for a +fish-pole about half way down the mountain, I saw a thrush's nest in +a little sapling about ten feet from the ground. + +After continuing our descent till our only guide, the spring run, +became quite a trout brook, and its tiny murmur a loud brawl, we began +to peer anxiously through the trees for a glimpse of the lake, or for +some conformation of the land that would indicate its proximity. An +object which we vaguely discerned in looking under the near trees and +over the more distant ones proved, on further inspection, to be a +patch of plowed ground. Presently we made out a burnt fallow near it. +This was a wet blanket to our enthusiasm. No lake, no sport, no trout +for supper that night. The rather indolent young man had either played +us a trick, or, as seemed more likely, had missed the way. We were +particularly anxious to be at the lake between sundown and dark, as at +that time the trout jump most freely. + +Pushing on, we soon emerged into a stumpy field, at the head of a +steep valley, which swept around toward the west. About two hundred +rods below us was a rude log house, with smoke issuing from the +chimney. A boy came out and moved toward the spring with a pail in his +hand. We shouted to him, when he turned and ran back into the house +without pausing to reply. In a moment the whole family hastily rushed +into the yard, and turned their faces toward us. If we had come down +their chimney, they could not have seemed more astonished. Not making +out what they said, I went down to the house, and learned to my +chagrin that we were still on the Mill Brook side, having crossed only +a spur of the mountain. We had not borne sufficiently to the left, so +that the main range, which, at the point of crossing, suddenly breaks +off to the southeast, still intervened between us and the lake. We +were about five miles, as the water runs, from the point of starting, +and over two from the lake. We must go directly back to the top of the +range where the guide had left us, and then, by keeping well to the +left, we would soon come to a line of marked trees, which would lead +us to the lake. So, turning upon our trail, we doggedly began the work +of undoing what we had just done,--in all cases a disagreeable task, +in this case a very laborious one also. It was after sunset when we +turned back, and before we had got half way up the mountain it began +to be quite dark. We were often obliged to rest our packs against +trees and take breath, which made our progress slow. Finally a halt +was called, beside an immense flat rock which had paused in its slide +down the mountain, and we prepared to encamp for the night. A fire was +built, the rock cleared off, a small ration of bread served out, our +accoutrements hung up out of the way of the hedgehogs that were +supposed to infest the locality, and then we disposed ourselves for +sleep. If the owls or porcupines (and I think I heard one of the +latter in the middle of the night) reconnoitred our camp, they saw a +buffalo robe spread upon a rock, with three old felt hats arranged on +one side, and three pairs of sorry-looking cowhide boots protruding +from the other. + +When we lay down, there was apparently not a mosquito in the woods; +but the "no-see-ems," as Thoreau's Indian aptly named the midges, soon +found us out, and after the fire had gone down annoyed us very much. +My hands and wrists suddenly began to smart and itch in a most +unaccountable manner. My first thought was that they had been +poisoned in some way. Then the smarting extended to my neck and face, +even to my scalp, when I began to suspect what was the matter. So, +wrapping myself up more thoroughly, and stowing my hands away as best +I could, I tried to sleep, being some time behind my companions, who +appeared not to mind the "no-see-ems." I was further annoyed by some +little irregularity on my side of the couch. The chambermaid had not +beaten it up well. One huge lump refused to be mollified, and each +attempt to adapt it to some natural hollow in my own body brought only +a moment's relief. But at last I got the better of this also, and +slept. Late in the night I woke up, just in time to hear a +golden-crowned thrush sing in a tree near by. It sang as loud and +cheerily as at midday, and I thought myself after all quite in luck. +Birds occasionally sing at night, just as the cock crows. I have heard +the hairbird, and the note of the kingbird; and the ruffed grouse +frequently drums at night. + + [Illustration: A BIRD SONG] + +At the first faint signs of day a wood-thrush sang, a few rods below +us. Then after a little delay, as the gray light began to grow around, +thrushes broke out in full song in all parts of the woods. I thought I +had never before heard them sing so sweetly. Such a leisurely, golden +chant!--it consoled us for all we had undergone. It was the first +thing in order,--the worms were safe till after this morning chorus. I +judged that the birds roosted but a few feet from the ground. In fact, +a bird in all cases roosts where it builds, and the wood thrush +occupies, as it were, the first story of the woods. + +There is something singular about the distribution of the wood +thrushes. At an earlier stage of my observations I should have been +much surprised at finding it in these woods. Indeed, I had stated in +print on two occasions that the wood thrush was not found in the +higher lands of the Catskills, but that the hermit thrush and the +veery, or Wilson's thrush, were common. It turns out that this +statement is only half true. The wood thrush is found also, but is +much more rare and secluded in its habits than either of the others, +being seen only during the breeding season on remote mountains, and +then only on their eastern and southern slopes. I have never yet in +this region found the bird spending the season in the near and +familiar woods, which is directly contrary to observations I have made +in other parts of the State. So different are the habits of birds in +different localities. + +As soon as it was fairly light we were up and ready to resume our +march. A small bit of bread-and-butter and a swallow or two of whiskey +was all we had for breakfast that morning. Our supply of each was very +limited, and we were anxious to save a little of both, to relieve the +diet of trout to which we looked forward. + +At an early hour we reached the rock where we had parted with the +guide, and looked around us into the dense, trackless woods with many +misgivings. To strike out now on our own hook, where the way was so +blind and after the experience we had just had, was a step not to be +carelessly taken. The tops of these mountains are so broad, and a +short distance in the woods seems so far, that one is by no means +master of the situation after reaching the summit. And then there are +so many spurs and offshoots and changes of direction, added to the +impossibility of making any generalization by the aid of the eye, +that before one is aware of it he is very wide of his mark. + +I remembered now that a young farmer of my acquaintance had told me +how he had made a long day's march through the heart of this region, +without path or guide of any kind, and had hit his mark squarely. He +had been bark-peeling in Callikoon,--a famous country for bark,--and, +having got enough of it, he desired to reach his home on Dry Brook +without making the usual circuitous journey between the two places. To +do this necessitated a march of ten or twelve miles across several +ranges of mountains and through an unbroken forest,--a hazardous +undertaking in which no one would join him. Even the old hunters who +were familiar with the ground dissuaded him and predicted the failure +of his enterprise. But having made up his mind, he possessed himself +thoroughly of the topography of the country from the aforesaid +hunters, shouldered his axe, and set out, holding a straight course +through the woods, and turning aside for neither swamps, streams, nor +mountains. When he paused to rest he would mark some object ahead of +him with his eye, in order that on getting up again he might not +deviate from his course. His directors had told him of a hunter's +cabin about midway on his route, which if he struck he might be sure +he was right. About noon this cabin was reached, and at sunset he +emerged at the head of Dry Brook. + +After looking in vain for the line of marked trees, we moved off to +the left in a doubtful, hesitating manner, keeping on the highest +ground and blazing the trees as we went. We were afraid to go down +hill, lest we should descend too soon; our vantage-ground was high +ground. A thick fog coming on, we were more bewildered than ever. +Still we pressed forward, climbing up ledges and wading through ferns +for about two hours, when we paused by a spring that issued from +beneath an immense wall of rock that belted the highest part of the +mountain. There was quite a broad plateau here, and the birch wood was +very dense, and the trees of unusual size. + +After resting and exchanging opinions, we all concluded that it was +best not to continue our search encumbered as we were; but we were not +willing to abandon it altogether, and I proposed to my companions to +leave them beside the spring with our traps, while I made one thorough +and final effort to find the lake. If I succeeded and desired them to +come forward, I was to fire my gun three times; if I failed and wished +to return, I would fire it twice, they of course responding. + +So, filling my canteen from the spring, I set out again, taking the +spring run for my guide. Before I had followed it two hundred yards it +sank into the ground at my feet. I had half a mind to be superstitious +and to believe that we were under a spell, since our guides played us +such tricks. However, I determined to put the matter to a further +test, and struck out boldly to the left. This seemed to be the +keyword,--to the left, to the left. The fog had now lifted, so that I +could form a better idea of the lay of the land. Twice I looked down +the steep sides of the mountain, sorely tempted to risk a plunge. +Still I hesitated and kept along on the brink. As I stood on a rock +deliberating, I heard a crackling of the brush, like the tread of some +large game, on a plateau below me. Suspecting the truth of the case, I +moved stealthily down, and found a herd of young cattle leisurely +browsing. We had several times crossed their trail, and had seen that +morning a level, grassy place on the top of the mountain, where they +had passed the night. Instead of being frightened, as I had expected, +they seemed greatly delighted, and gathered around me as if to inquire +the tidings from the outer world,--perhaps the quotations of the +cattle market. They came up to me, and eagerly licked my hand, +clothes, and gun. Salt was what they were after, and they were ready +to swallow anything that contained the smallest percentage of it. They +were mostly yearlings and as sleek as moles. They had a very gamy +look. We were afterwards told that, in the spring, the farmers round +about turn into these woods their young cattle, which do not come out +again till fall. They are then in good condition,--not fat, like +grass-fed cattle, but trim and supple, like deer. Once a month the +owner hunts them up and salts them. They have their beats, and seldom +wander beyond well-defined limits. It was interesting to see them +feed. They browsed on the low limbs and bushes, and on the various +plants, munching at everything without any apparent discrimination. + +They attempted to follow me, but I escaped them by clambering down +some steep rocks. I now found myself gradually edging down the side of +the mountain, keeping around it in a spiral manner, and scanning the +woods and the shape of the ground for some encouraging hint or sign. +Finally the woods became more open, and the descent less rapid. The +trees were remarkably straight and uniform in size. Black birches, the +first I had seen, were very numerous. I felt encouraged. Listening +attentively, I caught, from a breeze just lifting the drooping leaves, +a sound that I willingly believed was made by a bullfrog. On this +hint, I tore down through the woods at my highest speed. Then I paused +and listened again. This time there was no mistaking it; it was the +sound of frogs. Much elated, I rushed on. By and by I could hear them +as I ran. _Pthrung, Pthrung_, croaked the old ones; _pug, pug_; +shrilly joined in the smaller fry. + +Then I caught, through the lower trees, a gleam of blue, which I first +thought was distant sky. A second look and I knew it to be water, and +in a moment more I stepped from the woods and stood upon the shore of +the lake. I exulted silently. There it was at last, sparkling in the +morning sun, and as beautiful as a dream. It was so good to come upon +such open space and such bright hues, after wandering in the dim, +dense woods! The eye is as delighted as an escaped bird, and darts +gleefully from point to point. + +The lake was a long oval, scarcely more than a mile in circumference, +with evenly wooded shores, which rose gradually on all sides. After +contemplating the scene for a moment, I stepped back into the woods, +and, loading my gun as heavily as I dared, discharged it three times. +The reports seemed to fill all the mountains with sound. The frogs +quickly hushed, and I listened for the response. But no response came. +Then I tried again and again, but without evoking an answer. One of my +companions, however, who had climbed to the top of the high rocks in +the rear of the spring, thought he heard faintly one report. It seemed +an immense distance below him, and far around under the mountain. I +knew I had come a long way, and hardly expected to be able to +communicate with my companions in the manner agreed upon. I therefore +started back, choosing my course without any reference to the +circuitous route by which I had come, and loading heavily and firing +at intervals. I must have aroused many long-dormant echoes from a Rip +Van Winkle sleep. As my powder got low, I fired and halloed +alternately, till I came near splitting both my throat and gun. +Finally, after I had begun to have a very ugly feeling of alarm and +disappointment, and to cast about vaguely for some course to pursue in +the emergency that seemed near at hand,--namely, the loss of my +companions now I had found the lake,--a favoring breeze brought me the +last echo of a response. I rejoined with spirit, and hastened with all +speed in the direction whence the sound had come, but, after repeated +trials, failed to elicit another answering sound. This filled me with +apprehension again. I feared that my friends had been misled by the +reverberations, and I pictured them to myself hastening in the +opposite direction. Paying little attention to my course, but paying +dearly for my carelessness afterward, I rushed forward to undeceive +them. But they had not been deceived, and in a few moments an +answering shout revealed them near at hand. I heard their tramp, the +bushes parted, and we three met again. + +In answer to their eager inquiries, I assured them that I had seen the +lake, that it was at the foot of the mountain, and that we could not +miss it if we kept straight down from where we then were. + +My clothes were soaked with perspiration, but I shouldered my knapsack +with alacrity, and we began the descent. I noticed that the woods were +much thicker, and had quite a different look from those I had passed +through, but thought nothing of it, as I expected to strike the lake +near its head, whereas I had before come out at its foot. We had not +gone far when we crossed a line of marked trees, which my companions +were disposed to follow. It intersected our course nearly at right +angles, and kept along and up the side of the mountain. My impression +was that it led up from the lake, and that by keeping our own course +we should reach the lake sooner than if we followed this line. + +About half way down the mountain, we could see through the interstices +the opposite slope. I encouraged my comrades by telling them that the +lake was between us and that, and not more than half a mile distant. +We soon reached the bottom, where we found a small stream and quite an +extensive alder swamp, evidently the ancient bed of a lake. I +explained to my half-vexed and half-incredulous companions that we +were probably above the lake, and that this stream must lead to it. +"Follow it," they said; "we will wait here till we hear from you." + +So I went on, more than ever disposed to believe that we were under a +spell, and that the lake had slipped from my grasp after all. Seeing +no favorable sign as I went forward, I laid down my accoutrements, and +climbed a decayed beech that leaned out over the swamp and promised a +good view from the top. As I stretched myself up to look around from +the highest attainable branch, there was suddenly a loud crack at the +root. With a celerity that would at least have done credit to a bear, +I regained the ground, having caught but a momentary glimpse of the +country, but enough to convince me no lake was near. Leaving all +incumbrances here but my gun, I still pressed on, loath to be thus +baffled. After floundering through another alder swamp for nearly +half a mile, I flattered myself that I was close on to the lake. I +caught sight of a low spur of the mountain sweeping around like a +half-extended arm, and I fondly imagined that within its clasp was the +object of my search. But I found only more alder swamp. After this +region was cleared, the creek began to descend the mountain very +rapidly. Its banks became high and narrow, and it went whirling away +with a sound that seemed to my ears like a burst of ironical laughter. +I turned back with a feeling of mingled disgust, shame, and vexation. +In fact I was almost sick, and when I reached my companions, after an +absence of nearly two hours, hungry, fatigued, and disheartened, I +would have sold my interest in Thomas's Lake at a very low figure. For +the first time, I heartily wished myself well out of the woods. Thomas +might keep his lake, and the enchanters guard his possession! I +doubted if he had ever found it the second time, or if any one else +ever had. + +My companions, who were quite fresh, and who had not felt the strain +of baffled purpose as I had, assumed a more encouraging tone. After I +had rested awhile, and partaken sparingly of the bread and whiskey, +which in such an emergency is a great improvement on bread and water, +I agreed to their proposition that we should make another attempt. As +if to reassure us, a robin sounded his cheery call near by, and the +winter wren, the first I had heard in these woods, set his music-box +going, which fairly ran over with fine, gushing, lyrical sounds. There +can be no doubt but this bird is one of our finest songsters. If it +would only thrive and sing well when caged, like the canary, how far +it would surpass that bird! It has all the vivacity and versatility of +the canary, without any of its shrillness. Its song is indeed a little +cascade of melody. + +We again retraced our steps, rolling the stone, as it were, back up +the mountain, determined to commit ourselves to the line of marked +trees. These we finally reached, and, after exploring the country to +the right, saw that bearing to the left was still the order. The trail +led up over a gentle rise of ground, and in less than twenty minutes +we were in the woods I had passed through when I found the lake. The +error I had made was then plain; we had come off the mountain a few +paces too far to the right, and so had passed down on the wrong side +of the ridge, into what we afterwards learned was the valley of Alder +Creek. + +We now made good time, and before many minutes I again saw the mimic +sky glance through the trees. As we approached the lake a solitary +woodchuck, the first wild animal we had seen since entering the woods, +sat crouched upon the root of a tree a few feet from the water, +apparently completely nonplussed by the unexpected appearance of +danger on the land side. All retreat was cut off, and he looked his +fate in the face without flinching. I slaughtered him just as a savage +would have done, and from the same motive,--I wanted his carcass to +eat. + +The mid-afternoon sun was now shining upon the lake, and a low, steady +breeze drove the little waves rocking to the shore. A herd of cattle +were browsing on the other side, and the bell of the leader sounded +across the water. In these solitudes its clang was wild and musical. + +To try the trout was the first thing in order. On a rude raft of logs +which we found moored at the shore, and which with two aboard shipped +about a foot of water, we floated out and wet our first fly in +Thomas's Lake; but the trout refused to jump, and, to be frank, not +more than a dozen and a half were caught during our stay. Only a week +previous, a party of three had taken in a few hours all the fish they +could carry out of the woods, and had nearly surfeited their neighbors +with trout. But from some cause they now refused to rise, or to touch +any kind of bait; so we fell to catching the sunfish, which were small +but very abundant. Their nests were all along shore. A space about the +size of a breakfast-plate was cleared of sediment and decayed +vegetable matter, revealing the pebbly bottom, fresh and bright, with +one or two fish suspended over the centre of it, keeping watch and +ward. If an intruder approached, they would dart at him spitefully. +These fish have the air of bantam cocks, and, with their sharp, +prickly fins and spines and scaly sides, must be ugly customers in a +hand-to-hand encounter with other finny warriors. To a hungry man they +look about as unpromising as hemlock slivers, so thorny and thin are +they; yet there is sweet meat in them, as we found that day. + +Much refreshed, I set out with the sun low in the west to explore the +outlet of the lake and try for trout there, while my companions made +further trials in the lake itself. The outlet, as is usual in bodies +of water of this kind, was very gentle and private. The stream, six or +eight feet wide, flowed silently and evenly along for a distance of +three or four rods, when it suddenly, as if conscious of its freedom, +took a leap down some rocks. Thence, as far as I followed it, its +descent was very rapid through a continuous succession of brief falls +like so many steps down the mountain. Its appearance promised more +trout than I found, though I returned to camp with a very respectable +string. + +Toward sunset I went round to explore the inlet, and found that as +usual the stream wound leisurely through marshy ground. The water +being much colder than in the outlet, the trout were more plentiful. +As I was picking my way over the miry ground and through the rank +growths, a ruffed grouse hopped up on a fallen branch a few paces +before me, and, jerking his tail, threatened to take flight. But as I +was at that moment gunless and remained stationary, he presently +jumped down and walked away. + +A seeker of birds, and ever on the alert for some new acquaintance, my +attention was arrested, on first entering the swamp, by a bright, +lively song, or warble, that issued from the branches overhead, and +that was entirely new to me, though there was something in the tone of +it that told me the bird was related to the wood-wagtail and to the +water-wagtail or thrush. The strain was emphatic and quite loud, like +the canary's, but very brief. The bird kept itself well secreted in +the upper branches of the trees, and for a long time eluded my eye. I +passed to and fro several times, and it seemed to break out afresh as +I approached a certain little bend in the creek, and to cease after I +had got beyond it; no doubt its nest was somewhere in the vicinity. +After some delay the bird was sighted and brought down. It proved to +be the small, or northern, water-thrush (called also the New York +water-thrush),--a new bird to me. In size it was noticeably smaller +than the large, or Louisiana, water-thrush, as described by Audubon, +but in other respects its general appearance was the same. It was a +great treat to me, and again I felt myself in luck. + +This bird was unknown to the older ornithologists, and is but poorly +described by the new. It builds a mossy nest on the ground, or under +the edge of a decayed log. A correspondent writes me that he has found +it breeding on the mountains in Pennsylvania. The large-billed +water-thrush is much the superior songster, but the present species +has a very bright and cheerful strain. The specimen I saw, contrary to +the habits of the family, kept in the treetops like a warbler, and +seemed to be engaged in catching insects. + +The birds were unusually plentiful and noisy about the head of this +lake; robins, blue jays, and woodpeckers greeted me with their +familiar notes. The blue jays found an owl or some wild animal a short +distance above me, and, as is their custom on such occasions, +proclaimed it at the top of their voices, and kept on till the +darkness began to gather in the woods. + +I also heard here, as I had at two or three other points in the course +of the day, the peculiar, resonant hammering of some species of +woodpecker upon the hard, dry limbs. It was unlike any sound of the +kind I had ever before heard, and, repeated at intervals through the +silent woods, was a very marked and characteristic feature. Its +peculiarity was the ordered succession of the raps, which gave it the +character of a premeditated performance. There were first three +strokes following each other rapidly, then two much louder ones with +longer intervals between them. I heard the drumming here, and the next +day at sunset at Furlow Lake, the source of Dry Brook, and in no +instance was the order varied. There was melody in it, such as a +woodpecker knows how to evoke from a smooth, dry branch. It suggested +something quite as pleasing as the liveliest bird-song, and was if +anything more woodsy and wild. As the yellow-bellied woodpecker was +the most abundant species in these woods, I attributed it to him. It +is the one sound that still links itself with those scenes in my mind. + +At sunset the grouse began to drum in all parts of the woods about the +lake. I could hear five at one time, _thump, thump, thump, thump, +thr-r-r-r-r-r-rr_. It was a homely, welcome sound. As I returned to +camp at twilight, along the shore of the lake, the frogs also were in +full chorus. The older ones ripped out their responses to each other +with terrific force and volume. I know of no other animal capable of +giving forth so much sound, in proportion to its size, as a frog. Some +of these seemed to bellow as loud as a two-year-old bull. They were of +immense size, and very abundant. No frog-eater had ever been there. +Near the shore we felled a tree which reached far out in the lake. +Upon the trunk and branches the frogs had soon collected in large +numbers, and gamboled and splashed about the half-submerged top, like +a parcel of schoolboys, making nearly as much noise. + +After dark, as I was frying the fish, a panful of the largest trout +was accidentally capsized in the fire. With rueful countenances we +contemplated the irreparable loss our commissariat had sustained by +this mishap; but remembering there was virtue in ashes, we poked the +half-consumed fish from the bed of coals and ate them, and they were +good. + +We lodged that night on a brush-heap and slept soundly. The green, +yielding beech-twigs, covered with a buffalo robe, were equal to a +hair mattress. The heat and smoke from a large fire kindled in the +afternoon had banished every "no-see-em" from the locality, and in +the morning the sun was above the mountain before we awoke. + +I immediately started again for the inlet, and went far up the stream +toward its source. A fair string of trout for breakfast was my reward. +The cattle with the bell were at the head of the valley, where they +had passed the night. Most of them were two-year-old steers. They came +up to me and begged for salt, and scared the fish by their +importunities. + +We finished our bread that morning, and ate every fish we could catch, +and about ten o'clock prepared to leave the lake. The weather had been +admirable, and the lake was a gem, and I would gladly have spent a +week in the neighborhood; but the question of supplies was a serious +one, and would brook no delay. + +When we reached, on our return, the point where we had crossed the +line of marked trees the day before, the question arose whether we +should still trust ourselves to this line, or follow our own trail +back to the spring and the battlement of rocks on the top of the +mountain, and thence to the rock where the guide had left us. We +decided in favor of the former course. After a march of three +quarters of an hour the blazed trees ceased, and we concluded we were +near the point at which we had parted with the guide. So we built a +fire, laid down our loads, and cast about on all sides for some clew +as to our exact locality. Nearly an hour was consumed in this manner +and without any result. I came upon a brood of young grouse, which +diverted me for a moment. The old one blustered about at a furious +rate, trying to draw all attention to herself, while the young ones, +which were unable to fly, hid themselves. She whined like a dog in +great distress, and dragged herself along apparently with the greatest +difficulty. As I pursued her, she ran very nimbly, and presently flew +a few yards. Then, as I went on, she flew farther and farther each +time, till at last she got up, and went humming through the woods as +if she had no interest in them. I went back and caught one of the +young, which had simply squatted close to the leaves. I took it up and +set it on the palm of my hand, which it hugged as closely as if still +upon the ground. I then put it in my coat-sleeve, when it ran and +nestled in my armpit. + +When we met at the sign of the smoke, opinions differed as to the most +feasible course. There was no doubt but that we could get out of the +woods; but we wished to get out speedily, and as near as possible to +the point where we had entered. Half ashamed of our timidity and +indecision, we finally tramped away back to where we had crossed the +line of blazed trees, followed our old trail to the spring on the top +of the range, and, after much searching and scouring to the right and +left, found ourselves at the very place we had left two hours before. +Another deliberation and a divided council. But something must be +done. It was then mid-afternoon, and the prospect of spending another +night on the mountains, without food or drink, was not pleasant. So we +moved down the ridge. Here another line of marked trees was found, the +course of which formed an obtuse angle with the one we had followed. +It kept on the top of the ridge for perhaps a mile, when it entirely +disappeared, and we were as much adrift as ever. Then one of the party +swore an oath, and said he was going out of those woods, hit or miss, +and, wheeling to the right, instantly plunged over the brink of the +mountain. The rest followed, but would fain have paused and ciphered +away at their own uncertainties, to see if a certainty could not be +arrived at as to where we would come out. But our bold leader was +solving the problem in the right way. Down and down and still down we +went, as if we were to bring up in the bowels of the earth. It was by +far the steepest descent we had made, and we felt a grim satisfaction +in knowing that we could not retrace our steps this time, be the issue +what it might. As we paused on the brink of a ledge of rocks, we +chanced to see through the trees distant cleared land. A house or barn +was dimly descried. This was encouraging; but we could not make out +whether it was on Beaver Kill or Mill Brook or Dry Brook, and did not +long stop to consider where it was. We at last brought up at the +bottom of a deep gorge, through which flowed a rapid creek that +literally swarmed with trout. But we were in no mood to catch them, +and pushed on along the channel of the stream, sometimes leaping from +rock to rock, and sometimes splashing heedlessly through the water, +and speculating the while as to where we should probably come out. +On the Beaver Kill, my companions thought; but, from the position of +the sun, I said, on the Mill Brook, about six miles below our team; +for I remembered having seen, in coming up this stream, a deep, wild +valley that led up into the mountains, like this one. Soon the banks +of the stream became lower, and we moved into the woods. Here we +entered upon an obscure wood-road, which presently conducted us into +the midst of a vast hemlock forest. The land had a gentle slope, and +we wondered why the lumbermen and barkmen who prowl through these +woods had left this fine tract untouched. Beyond this the forest was +mostly birch and maple. + + [Illustration: IN THE WOODS] + +We were now close to the settlement, and began to hear human sounds. +One rod more, and we were out of the woods. It took us a moment to +comprehend the scene. Things looked very strange at first; but quickly +they began to change and to put on familiar features. Some magic +scene-shifting seemed to take place before my eyes, till, instead of +the unknown settlement which I at first seemed to look upon, there +stood the farmhouse at which we had stopped two days before, and at +the same moment we heard the stamping of our team in the barn. We sat +down and laughed heartily over our good luck. Our desperate venture +had resulted better than we had dared to hope, and had shamed our +wisest plans. At the house our arrival had been anticipated about this +time, and dinner was being put upon the table. + +It was then five o'clock, so that we had been in the woods just +forty-eight hours; but if time is only phenomenal, as the philosophers +say, and life only in feeling, as the poets aver, we were some months, +if not years, older at that moment than we had been two days before. +Yet younger, too,--though this be a paradox,--for the birches had +infused into us some of their own suppleness and strength. + + + + + VI + + A BUNCH OF HERBS + + + FRAGRANT WILD FLOWERS + +The charge that was long ago made against our wild flowers by English +travelers in this country, namely, that they were odorless, doubtless +had its origin in the fact that, whereas in England the sweet-scented +flowers are among the most common and conspicuous, in this country +they are rather shy and withdrawn, and consequently not such as +travelers would be likely to encounter. Moreover, the British +traveler, remembering the deliciously fragrant blue violets he left at +home, covering every grassy slope and meadow bank in spring, and the +wild clematis, or traveler's joy, overrunning hedges and old walls +with its white, sweet-scented blossoms, and finding the corresponding +species here equally abundant but entirely scentless, very naturally +inferred that our wild flowers were all deficient in this respect. He +would be confirmed in this opinion when, on turning to some of our +most beautiful and striking native flowers, like the laurel, the +rhododendron, the columbine, the inimitable fringed gentian, the +burning cardinal-flower, or our asters and goldenrod, dashing the +roadsides with tints of purple and gold, he found them scentless also. +"Where are your fragrant flowers?" he might well say; "I can find +none." Let him look closer and penetrate our forests, and visit our +ponds and lakes. Let him compare our matchless, rosy-lipped, +honey-hearted trailing arbutus with his own ugly ground-ivy; let him +compare our sumptuous, fragrant pond-lily with his own odorless +_Nymphaea alba_. In our Northern woods he shall find the floors +carpeted with the delicate linnaea, its twin rose-colored nodding +flowers filling the air with fragrance. (I am aware that the linnaea is +found in some parts of Northern Europe.) The fact is, we perhaps have +as many sweet-scented wild flowers as Europe has, only they are not +quite so prominent in our flora, nor so well known to our people or to +our poets. + +Think of Wordsworth's "Golden Daffodils:"-- + + "I wandered lonely as a cloud + That floats on high o'er vales and hills, + When all at once I saw a crowd, + A host of golden daffodils, + Beside the lake, beneath the trees, + Fluttering and dancing in the breeze. + + "Continuous as the stars that shine + And twinkle on the milky way, + They stretched in never-ending line + Along the margin of a bay. + Ten thousand saw I at a glance, + Tossing their heads in sprightly dance." + +No such sight could greet the poet's eye here. He might see ten +thousand marsh marigolds, or ten times ten thousand houstonias, but +they would not toss in the breeze, and they would not be sweet-scented +like the daffodils. + +It is to be remembered, too, that in the moister atmosphere of England +the same amount of fragrance would be much more noticeable than with +us. Think how our sweet bay, or our pink azalea, or our white alder, +to which they have nothing that corresponds, would perfume that heavy, +vapor-laden air! + +In the woods and groves in England, the wild hyacinth grows very +abundantly in spring, and in places the air is loaded with its +fragrance. In our woods a species of dicentra, commonly called +squirrel corn, has nearly the same perfume, and its racemes of nodding +whitish flowers, tinged with red, are quite as pleasing to the eye, +but it is a shyer, less abundant plant. When our children go to the +fields in April and May, they can bring home no wild flowers as +pleasing as the sweet English violet, and cowslip, and yellow +daffodil, and wallflower; and when British children go to the woods at +the same season, they can load their hands and baskets with nothing +that compares with our trailing arbutus, or, later in the season, with +our azaleas; and when their boys go fishing or boating in summer, they +can wreathe themselves with nothing that approaches our pond-lily. + +There are upward of forty species of fragrant native wild flowers and +flowering shrubs and trees in New England and New York, and, no doubt, +many more in the South and West. My list is as follows:-- + + White violet (_Viola blanda_). + Canada violet (_Viola Canadensis_). + Hepatica (_occasionally fragrant_). + Trailing arbutus (_Epigaea repens_). + Mandrake (_Podophyllum peltatum_). + Yellow lady's-slipper (_Cypripedium parviflorum_). + Purple lady's-slipper (_Cypripedium acaule_). + Squirrel corn (_Dicentra Canadensis_). + Showy orchis (_Orchis spectabilis_). + Purple fringed-orchis (_Habenaria psycodes_). + Arethusa (_Arethusa bulbosa_). + Calopogon (_Calopogon pulchellus_). + Lady's-tresses (_Spiranthes cernua_). + Pond-lily (_Nymphaea odorata_). + Wild Rose (_Rosa nitida_). + Twin-flower (_Linnaea borealis_). + Sugar maple (_Acer saccharinum_). + Linden (_Tilia Americana_). + Locust-tree (_Robinia pseudacacia_). + White-alder (_Clethra alnifolia_). + Smooth azalea (_Rhododendron arborescens_). + White azalea (_Rhododendron viscosum_). + Pinxter-flower (_Rhododendron nudiflorum_). + Yellow azalea (_Rhododendron calendulaceum_). + Sweet bay (_Magnolia glauca_). + Mitchella vine (_Mitchella repens_). + Sweet coltsfoot (_Petasites palmata_). + Pasture thistle (_Cnicus pumilus_). + False wintergreen (_Pyrola rotundifolia_). + Spotted wintergreen (_Chimaphila maculata_). + Prince's pine (_Chimaphila umbellata_). + Evening primrose (_Oenothera biennis_). + Hairy loosestrife (_Steironema ciliatum_). + Dogbane (_Apocynum_). + Ground-nut (_Apios tuberosa_). + Adder's-tongue pogonia (_Pogonia ophioglossoides_). + Wild grape (_Vitis cordifolia_). + Horned bladderwort (_Utricularia cornuta_). + +The last-named, horned bladderwort, is perhaps the most fragrant +flower we have. In a warm, moist atmosphere, its odor is almost too +strong. It is a plant with a slender, leafless stalk or scape less +than a foot high, with two or more large yellow hood or helmet shaped +flowers. It is not common, and belongs pretty well north, growing in +sandy swamps and along the marshy margins of lakes and ponds. Its +perfume is sweet and spicy in an eminent degree. I have placed in the +above list several flowers that are intermittently fragrant, like the +hepatica, or liver-leaf. This flower is the earliest, as it is +certainly one of the most beautiful, to be found in our woods, +and occasionally it is fragrant. Group after group may be +inspected--ranging through all shades of purple and blue, with some +perfectly white--and no odor be detected, when presently you will +happen upon a little brood of them that have a most delicate and +delicious fragrance. The same is true of a species of loosestrife +growing along streams and on other wet places, with tall bushy stalks, +dark green leaves, and pale axillary yellow flowers (probably +European). A handful of these flowers will sometimes exhale a sweet +fragrance; at other times, or from another locality, they are +scentless. Our evening primrose is thought to be uniformly +sweet-scented, but the past season I examined many specimens, and +failed to find one that was so. Some seasons the sugar maple yields +much sweeter sap than in others; and even individual trees, owing to +the soil, moisture, etc., where they stand, show a great difference in +this respect. The same is doubtless true of the sweet-scented flowers. +I had always supposed that our Canada violet--the tall, leafy-stemmed +white violet of our Northern woods--was odorless, till a correspondent +called my attention to the contrary fact. On examination I found that, +while the first ones that bloomed about May 25 had very sweet-scented +foliage, especially when crushed in the hand, the flowers were +practically without fragrance. But as the season advanced the +fragrance developed, till a single flower had a well-marked perfume, +and a handful of them was sweet indeed. A single specimen, plucked +about August 1, was quite as fragrant as the English violet, though +the perfume is not what is known as violet, but, like that of the +hepatica, comes nearer to the odor of certain fruit-trees. + +It is only for a brief period that the blossoms of our sugar maple are +sweet-scented; the perfume seems to become stale after a few days: +but pass under this tree just at the right moment, say at nightfall on +the first or second day of its perfect inflorescence, and the air is +loaded with its sweetness; its perfumed breath falls upon you as its +cool shadow does a few weeks later. + +After the linnaea and the arbutus, the prettiest sweet-scented +flowering vine our woods hold is the common mitchella vine, called +squaw-berry and partridge-berry. It blooms in June, and its twin +flowers, light cream-color, velvety, tubular, exhale a most agreeable +fragrance. + +Our flora is much more rich in orchids than the European, and many of +ours are fragrant. The first to bloom in the spring is the showy +orchis, though it is far less showy than several others. I find it in +May, not on hills, where Gray says it grows, but in low, damp places +in the woods. It has two oblong shining leaves, with a scape four or +five inches high strung with sweet-scented, pink-purple flowers. I +usually find it and the fringed polygala in bloom at the same time; +the lady's-slipper is a little later. The purple fringed orchis, one +of the most showy and striking of all our orchids, blooms in midsummer +in swampy meadows and in marshy, grassy openings in the woods, +shooting up a tapering column or cylinder of pink-purple fringed +flowers, that one may see at quite a distance, and the perfume of +which is too rank for a close room. This flower is, perhaps, like the +English fragrant orchis, found in pastures. + +Few fragrant flowers in the shape of weeds have come to us from the +Old World, and this leads me to remark that plants with sweet-scented +flowers are, for the most part, more intensely local, more fastidious +and idiosyncratic, than those without perfume. Our native thistle--the +pasture thistle--has a marked fragrance, and it is much more shy and +limited in its range than the common Old World thistle that grows +everywhere. Our little sweet white violet grows only in wet places, +and the Canada violet only in high, cool woods, while the common blue +violet is much more general in its distribution. How fastidious and +exclusive is the cypripedium! You will find it in one locality in the +woods, usually on high, dry ground, and will look in vain for it +elsewhere. It does not go in herds like the commoner plants, but +affects privacy and solitude. When I come upon it in my walks, I seem +to be intruding upon some very private and exclusive company. The +large yellow cypripedium has a peculiar, heavy, oily odor. + +In like manner one learns where to look for arbutus, for pipsissewa, +for the early orchis; they have their particular haunts, and their +surroundings are nearly always the same. The yellow pond-lily is found +in every sluggish stream and pond, but _Nymphaea odorata_ requires a +nicer adjustment of conditions, and consequently is more restricted in +its range. If the mullein were fragrant, or toad-flax, or the daisy, +or blueweed, or goldenrod, they would doubtless be far less +troublesome to the agriculturist. There are, of course, exceptions to +the rule I have here indicated, but it holds in most cases. Genius is +a specialty: it does not grow in every soil; it skips the many and +touches the few; and the gift of perfume to a flower is a special +grace like genius or like beauty, and never becomes common or cheap. + + [Illustration: PICKING WILD FLOWERS] + +"Do honey and fragrance always go together in the flowers?" Not +uniformly. Of the list of fragrant wild flowers I have given, the only +ones that the bees procure nectar from, so far as I have observed, are +arbutus, dicentra, sugar maple, locust, and linden. Non-fragrant +flowers that yield honey are those of the raspberry, clematis, sumac, +bugloss, ailanthus, goldenrod, aster, fleabane. A large number of +odorless plants yield pollen to the bee. There is nectar in the +columbine, and the bumblebee sometimes gets it by piercing the spur +from the outside, as she does with the dicentra. There ought to be +honey in the honeysuckle, but I have never seen the hive bee make any +attempt to get it. + + + WEEDS + +One is tempted to say that the most human plants, after all, are the +weeds. How they cling to man and follow him around the world, and +spring up wherever he sets his foot! How they crowd around his barns +and dwellings, and throng his garden and jostle and override each +other in their strife to be near him! Some of them are so domestic and +familiar, and so harmless withal, that one comes to regard them with +positive affection. Motherwort, catnip, plantain, tansy, wild +mustard,--what a homely human look they have! they are an integral +part of every old homestead. Your smart new place will wait long +before they draw near it. Our knot-grass, that carpets every old +dooryard, and fringes every walk, and softens every path that knows +the feet of children, or that leads to the spring, or to the garden, +or to the barn, how kindly one comes to look upon it! Examine it with +a pocket glass and see how wonderfully beautiful and exquisite are its +tiny blossoms. It loves the human foot, and when the path or the place +is long disused other plants usurp the ground. + +The gardener and the farmer are ostensibly the greatest enemies of the +weeds, but they are in reality their best friends. Weeds, like rats +and mice, increase and spread enormously in a cultivated country. They +have better food, more sunshine, and more aids in getting themselves +disseminated. They are sent from one end of the land to the other in +seed grain of various kinds, and they take their share, and more too, +if they can get it, of the phosphates and stable manures. How sure, +also, they are to survive any war of extermination that is waged +against them! In yonder field are ten thousand and one Canada +thistles. The farmer goes resolutely to work and destroys ten +thousand and thinks the work is finished, but he has done nothing till +he has destroyed the ten thousand and one. This one will keep up the +stock and again cover his fields with thistles. + +Weeds are Nature's makeshift. She rejoices in the grass and the grain, +but when these fail to cover her nakedness she resorts to weeds. It is +in her plan or a part of her economy to keep the ground constantly +covered with vegetation of some sort, and she has layer upon layer of +seeds in the soil for this purpose, and the wonder is that each kind +lies dormant until it is wanted. If I uncover the earth in any of my +fields, ragweed and pigweed spring up; if these are destroyed, harvest +grass, or quack grass, or purslane appears. The spade or plow that +turns these under is sure to turn up some other variety, as chickweed, +sheep-sorrel, or goose-foot. The soil is a storehouse of seeds. + +The old farmers say that wood-ashes will bring in the white clover, +and it will; the germs are in the soil wrapped in a profound slumber, +but this stimulus tickles them until they awake. Stramonium has been +known to start up on the site of an old farm building, when it had not +been seen in that locality for thirty years. I have been told that a +farmer, somewhere in New England, in digging a well came at a great +depth upon sand like that of the seashore; it was thrown out, and in +due time there sprang from it a marine plant. I have never seen earth +taken from so great a depth that it would not before the end of the +season be clothed with a crop of weeds. Weeds are so full of +expedients, and the one engrossing purpose with them is to multiply. +The wild onion multiplies at both ends,--at the top by seed, and at +the bottom by offshoots. Toad-flax travels under ground and above +ground. Never allow a seed to ripen, and yet it will cover your field. +Cut off the head of the wild carrot, and in a week or two there are +five heads in room of this one; cut off these, and by fall there are +ten looking defiance at you from the same root. Plant corn in August, +and it will go forward with its preparations as if it had the whole +season before it. Not so with the weeds; they have learned better. If +amaranth, or abutilon, or burdock gets a late start, it makes great +haste to develop its seed; it foregoes its tall stalk and wide +flaunting growth, and turns all its energies into keeping up the +succession of the species. Certain fields under the plow are always +infested with "blind nettles," others with wild buckwheat, black +blindweed, or cockle. The seed lies dormant under the sward, the +warmth and the moisture affect it not until other conditions are +fulfilled. + +The way in which one plant thus keeps another down is a great mystery. +Germs lie there in the soil and resist the stimulating effect of the +sun and the rains for years, and show no sign. Presently something +whispers to them, "Arise, your chance has come; the coast is clear;" +and they are up and doing in a twinkling. + +Weeds are great travelers; they are, indeed, the tramps of the +vegetable world. They are going east, west, north, south; they walk; +they fly; they swim; they steal a ride; they travel by rail, by flood, +by wind; they go under ground, and they go above, across lots, and by +the highway. But, like other tramps, they find it safest by the +highway: in the fields they are intercepted and cut off; but on the +public road, every boy, every passing drove of sheep or cows, gives +them a lift. Hence the incursion of a new weed is generally first +noticed along the highway or the railroad. In Orange County I saw from +the car window a field overrun with what I took to be the branching +white mullein. Gray says it is found in Pennsylvania and at the head +of Oneida Lake. Doubtless it had come by rail from one place or the +other. Our botanist says of the bladder campion, a species of pink, +that it has been naturalized around Boston; but it is now much farther +west, and I know fields along the Hudson overrun with it. Streams and +watercourses are the natural highway of the weeds. Some years ago, and +by some means or other, the viper's bugloss, or blueweed, which is +said to be a troublesome weed in Virginia, effected a lodgment near +the head of the Esopus Creek, a tributary of the Hudson. From this +point it has made its way down the stream, overrunning its banks and +invading meadows and cultivated fields, and proving a serious obstacle +to the farmer. All the gravelly, sandy margins and islands of the +Esopus, sometimes acres in extent, are in June and July blue with it, +and rye and oats and grass in the near fields find it a serious +competitor for possession of the soil. It has gone down the Hudson, +and is appearing in the fields along its shores. The tides carry it up +the mouths of the streams where it takes root; the winds, or the +birds, or other agencies, in time give it another lift, so that it is +slowly but surely making its way inland. The bugloss belongs to what +may be called beautiful weeds, despite its rough and bristly stalk. +Its flowers are deep violet-blue, the stamens exserted, as the +botanists say, that is, projected beyond the mouth of the corolla, +with showy red anthers. This bit of red, mingling with the blue of the +corolla, gives a very rich, warm purple hue to the flower, that is +especially pleasing at a little distance. The best thing I know about +this weed besides its good looks is that it yields honey or pollen to +the bee. + +Another foreign plant that the Esopus Creek has distributed along its +shores and carried to the Hudson is saponaria, known as "Bouncing +Bet." It is a common and in places a troublesome weed in this valley. +Bouncing Bet is, perhaps, its English name, as the pink-white +complexion of its flowers with their perfume and the coarse, robust +character of the plant really give it a kind of English feminine +comeliness and bounce. It looks like a Yorkshire housemaid. Still +another plant in my section, which I notice has been widely +distributed by the agency of water, is the spiked loosestrife. It +first appeared many years ago along the Wallkill; now it may be seen +upon many of its tributaries and all along its banks; and in many of +the marshy bays and coves along the Hudson, its great masses of +purple-red bloom in middle and late summer affording a welcome relief +to the traveler's eye. It also belongs to the class of beautiful +weeds. It grows rank and tall, in dense communities, and always +presents to the eye a generous mass of color. In places, the marshes +and creek banks are all aglow with it, its wandlike spikes of flowers +shooting up and uniting in volumes or pyramids of still flame. Its +petals, when examined closely, present a curious wrinkled or crumpled +appearance, like newly-washed linen; but when massed the effect is +eminently pleasing. It also came from abroad, probably first brought +to this country as a garden or ornamental plant. + +As a curious illustration of how weeds are carried from one end of +the earth to the other, Sir Joseph Hooker relates this circumstance: +"On one occasion," he says, "landing on a small uninhabited island +nearly at the Antipodes, the first evidence I met with of its having +been previously visited by man was the English chickweed; and this I +traced to a mound that marked the grave of a British sailor, and that +was covered with the plant, doubtless the offspring of seed that had +adhered to the spade or mattock with which the grave had been dug." + +Ours is a weedy country because it is a roomy country. Weeds love a +wide margin, and they find it here. You shall see more weeds in one +day's travel in this country than in a week's journey in Europe. Our +culture of the soil is not so close and thorough, our occupancy not so +entire and exclusive. The weeds take up with the farmers' leavings, +and find good fare. One may see a large slice taken from a field by +elecampane, or by teasle or milkweed; whole acres given up to +whiteweed, goldenrod, wild carrots, or the ox-eye daisy; meadows +overrun with bear-weed, and sheep pastures nearly ruined by St. +John's-wort or the Canada thistle. Our farms are so large and our +husbandry so loose that we do not mind these things. By and by we +shall clean them out. When Sir Joseph Hooker landed in New England a +few years ago, he was surprised to find how the European plants +flourished there. He found the wild chicory growing far more +luxuriantly than he had ever seen it elsewhere, "forming a tangled +mass of stems and branches, studded with turquoise-blue blossoms, and +covering acres of ground." This is one of the many weeds that Emerson +binds into a bouquet in his "Humble-Bee:"-- + + "Succory to match the sky, + Columbine with horn of honey, + Scented fern, and agrimony, + Clover, catchfly, adder's tongue, + And brier-roses, dwelt among." + +A less accurate poet than Emerson would probably have let his reader +infer that the bumblebee gathered honey from all these plants, but +Emerson is careful to say only that she dwelt among them. Succory is +one of Virgil's weeds also,-- + + "And spreading succ'ry chokes the rising field." + +Is there not something in our soil and climate exceptionally favorable +to weeds,--something harsh, ungenial, sharp-toothed, that is akin to +them? How woody and rank and fibrous many varieties become, lasting +the whole season, and standing up stark and stiff through the deep +winter snows,--desiccated, preserved by our dry air! Do nettles and +thistles bite so sharply in any other country? Let the farmer tell you +how they bite of a dry midsummer day when he encounters them in his +wheat or oat harvest. + +Yet it is a fact that all our more pernicious weeds, like our vermin, +are of Old World origin. They hold up their heads and assert +themselves here, and take their fill of riot and license; they are +avenged for their long years of repression by the stern hand of +European agriculture. We have hardly a weed we can call our own. I +recall but three that are at all noxious or troublesome, namely, +milkweed, ragweed, and goldenrod; but who would miss the last from our +fields and highways? + + "Along the roadside, like the flowers of gold + That tawny Incas for their gardens wrought, + Heavy with sunshine droops the goldenrod," + +sings Whittier. In Europe our goldenrod is cultivated in the flower +gardens, as well it may be. The native species is found mainly in +woods, and is much less showy than ours. + +Our milkweed is tenacious of life; its roots lie deep, as if to get +away from the plow, but it seldom infests cultivated crops. Then its +stalk is so full of milk and its pod so full of silk that one cannot +but ascribe good intentions to it, if it does sometimes overrun the +meadow. + + "In dusty pods the milkweed + Its hidden silk has spun," + +sings "H. H." in her "September". + +Of our ragweed not much can be set down that is complimentary, except +that its name in the botany is _Ambrosia_, food of the gods. It must +be the food of the gods if anything, for, so far as I have observed, +nothing terrestrial eats it, not even billy-goats. (Yet a +correspondent writes me that in Kentucky the cattle eat it when +hard-pressed, and that a certain old farmer there, one season when the +hay crop failed, cut and harvested tons of it for his stock in winter. +It is said that the milk and butter made from such hay is not at all +suggestive of the traditional Ambrosia!) It is the bane of asthmatic +patients, but the gardener makes short work of it. It is about the +only one of our weeds that follows the plow and the harrow, and, +except that it is easily destroyed, I should suspect it to be an +immigrant from the Old World. Our fleabane is a troublesome weed at +times, but good husbandry has little to dread from it. + + [Illustration: A FLOWER IN A WOODLAND ROADWAY] + +But all the other outlaws of the farm and garden come to us from over +seas; and what a long list it is:-- + + Common thistle, Gill, + Canada thistle, Nightshade, + Burdock, Buttercup, + Yellow dock, Dandelion, + Wild carrot, Wild mustard, + Ox-eye daisy, Shepherd's purse, + Chamomile, St. John's-wort, + Mullein, Chickweed, + Dead-nettle (_Lamium_), Purslane, + Hemp-nettle (_Galeopsis_), Mallow, + Elecampane, Darnel, + Plantain, Poison hemlock, + Motherwort, Hop-clover, + Stramonium, Yarrow, + Catnip, Wild radish, + Blue-weed, Wild parsnip, + Stick-seed, Chicory, + Hound's-tongue, Live-forever, + Henbane, Toad-flax, + Pigweed, Sheep-sorrel, + Quitch grass, Mayweed, + +and others less noxious. To offset this list we have given Europe the +vilest of all weeds, a parasite that sucks up human blood, tobacco. +Now if they catch the Colorado beetle of us, it will go far toward +paying them off for the rats and the mice, and for other pests in our +houses. + +The more attractive and pretty of the British weeds--as the common +daisy, of which the poets have made so much, the larkspur, which is a +pretty cornfield weed, and the scarlet field-poppy, which flowers all +summer, and is so taking amid the ripening grain--have not immigrated +to our shores. Like a certain sweet rusticity and charm of European +rural life, they do not thrive readily under our skies. Our fleabane +has become a common roadside weed in England, and a few other of our +native less-known plants have gained a foothold in the Old World. Our +beautiful jewel-weed has recently appeared along certain of the +English rivers. + +Pokeweed is a native American, and what a lusty, royal plant it is! It +never invades cultivated fields, but hovers about the borders and +looks over the fences like a painted Indian sachem. Thoreau coveted +its strong purple stalk for a cane, and the robins eat its dark +crimson-juiced berries. + +It is commonly believed that the mullein is indigenous to this +country, for have we not heard that it is cultivated in European +gardens, and christened the American velvet plant? Yet it, too, seems +to have come over with the Pilgrims, and is most abundant in the older +parts of the country. It abounds throughout Europe and Asia, and had +its economic uses with the ancients. The Greeks made lamp-wicks of its +dried leaves, and the Romans dipped its dried stalk in tallow for +funeral torches. It affects dry uplands in this country, and, as it +takes two years to mature, it is not a troublesome weed in cultivated +crops. The first year it sits low upon the ground in its coarse +flannel leaves, and makes ready; if the plow comes along now, its +career is ended. The second season it starts upward its tall stalk, +which in late summer is thickly set with small yellow flowers, and in +fall is charged with myriads of fine black seeds. "As full as a dry +mullein stalk of seeds" is almost equivalent to saying "as numerous as +the sands upon the seashore." + +Perhaps the most notable thing about the weeds that have come to us +from the Old World, when compared with our native species, is their +persistence, not to say pugnacity. They fight for the soil; they +plant colonies here and there, and will not be rooted out. Our native +weeds are for the most part shy and harmless, and retreat before +cultivation, but the European outlaws follow man like vermin; they +hang to his coat-skirts, his sheep transport them in their wool, his +cow and horse in tail and mane. As I have before said, it is as with +the rats and mice. The American rat is in the woods and is rarely seen +even by woodmen, and the native mouse barely hovers upon the outskirts +of civilization; while the Old World species defy our traps and our +poison, and have usurped the land. So with the weeds. Take the +thistle, for instance,--the common and abundant one everywhere, in +fields and along highways, is the European species; while the native +thistles, swamp thistle, pasture thistle, etc., are much more shy, and +are not at all troublesome. The Canada thistle, too, which came to us +by way of Canada,--what a pest, what a usurper, what a defier of the +plow and the harrow! I know of but one effectual way to treat it,--put +on a pair of buckskin gloves, and pull up every plant that shows +itself; this will effect a radical cure in two summers. Of course the +plow or the scythe, if not allowed to rest more than a month at a +time, will finally conquer it. + +Or take the common St. John's-wort,--how has it established itself in +our fields and become a most pernicious weed, very difficult to +extirpate; while the native species are quite rare, and seldom or +never invade cultivated fields, being found mostly in wet and rocky +waste places. Of Old World origin, too, is the curled-leaf dock that +is so annoying about one's garden and home meadows, its long tapering +root clinging to the soil with such tenacity that I have pulled upon +it till I could see stars without budging it; it has more lives than a +cat, making a shift to live when pulled up and laid on top of the +ground in the burning summer sun. Our native docks are mostly found in +swamps, or near them, and are harmless. + +Purslane--commonly called "pusley," and which has given rise to the +saying, "as mean as pusley"--of course is not American. A good sample +of our native purslane is the claytonia, or spring beauty, a shy, +delicate plant that opens its rose-colored flowers in the moist, +sunny places in the woods or along their borders so early in the +season. + +There are few more obnoxious weeds in cultivated ground than +sheep-sorrel, also an Old World plant; while our native +wood-sorrel,--belonging, it is true, to a different family of +plants,--with its white, delicately veined flowers, or the variety +with yellow flowers, is quite harmless. The same is true of the +mallow, the vetch or tare, and other plants. We have no native plant +so indestructible as garden orpine, or live-forever, which our +grandmothers nursed and for which they are cursed by many a farmer. +The fat, tender, succulent dooryard stripling turned out to be a +monster that would devour the earth. I have seen acres of meadow land +destroyed by it. The way to drown an amphibious animal is to never +allow it to come to the surface to breathe, and this is the way to +kill live-forever. It lives by its stalk and leaf, more than by its +root, and, if cropped or bruised as soon as it comes to the surface, +it will in time perish. It laughs the plow, the hoe, the cultivator to +scorn, but grazing herds will eventually scotch it. Our two species +of native orpine, _Sedum ternatum_ and _S. telephioides_, are never +troublesome as weeds. + +The European weeds are sophisticated, domesticated, civilized; they +have been to school to man for many hundred years, and they have +learned to thrive upon him: their struggle for existence has been +sharp and protracted; it has made them hardy and prolific; they will +thrive in a lean soil, or they will wax strong in a rich one; in all +cases they follow man and profit by him. Our native weeds, on the +other hand, are furtive and retiring; they flee before the plow and +the scythe, and hide in corners and remote waste places. Will they, +too, in time, change their habits in this respect? + +"Idle weeds are fast in growth," says Shakespeare, but that depends +upon whether the competition is sharp and close. If the weed finds +itself distanced, or pitted against great odds, it grows more slowly +and is of diminished stature, but let it once get the upper hand and +what strides it makes! Red-root will grow four or five feet high if it +has a chance, or it will content itself with a few inches and mature +its seed almost upon the ground. + +Many of our worst weeds are plants that have escaped from +cultivation, as the wild radish, which is troublesome in parts of New +England; the wild carrot, which infests the fields in eastern New +York; and live-forever, which thrives and multiplies under the plow +and harrow. In my section an annoying weed is abutilon, or +velvet-leaf, also called "old maid," which has fallen from the grace +of the garden and followed the plow afield. It will manage to mature +its seeds if not allowed to start till midsummer. + +Of beautiful weeds quite a long list might be made without including +any of the so-called wild flowers. A favorite of mine is the little +moth mullein that blooms along the highway, and about the fields, and +maybe upon the edge of the lawn, from midsummer till frost comes. In +winter its slender stalk rises above the snow, bearing its round +seed-pods on its pin-like stems, and is pleasing even then. Its +flowers are yellow or white, large, wheel-shaped, and are borne +vertically with filaments loaded with little tufts of violet wool. The +plant has none of the coarse, hairy character of the common mullein. +Our coneflower, which one of our poets has called the "brown-eyed +daisy," has a pleasing effect when in vast numbers they invade a +meadow (if it is not your meadow), their dark brown centres or disks +and their golden rays showing conspicuously. + +Bidens, two-teeth, or "pitchforks," as the boys call them, are +welcomed by the eye when in late summer they make the swamps and wet +waste places yellow with their blossoms. + +Vervain is a beautiful weed, especially the blue or purple variety. +Its drooping knotted threads also make a pretty etching upon the +winter snow. + +Iron-weed, which looks like an overgrown aster, has the same intense +purple-blue color, and a royal profusion of flowers. There are giants +among the weeds, as well as dwarfs and pigmies. One of the giants is +purple eupatorium, which sometimes carries its corymbs of +flesh-colored flowers ten and twelve feet high. A pretty and curious +little weed, sometimes found growing in the edge of the garden, is the +clasping specularia, a relative of the harebell and of the European +Venus's looking-glass. Its leaves are shell-shaped, and clasp the +stalk so as to form little shallow cups. In the bottom of each cup +three buds appear that never expand into flowers; but when the top of +the stalk is reached, one and sometimes two buds open a large, +delicate purple-blue corolla. All the first-born of this plant are +still-born, as it were; only the latest, which spring from its summit, +attain to perfect bloom. A weed which one ruthlessly demolishes when +he finds it hiding from the plow amid the strawberries, or under the +currant-bushes and grapevines, is the dandelion; yet who would banish +it from the meadows or the lawns, where it copies in gold upon the +green expanse the stars of the midnight sky? After its first blooming +comes its second and finer and more spiritual inflorescence, when its +stalk, dropping its more earthly and carnal flower, shoots upward, and +is presently crowned by a globe of the most delicate and aerial +texture. It is like the poet's dream, which succeeds his rank and +golden youth. This globe is a fleet of a hundred fairy balloons, each +one of which bears a seed which it is destined to drop far from the +parent source. + + [Illustration: A STALWART WEED] + +Most weeds have their uses; they are not wholly malevolent. Emerson +says a weed is a plant whose virtues we have not yet discovered; but +the wild creatures discover their virtues if we do not. The bumblebee +has discovered that the hateful toad-flax, which nothing will eat, and +which in some soils will run out the grass, has honey at its heart. +Narrow-leaved plantain is readily eaten by cattle, and the honey-bee +gathers much pollen from it. The ox-eye daisy makes a fair quality of +hay if cut before it gets ripe. The cows will eat the leaves of the +burdock and the stinging nettles of the woods. But what cannot a cow's +tongue stand? She will crop the poison ivy with impunity, and I think +would eat thistles if she found them growing in the garden. Leeks and +garlics are readily eaten by cattle in the spring, and are said to be +medicinal to them. Weeds that yield neither pasturage for bee nor +herd, yet afford seeds to the fall and winter birds. This is true of +most of the obnoxious weeds of the garden and of thistles. The wild +lettuce yields down for the humming-bird's nest, and the flowers of +whiteweed are used by the kingbird and cedar-bird. + +Yet it is pleasant to remember that, in our climate, there are no +weeds so persistent and lasting and universal as grass. Grass is the +natural covering of the fields. There are but four weeds that I know +of--milkweed, live-forever, Canada thistle, and toad-flax--that it +will not run out in a good soil. We crop it and mow it year after +year; and yet, if the season favors, it is sure to come again. Fields +that have never known the plow, and never been seeded by man, are yet +covered with grass. And in human nature, too, weeds are by no means in +the ascendant, troublesome as they are. The good green grass of love +and truthfulness and common sense is more universal, and crowds the +idle weeds to the wall. + +But weeds have this virtue: they are not easily discouraged; they +never lose heart entirely; they die game. If they cannot have the +best, they will take up with the poorest; if fortune is unkind to them +to-day, they hope for better luck to-morrow; if they cannot lord it +over a corn-hill, they will sit humbly at its foot and accept what +comes; in all cases they make the most of their opportunities. + + + + + VII + + AUTUMN TIDES + + +The season is always a little behind the sun in our climate, just as +the tide is always a little behind the moon. According to the +calendar, the summer ought to culminate about the 21st of June, but in +reality it is some weeks later; June is a maiden month all through. It +is not high noon in nature till about the first or second week in +July. When the chestnut-tree blooms, the meridian of the year is +reached. By the first of August it is fairly one o'clock. The lustre +of the season begins to dim, the foliage of the trees and woods to +tarnish, the plumage of the birds to fade, and their songs to cease. +The hints of approaching fall are on every hand. How suggestive this +thistle-down, for instance, which, as I sit by the open window, comes +in and brushes softly across my hand! The first snowflake tells of +winter not more plainly than this driving down heralds the approach of +fall. Come here, my fairy, and tell me whence you come and whither +you go? What brings you to port here, you gossamer ship sailing the +great sea? How exquisitely frail and delicate! One of the lightest +things in nature; so light that in the closed room here it will hardly +rest in my open palm. A feather is a clod beside it. Only a spider's +web will hold it; coarser objects have no power over it. Caught in the +upper currents of the air and rising above the clouds, it might sail +perpetually. Indeed, one fancies it might almost traverse the +interstellar ether and drive against the stars. And every thistle-head +by the roadside holds hundreds of these sky rovers,--imprisoned Ariels +unable to set themselves free. Their liberation may be by the shock of +the wind, or the rude contact of cattle, but it is oftener the work of +the goldfinch with its complaining brood. The seed of the thistle is +the proper food of this bird, and in obtaining it myriads of these +winged creatures are scattered to the breeze. Each one is fraught with +a seed which it exists to sow, but its wild careering and soaring does +not fairly begin till its burden is dropped, and its spheral form is +complete. The seeds of many plants and trees are disseminated through +the agency of birds; but the thistle furnishes its own birds,--flocks +of them, with wings more ethereal and tireless than were ever given to +mortal creature. From the pains Nature thus takes to sow the thistle +broadcast over the land, it might be expected to be one of the most +troublesome and abundant of weeds. But such is not the case; the more +pernicious and baffling weeds, like snapdragon or blind nettles, being +more local and restricted in their habits, and unable to fly at all. + + [Illustration: AMONG THE ROCKS] + +In the fall the battles of the spring are fought over again, beginning +at the other or little end of the series. There is the same advance +and retreat, with many feints and alarms, between the contending +forces, that was witnessed in April and May. The spring comes like a +tide running against a strong wind; it is ever beaten back, but ever +gaining ground, with now and then a mad "push upon the land" as if to +overcome its antagonist at one blow. The cold from the north +encroaches upon us in about the same fashion. In September or early in +October it usually makes a big stride forward and blackens all the +more delicate plants, and hastens the "mortal ripening" of the +foliage of the trees, but it is presently beaten back again, and the +genial warmth repossesses the land. Before long, however, the cold +returns to the charge with augmented forces and gains much ground. + +The course of the seasons never does run smooth, owing to the unequal +distribution of land and water, mountain, wood, and plain. + +An equilibrium, however, is usually reached in our climate in October, +sometimes the most marked in November, forming the delicious Indian +summer; a truce is declared, and both forces, heat and cold, meet and +mingle in friendly converse on the field. In the earlier season, this +poise of the temperature, this slack-water in nature, comes in May and +June; but the October calm is most marked. Day after day, and +sometimes week after week, you cannot tell which way the current is +setting. Indeed, there is no current, but the season seems to drift a +little this way or a little that, just as the breeze happens to +freshen a little in one quarter or the other. The fall of '74 was the +most remarkable in this respect I remember ever to have seen. The +equilibrium of the season lasted from the middle of October till near +December, with scarcely a break. There were six weeks of Indian +summer, all gold by day, and, when the moon came, all silver by night. +The river was so smooth at times as to be almost invisible, and in its +place was the indefinite continuation of the opposite shore down +toward the nether world. One seemed to be in an enchanted land and to +breathe all day the atmosphere of fable and romance. Not a smoke, but +a kind of shining nimbus filled all the spaces. The vessels would +drift by as if in mid-air with all their sails set. The gypsy blood in +one, as Lowell calls it, could hardly stay between four walls and see +such days go by. Living in tents, in groves and on the hills, seemed +the only natural life. + +Late in December we had glimpses of the same weather,--the earth had +not yet passed all the golden isles. On the 27th of that month, I find +I made this entry in my note-book: "A soft, hazy day, the year asleep +and dreaming of the Indian summer again. Not a breath of air and not a +ripple on the river. The sunshine is hot as it falls across my table." + +But what a terrible winter followed! what a savage chief the fair +Indian maiden gave birth to! + +This halcyon period of our autumn will always in some way be +associated with the Indian. It is red and yellow and dusky like him. +The smoke of his camp-fire seems again in the air. The memory of him +pervades the woods. His plumes and moccasins and blanket of skins form +just the costume the season demands. It was doubtless his chosen +period. The gods smiled upon him then if ever. The time of the chase, +the season of the buck and the doe, and of the ripening of all forest +fruits; the time when all men are incipient hunters, when the first +frosts have given pungency to the air, when to be abroad on the hills +or in the woods is a delight that both old and young feel,--if the red +aborigine ever had his summer of fullness and contentment, it must +have been at this season, and it fitly bears his name. + +In how many respects fall imitates or parodies the spring! It is +indeed, in some of its features, a sort of second youth of the year. +Things emerge and become conspicuous again. The trees attract all eyes +as in May. The birds come forth from their summer privacy and parody +their spring reunions and rivalries; some of them sing a little after +a silence of months. The robins, blue-birds, meadow-larks, sparrows, +crows, all sport, and call, and behave in a manner suggestive of +spring. The cock grouse drums in the woods as he did in April and May. +The pigeons reappear, and the wild geese and ducks. The witch-hazel +blooms. The trout spawns. The streams are again full. The air is +humid, and the moisture rises in the ground. Nature is breaking camp, +as in spring she was going into camp. The spring yearning and +restlessness is represented in one by the increased desire to travel. + +Spring is the inspiration, fall the expiration. Both seasons have +their equinoxes, both their filmy, hazy air, their ruddy forest tints, +their cold rains, their drenching fogs, their mystic moons; both have +the same solar light and warmth, the same rays of the sun; yet, after +all, how different the feelings which they inspire! One is the +morning, the other the evening; one is youth, the other is age. + +The difference is not merely in us; there is a subtle difference in +the air, and in the influences that emanate upon us from the dumb +forms of nature. All the senses report a difference. The sun seems to +have burned out. One recalls the notion of Herodotus that he is grown +feeble, and retreats to the south because he can no longer face the +cold and the storms from the north. There is a growing potency about +his beams in spring, a waning splendor about them in fall. One is the +kindling fire, the other the subsiding flame. + +It is rarely that an artist succeeds in painting unmistakably the +difference between sunrise and sunset; and it is equally a trial of +his skill to put upon canvas the difference between early spring and +late fall, say between April and November. It was long ago observed +that the shadows are more opaque in the morning than in the evening; +the struggle between the light and the darkness more marked, the gloom +more solid, the contrasts more sharp, etc. The rays of the morning sun +chisel out and cut down the shadows in a way those of the setting sun +do not. Then the sunlight is whiter and newer in the morning,--not so +yellow and diffused. A difference akin to this is true of the two +seasons I am speaking of. The spring is the morning sunlight, clear +and determined; the autumn, the afternoon rays, pensive, lessening, +golden. + + [Illustration: ON THE EDGE OF A CATSKILL "SUGAR BUSH"] + +Does not the human frame yield to and sympathize with the seasons? Are +there not more births in the spring and more deaths in the fall? In +the spring one vegetates; his thoughts turn to sap; another kind of +activity seizes him; he makes new wood which does not harden till past +midsummer. For my part, I find all literary work irksome from April to +August; my sympathies run in other channels; the grass grows where +meditation walked. As fall approaches, the currents mount to the head +again. But my thoughts do not ripen well till after there has been a +frost. The burrs will not open much before that. A man's thinking, I +take it, is a kind of combustion, as is the ripening of fruits and +leaves, and he wants plenty of oxygen in the air. + +Then the earth seems to have become a positive magnet in the fall; the +forge and anvil of the sun have had their effect. In the spring it is +negative to all intellectual conditions, and drains one of his +lightning. + +To-day, October 21st, I found the air in the bushy fields and lanes +under the woods loaded with the perfume of the witch-hazel,--a +sweetish, sickening odor. With the blooming of this bush, Nature says, +"Positively the last." It is a kind of birth in death, of spring in +fall, that impresses one as a little uncanny. All trees and shrubs +form their flower-buds in the fall, and keep the secret till spring. +How comes the witch-hazel to be the one exception, and to celebrate +its floral nuptials on the funeral day of its foliage? No doubt it +will be found that the spirit of some lovelorn squaw has passed into +this bush, and that this is why it blooms in the Indian summer rather +than in the white man's spring. + +But it makes the floral series of the woods complete. Between it and +the shad-blow of earliest spring lies the mountain of bloom; the +latter at the base on one side, this at the base on the other, with +the chestnut blossoms at the top in midsummer. + +A peculiar feature of our fall may sometimes be seen of a clear +afternoon late in the season. Looking athwart the fields under the +sinking sun, the ground appears covered with a shining veil of +gossamer. A fairy net, invisible at midday and which the position of +the sun now reveals, rests upon the stubble and upon the spears of +grass covering acres in extent,--the work of innumerable little +spiders. The cattle walk through it, but do not seem to break it. +Perhaps a fly would make his mark upon it. At the same time, +stretching from the tops of the trees, or from the top of a stake in +the fence, and leading off toward the sky, may be seen the cables of +the flying spider,--a fairy bridge from the visible to the invisible. +Occasionally seen against a deep mass of shadow, and perhaps enlarged +by clinging particles of dust, they show quite plainly and sag down +like a stretched rope, or sway and undulate like a hawser in the tide. + +They recall a verse of our rugged poet, Walt Whitman:-- + + "A noiseless patient spider, + I mark'd where, in a little promontory, it stood isolated: + Mark'd how, to explore the vacant, vast surrounding, + It launch'd forth filament, filament, filament out of itself; + Ever unreeling them--ever tirelessly spreading them. + + "And you, O my soul, where you stand, + Surrounded, surrounded, in measureless oceans of space, + Ceaselessly musing, venturing, throwing,-- + Seeking the spheres to connect them; + Till the bridge you will need be formed--till the ductile anchor + hold; + Till the gossamer thread you fling, catch somewhere, O my soul." + +To return a little, September may be described as the month of tall +weeds. Where they have been suffered to stand, along fences, by +roadsides, and in forgotten corners,--redroot, pigweed, ragweed, +vervain, goldenrod, burdock, elecampane, thistles, teasels, nettles, +asters, etc.,--how they lift themselves up as if not afraid to be seen +now! They are all outlaws; every man's hand is against them; yet how +surely they hold their own! They love the roadside, because here they +are comparatively safe; and ragged and dusty, like the common tramps +that they are, they form one of the characteristic features of early +fall. + +I have often noticed in what haste certain weeds are at times to +produce their seeds. Redroot will grow three or four feet high when it +has the whole season before it; but let it get a late start, let it +come up in August, and it scarcely gets above the ground before it +heads out, and apparently goes to work with all its might and main to +mature its seed. In the growth of most plants or weeds, April and May +represent their root, June and July their stalk, and August and +September their flower and seed. Hence, when the stalk months are +stricken out, as in the present case, there is only time for a shallow +root and a foreshortened head. I think most weeds that get a late +start show this curtailment of stalk, and this solicitude to reproduce +themselves. But I have not observed that any of the cereals are so +worldly wise. They have not had to think and shift for themselves as +the weeds have. It does indeed look like a kind of forethought in the +redroot. It is killed by the first frost, and hence knows the danger +of delay. + +How rich in color, before the big show of the tree foliage has +commenced, our roadsides are in places in early autumn,--rich to the +eye that goes hurriedly by and does not look too closely,--with the +profusion of goldenrod and blue and purple asters dashed in upon here +and there with the crimson leaves of the dwarf sumac; and at +intervals, rising out of the fence corner or crowning a ledge of +rocks, the dark green of the cedars with the still fire of the +woodbine at its heart. I wonder if the waysides of other lands present +any analogous spectacles at this season. + +Then, when the maples have burst out into color, showing like great +bonfires along the hills, there is indeed a feast for the eye. A maple +before your windows in October, when the sun shines upon it, will make +up for a good deal of the light it has excluded; it fills the room +with a soft golden glow. + +Thoreau, I believe, was the first to remark upon the individuality of +trees of the same species with respect to their foliage,--some maples +ripening their leaves early and some late, and some being of one tint +and some of another; and, moreover, that each tree held to the same +characteristics, year after year. There is, indeed, as great a variety +among the maples as among the trees of an apple orchard; some are +harvest apples, some are fall apples, and some are winter apples, each +with a tint of its own. Those late ripeners are the winter +varieties,--the Rhode Island greenings or swaars of their kind. The +red maple is the early astrachan. Then come the red-streak, the +yellow-sweet, and others. There are windfalls among them, too, as +among the apples, and one side or hemisphere of the leaf is usually +brighter than the other. + +The ash has been less noticed for its autumnal foliage than it +deserves. The richest shades of plum color to be seen--becoming by and +by, or in certain lights, a deep maroon--are afforded by this tree. +Then at a distance there seems to be a sort of bloom on it, as upon +the grape or plum. Amid a grove of yellow maple, it makes a most +pleasing contrast. + +By mid-October, most of the Rip Van Winkles among our brute creatures +have lain down for their winter nap. The toads and turtles have buried +themselves in the earth. The woodchuck is in his hibernaculum, the +skunk in his, the mole in his; and the black bear has his selected, +and will go in when the snow comes. He does not like the looks of his +big tracks in the snow. They publish his goings and comings too +plainly. The coon retires about the same time. The provident wood-mice +and the chipmunk are laying by a winter supply of nuts or grain, the +former usually in decayed trees, the latter in the ground. I have +observed that any unusual disturbance in the woods, near where the +chipmunk has his den, will cause him to shift his quarters. One +October, for many successive days, I saw one carrying into his hole +buckwheat which he had stolen from a near field. The hole was only a +few rods from where we were getting out stone, and as our work +progressed, and the racket and uproar increased, the chipmunk became +alarmed. He ceased carrying in, and after much hesitating and darting +about, and some prolonged absences, he began to carry out; he had +determined to move; if the mountain fell, he, at least, would be away +in time. So, by mouthfuls or cheekfuls, the grain was transferred to a +new place. He did not make a "bee" to get it done, but carried it all +himself, occupying several days, and making a trip about every ten +minutes. + +The red and gray squirrels do not lay by winter stores; their cheeks +are made without pockets, and whatever they transport is carried in +the teeth. They are more or less active all winter, but October and +November are their festal months. Invade some butternut or hickory-nut +grove on a frosty October morning, and hear the red squirrel beat the +"juba" on a horizontal branch. It is a most lively jig, what the boys +call a "regular break-down," interspersed with squeals and snickers +and derisive laughter. The most noticeable peculiarity about the +vocal part of it is the fact that it is a kind of duet. In other +words, by some ventriloquial tricks, he appears to accompany himself, +as if his voice split up, a part forming a low guttural sound, and a +part a shrill nasal sound. + +The distant bark of the more wary gray squirrel may be heard about the +same time. There is a teasing and ironical tone in it also, but the +gray squirrel is not the Puck the red is. + +Insects also go into winter-quarters by or before this time; the +bumblebee, hornet, and wasp. But here only royalty escapes: the +queen-mother alone foresees the night of winter coming and the morning +of spring beyond. The rest of the tribe try gypsying for a while, but +perish in the first frosts. The present October I surprised the queen +of the yellow-jackets in the woods looking out a suitable retreat. The +royal dame was house-hunting, and, on being disturbed by my +inquisitive poking among the leaves, she got up and flew away with a +slow, deep hum. Her body was unusually distended, whether with fat or +eggs I am unable to say. In September I took down the nest of the +black hornet and found several large queens in it, but the workers +had all gone. The queens were evidently weathering the first frosts +and storms here, and waiting for the Indian summer to go forth and +seek a permanent winter abode. If the covers could be taken off the +fields and woods at this season, how many interesting facts of natural +history would be revealed!--the crickets, ants, bees, reptiles, +animals, and, for aught I know, the spiders and flies asleep or +getting ready to sleep in their winter dormitories; the fires of life +banked up, and burning just enough to keep the spark over till spring. + +The fish all run down the stream in the fall except the trout; it runs +up or stays up and spawns in November, the male becoming as +brilliantly tinted as the deepest-dyed maple leaf. I have often +wondered why the trout spawns in the fall, instead of in the spring +like other fish. Is it not because a full supply of clear spring water +can be counted on at that season more than at any other? The brooks +are not so liable to be suddenly muddied by heavy showers, and defiled +with the washings of the roads and fields, as they are in spring and +summer. The artificial breeder finds that absolute purity of water is +necessary to hatch the spawn; also that shade and a low temperature +are indispensable. + +Our Northern November day itself is like spring water. It is melted +frost, dissolved snow. There is a chill in it and an exhilaration +also. The forenoon is all morning and the afternoon all evening. The +shadows seem to come forth and to revenge themselves upon the day. The +sunlight is diluted with darkness. The colors fade from the landscape, +and only the sheen of the river lights up the gray and brown distance. + + + + + + VIII + + A SHARP LOOKOUT + + +One has only to sit down in the woods or fields, or by the shore of +the river or lake, and nearly everything of interest will come round +to him,--the birds, the animals, the insects; and presently, after his +eye has got accustomed to the place, and to the light and shade, he +will probably see some plant or flower that he had sought in vain for, +and that is a pleasant surprise to him. So, on a large scale, the +student and lover of nature has this advantage over people who gad up +and down the world, seeking some novelty or excitement; he has only to +stay at home and see the procession pass. The great globe swings +around to him like a revolving showcase; the change of the seasons is +like the passage of strange and new countries; the zones of the earth, +with all their beauties and marvels, pass one's door and linger long +in the passing. What a voyage is this we make without leaving for a +night our own fireside! St. Pierre well says that a sense of the +power and mystery of nature shall spring up as fully in one's heart +after he has made the circuit of his own field as after returning from +a voyage round the world. I sit here amid the junipers of the Hudson, +with purpose every year to go to Florida, or to the West Indies, or to +the Pacific coast, yet the seasons pass and I am still loitering, with +a half-defined suspicion, perhaps, that, if I remain quiet and keep a +sharp lookout, these countries will come to me. I may stick it out +yet, and not miss much after all. The great trouble is for Mohammed to +know when the mountain really comes to him. Sometimes a rabbit or a +jay or a little warbler brings the woods to my door. A loon on the +river, and the Canada lakes are here; the sea-gulls and the fish hawk +bring the sea; the call of the wild gander at night, what does it +suggest? and the eagle flapping by, or floating along on a raft of +ice, does not he bring the mountain? One spring morning five swans +flew above my barn in single file, going northward,--an express train +bound for Labrador. It was a more exhilarating sight than if I had +seen them in their native haunts. They made a breeze in my mind, like +a noble passage in a poem. How gently their great wings flapped; how +easy to fly when spring gives the impulse! On another occasion I saw a +line of fowls, probably swans, going northward, at such a height that +they appeared like a faint, waving black line against the sky. They +must have been at an altitude of two or three miles. I was looking +intently at the clouds to see which way they moved, when the birds +came into my field of vision. I should never have seen them had they +not crossed the precise spot upon which my eye was fixed. As it was +near sundown, they were probably launched for an all-night pull. They +were going with great speed, and as they swayed a little this way and +that, they suggested a slender, all but invisible, aerial serpent +cleaving the ether. What a highway was pointed out up there!--an easy +grade from the Gulf to Hudson's Bay. + +Then the typical spring and summer and autumn days, of all shades and +complexions,--one cannot afford to miss any of them; and when looked +out upon from one's own spot of earth, how much more beautiful and +significant they are! Nature comes home to one most when he is at +home; the stranger and traveler finds her a stranger and a traveler +also. One's own landscape comes in time to be a sort of outlying part +of himself; he has sowed himself broadcast upon it, and it reflects +his own moods and feelings; he is sensitive to the verge of the +horizon: cut those trees, and he bleeds; mar those hills, and he +suffers. How has the farmer planted himself in his fields; builded +himself into his stone walls, and evoked the sympathy of the hills by +his struggle! This home feeling, this domestication of nature, is +important to the observer. This is the bird-lime with which he catches +the bird; this is the private door that admits him behind the scenes. +This is one source of Gilbert White's charm, and of the charm of +Thoreau's "Walden." + +The birds that come about one's door in winter, or that build in his +trees in summer, what a peculiar interest they have! What crop have I +sowed in Florida or in California, that I should go there to reap? I +should be only a visitor, or formal caller upon nature, and the family +would all wear masks. No; the place to observe nature is where you +are; the walk to take to-day is the walk you took yesterday. You will +not find just the same things: both the observed and the observer +have changed; the ship is on another tack in both cases. + + [Illustration: A CATSKILL ROADWAY] + +I shall probably never see another just such day as yesterday was, +because one can never exactly repeat his observation,--cannot turn the +leaf of the book of life backward,--and because each day has +characteristics of its own. This was a typical March day, clear, dry, +hard, and windy, the river rumpled and crumpled, the sky intense, +distant objects strangely near; a day full of strong light, unusual; +an extraordinary lightness and clearness all around the horizon, as if +there were a diurnal aurora streaming up and burning through the +sunlight; smoke from the first spring fires rising up in various +directions,--a day that winnowed the air, and left no film in the sky. +At night, how the big March bellows did work! Venus was like a great +lamp in the sky. The stars all seemed brighter than usual, as if the +wind blew them up like burning coals. Venus actually seemed to flare +in the wind. + +Each day foretells the next, if one could read the signs; to-day is +the progenitor of to-morrow. When the atmosphere is telescopic, and +distant objects stand out unusually clear and sharp, a storm is near. +We are on the crest of the wave, and the depression follows quickly. +It often happens that clouds are not so indicative of a storm as the +total absence of clouds. In this state of the atmosphere the stars are +unusually numerous and bright at night, which is also a bad omen. + +I find this observation confirmed by Humboldt. "It appears," he says, +"that the transparency of the air is prodigiously increased when a +certain quantity of water is uniformly diffused through it." Again, he +says that the mountaineers of the Alps "predict a change of weather +when, the air being calm, the Alps covered with perpetual snow seem on +a sudden to be nearer the observer, and their outlines are marked with +great distinctness on the azure sky." He further observes that the +same condition of the atmosphere renders distant sounds more audible. + +There is one redness in the east in the morning that means storm, +another that means wind. The former is broad, deep, and angry; the +clouds look like a huge bed of burning coals just raked open; the +latter is softer, more vapory, and more widely extended. Just at the +point where the sun is going to rise, and some minutes in advance of +his coming, there sometimes rises straight upward a rosy column; it is +like a shaft of deeply dyed vapor, blending with and yet partly +separated from the clouds, and the base of which presently comes to +glow like the sun itself. The day that follows is pretty certain to be +very windy. At other times the under sides of the eastern clouds are +all turned to pink or rose-colored wool; the transformation extends +until nearly the whole sky flushes, even the west glowing slightly; +the sign is always to be interpreted as meaning fair weather. + +The approach of great storms is seldom heralded by any striking or +unusual phenomenon. The real weather gods are free from brag and +bluster; but the sham gods fill the sky with portentous signs and +omens. I recall one 5th of March as a day that would have filled the +ancient observers with dreadful forebodings. At ten o'clock the sun +was attended by four extraordinary sun-dogs. A large bright halo +encompassed him, on the top of which the segment of a larger circle +rested, forming a sort of heavy brilliant crown. At the bottom of the +circle, and depending from it, was a mass of soft, glowing, +iridescent vapor. On either side, like fragments of the larger circle, +were two brilliant arcs. Altogether, it was the most portentous +storm-breeding sun I ever beheld. In a dark hemlock wood in a valley, +the owls were hooting ominously, and the crows dismally cawing. Before +night the storm set in, a little sleet and rain of a few hours' +duration, insignificant enough compared with the signs and wonders +that preceded it. + +To what extent the birds or animals can foretell the weather is +uncertain. When the swallows are seen hawking very high it is a good +indication; the insects upon which they feed venture up there only in +the most auspicious weather. Yet bees will continue to leave the hive +when a storm is imminent. I am told that one of the most reliable +weather signs they have down in Texas is afforded by the ants. The +ants bring their eggs up out of their underground retreats, and expose +them to the warmth of the sun to be hatched. When they are seen +carrying them in again in great haste, though there be not a cloud in +the sky, your walk or your drive must be postponed: a storm is at +hand. There is a passage in Virgil that is doubtless intended to +embody a similar observation, though none of his translators seem to +have hit its meaning accurately:-- + + "Saepius et tectis penetralibus extulit ova + Angustum formica terens iter:" + +"Often also has the pismire making a narrow road brought forth her +eggs out of the hidden recesses" is the literal translation of old +John Martyn. + + "Also the ant, incessantly traveling + The same straight way with the eggs of her hidden store," + +is one of the latest metrical translations. Dryden has it:-- + + "The careful ant her secret cell forsakes + And drags her eggs along the narrow tracks," + +which comes nearer to the fact. When a storm is coming, Virgil also +makes his swallows skim low about the lake, which agrees with the +observation above. + +The critical moments of the day as regards the weather are at sunrise +and sunset A clear sunset is always a good sign; an obscured sun, just +at the moment of going down after a bright day, bodes storm. There is +much truth, too, in the saying that if it rain before seven, it will +clear before eleven. Nine times in ten it will turn out thus. The +best time for it to begin to rain or snow, if it wants to hold out, is +about mid-forenoon. The great storms usually begin at this time. On +all occasions the weather is very sure to declare itself before eleven +o'clock. If you are going on a picnic, or are going to start on a +journey, and the morning is unsettled, wait till ten and one half +o'clock, and you shall know what the remainder of the day will be. +Midday clouds and afternoon clouds, except in the season of +thunderstorms, are usually harmless idlers and vagabonds. But more to +be relied on than any obvious sign is that subtle perception of the +condition of the weather which a man has who spends much of his time +in the open air. He can hardly tell how he knows it is going to rain; +he hits the fact as an Indian does the mark with his arrow, without +calculating and by a kind of sure instinct. As you read a man's +purpose in his face, so you learn to read the purpose of the weather +in the face of the day. + +In observing the weather, however, as in the diagnosis of disease, the +diathesis is all-important. All signs fail in a drought, because the +predisposition, the diathesis, is so strongly toward fair weather; and +the opposite signs fail during a wet spell, because nature is caught +in the other rut. + +Observe the lilies of the field. Sir John Lubbock says the dandelion +lowers itself after flowering, and lies close to the ground while it +is maturing its seed, and then rises up. It is true that the dandelion +lowers itself after flowering, retires from society, as it were, and +meditates in seclusion; but after it lifts itself up again the stalk +begins anew to grow, it lengthens daily, keeping just above the grass +till the fruit is ripened, and the little globe of silvery down is +carried many inches higher than was the ring of golden flowers. And +the reason is obvious. The plant depends upon the wind to scatter its +seeds; every one of these little vessels spreads a sail to the breeze, +and it is necessary that they be launched above the grass and weeds, +amid which they would be caught and held did the stalk not continue to +grow and outstrip the rival vegetation. It is a curious instance of +foresight in a weed. + +I wish I could read as clearly this puzzle of the button-balls +(American plane-tree). Why has Nature taken such particular pains to +keep these balls hanging to the parent tree intact till spring? What +secret of hers has she buttoned in so securely? for these buttons will +not come off. The wind cannot twist them off, nor warm nor wet hasten +or retard them. The stem, or peduncle, by which the ball is held in +the fall and winter, breaks up into a dozen or more threads or +strands, that are stronger than those of hemp. When twisted tightly +they make a little cord that I find it impossible to break with my +hands. Had they been longer, the Indian would surely have used them to +make his bow-strings and all the other strings he required. One could +hang himself with a small cord of them. (In South America, Humboldt +saw excellent cordage made by the Indians from the petioles of the +Chiquichiqui palm.) Nature has determined that these buttons should +stay on. In order that the seeds of this tree may germinate, it is +probably necessary that they be kept dry during the winter, and reach +the ground after the season of warmth and moisture is fully +established. In May, just as the leaves and the new balls are +emerging, at the touch of a warm, moist south wind, these spherical +packages suddenly go to pieces--explode, in fact, like tiny bombshells +that were fused to carry to this point--and scatter their seeds to the +four winds. They yield at the same time a fine pollen-like dust that +one would suspect played some part in fertilizing the new balls, did +not botany teach him otherwise. At any rate, it is the only deciduous +tree I know of that does not let go the old seed till the new is well +on the way. It is plain why the sugar-berry-tree or lotus holds its +drupes all winter: it is in order that the birds may come and sow the +seed. The berries are like small gravel stones with a sugar coating, +and a bird will not eat them till he is pretty hard pressed, but in +late fall and winter the robins, cedar-birds, and bluebirds devour +them readily, and of course lend their wings to scatter the seed far +and wide. The same is true of juniper-berries, and the fruit of the +bitter-sweet. + +In certain other cases where the fruit tends to hang on during the +winter, as with the bladder-nut and the honey-locust, it is probably +because the frost and the perpetual moisture of the ground would rot +or kill the germ. To beechnuts, chestnuts, and acorns the moisture of +the ground and the covering of leaves seem congenial, though too much +warmth and moisture often cause the acorns to germinate prematurely. I +have found the ground under the oaks in December covered with nuts, +all anchored to the earth by purple sprouts. But the winter which +follows such untimely growths generally proves fatal to them. + +One must always cross-question nature if he would get at the truth, +and he will not get at it then unless he frames his questions with +great skill. Most persons are unreliable observers because they put +only leading questions, or vague questions. + +Perhaps there is nothing in the operations of nature to which we can +properly apply the term intelligence, yet there are many things that +at first sight look like it. Place a tree or plant in an unusual +position and it will prove itself equal to the occasion, and behave in +an unusual manner; it will show original resources; it will seem to +try intelligently to master the difficulties. Up by Furlow Lake, where +I was camping out, a young hemlock had become established upon the end +of a large and partly decayed log that reached many feet out into the +lake. The young tree was eight or nine feet high; it had sent its +roots down into the log and clasped it around on the outside, and had +apparently discovered that there was water instead of soil immediately +beneath it, and that its sustenance must be sought elsewhere and that +quickly. Accordingly it had started one large root, by far the largest +of all, for the shore along the top of the log. This root, when I saw +the tree, was six or seven feet long, and had bridged more than half +the distance that separated the tree from the land. + +Was this a kind of intelligence? If the shore had lain in the other +direction, no doubt at all but the root would have started for the +other side. I know a yellow pine that stands on the side of a steep +hill. To make its position more secure, it has thrown out a large root +at right angles with its stem directly into the bank above it, which +acts as a stay or guy-rope. It was positively the best thing the tree +could do. The earth has washed away so that the root where it leaves +the tree is two feet above the surface of the soil. + +Yet both these cases are easily explained, and without attributing any +power of choice, or act of intelligent selection, to the trees. In +the case of the little hemlock upon the partly submerged log, roots +were probably thrown out equally in all directions; on all sides but +one they reached the water and stopped growing; the water checked +them; but on the land side, the root on the top of the log, not +meeting with any obstacle of the kind, kept on growing, and thus +pushing its way toward the shore. It was a case of survival, not of +the fittest, but of that which the situation favored,--the fittest +with reference to position. + +So with the pine-tree on the side of the hill. It probably started its +roots in all directions, but only the one on the upper side survived +and matured. Those on the lower side finally perished, and others +lower down took their places. Thus the whole life upon the globe, as +we see it, is the result of this blind groping and putting forth of +Nature in every direction, with failure of some of her ventures and +the success of others, the circumstances, the environments, supplying +the checks and supplying the stimulus, the seed falling upon the +barren places just the same as upon the fertile. No discrimination on +the part of Nature that we can express in the terms of our own +consciousness, but ceaseless experiments in every possible direction. +The only thing inexplicable is the inherent impulse to experiment, the +original push, the principle of Life. + + [Illustration: BEECHNUTS + (Mr. Burroughs's boyhood home seen in the distance)] + +The good observer of nature holds his eye long and firmly to the +point, as one does when looking at a puzzle picture, and will not be +baffled. The cat catches the mouse, not merely because she watches for +him, but because she is armed to catch him and is quick. So the +observer finally gets the fact, not only because he has patience, but +because his eye is sharp and his inference swift. Many a shrewd old +farmer looks upon the milky way as a kind of weathercock, and will +tell you that the way it points at night indicates the direction of +the wind the following day. So, also, every new moon is either a dry +moon or a wet moon, dry if a powder-horn would hang upon the lower +limb, wet if it would not; forgetting the fact that, as a rule, when +it is dry in one, part of the continent it is wet in some other part, +and _vice versa_. When he kills his hogs in the fall, if the pork be +very hard and solid he predicts a severe winter; if soft and loose, +the opposite; again overlooking the fact that the kind of food and +the temperature of the fall make the pork hard or make it soft. So +with a hundred other signs, all the result of hasty and incomplete +observations. + +One season, the last day of December was very warm. The bees were out +of the hive, and there was no frost in the air or in the ground. I was +walking in the woods, when as I paused in the shade of a hemlock-tree +I heard a sound proceed from beneath the wet leaves on the ground but +a few feet from me that suggested a frog. Following it cautiously up, +I at last determined upon the exact spot from whence the sound issued; +lifting up the thick layer of leaves, there sat a frog--the wood frog, +one of the first to appear in the marshes in spring, and which I have +elsewhere called the "clucking frog"--in a little excavation in the +surface of the leaf-mould. As it sat there the top of its back was +level with the surface of the ground. This, then, was its +hibernaculum; here it was prepared to pass the winter, with only a +coverlid of wet matted leaves between it and zero weather. Forthwith I +set up as a prophet of warm weather, and among other things predicted +a failure of the ice crop on the river; which, indeed, others, who had +not heard frogs croak on the 31st of December, had also begun to +predict. Surely, I thought, this frog knows what it is about; here is +the wisdom of nature; it would have gone deeper into the ground than +that if a severe winter was approaching; so I was not anxious about my +coal-bin, nor disturbed by longings for Florida. But what a winter +followed, the winter of 1885, when the Hudson became coated with ice +nearly two feet thick, and when March was as cold as January! I +thought of my frog under the hemlock and wondered how it was faring. +So one day the latter part of March, when the snow was gone, and there +was a feeling of spring in the air, I turned aside in my walk to +investigate it. The matted leaves were still frozen hard, but I +succeeded in lifting them up and exposing the frog. There it sat as +fresh and unscathed as in the fall. The ground beneath and all about +it was still frozen like a rock, but apparently it had some means of +its own of resisting the frost. It winked and bowed its head when I +touched it, but did not seem inclined to leave its retreat. Some days +later, after the frost was nearly all out of the ground, I passed +that way, and found my frog had come out of its seclusion, and was +resting amid the dry leaves. There was not much jump in it yet, but +its color was growing lighter. A few more warm days, and its fellows, +and doubtless itself too, were croaking and gamboling in the marshes. + +This incident convinced me of two things; namely, that frogs know no +more about the coming weather than we do, and that they do not retreat +as deep into the ground to pass the winter as has been supposed. I +used to think the muskrats could foretell an early and a severe +winter, and have so written. But I am now convinced they cannot; they +know as little about it as I do. Sometimes on an early and severe +frost they seem to get alarmed and go to building their houses, but +usually they seem to build early or late, high or low, just as the +whim takes them. + +In most of the operations of nature there is at least one unknown +quantity; to find the exact value of this unknown factor is not so +easy. The wool of the sheep, the fur of the animals, the feathers of +the fowls, the husks of the maize, why are they thicker some seasons +than others; what is the value of the unknown quantity her? Does it +indicate a severe winter approaching? Only observations extending over +a series of years could determine the point. How much patient +observation it takes to settle many of the facts in the lives of the +birds, animals, and insects! Gilbert White was all his life trying to +determine whether or not swallows passed the winter in a torpid state +in the mud at the bottom of ponds and marshes, and he died ignorant of +the truth that they do not. Do honey-bees injure the grape and other +fruits by puncturing the skin for the juice? The most patient watching +by many skilled eyes all over the country has not yet settled the +point. For my own part, I am convinced that they do not. The honey-bee +is not the rough-and-ready freebooter that the wasp and bumblebee are; +she has somewhat of feminine timidity, and leaves the first rude +assaults to them. I knew the honey-bee was very fond of the locust +blossoms, and that the trees hummed like a hive in the height of their +flowering, but I did not know that the bumblebee was ever the sapper +and miner that went ahead in this enterprise, till one day I placed +myself amid the foliage of a locust and saw him savagely bite through +the shank of the flower and extract the nectar, followed by a +honey-bee that in every instance searched for this opening, and probed +long and carefully for the leavings of her burly purveyor. The +bumblebee rifles the dicentra and the columbine of their treasures in +the same manner, namely, by slitting their pockets from the outside, +and the honey-bee gleans after him, taking the small change he leaves. +In the case of the locust, however, she usually obtains the honey +without the aid of the larger bee. + +Speaking of the honey-bee reminds me that the subtle and +sleight-of-hand manner in which she fills her baskets with pollen and +propolis is characteristic of much of Nature's doings. See the bee +going from flower to flower with the golden pellets on her thighs, +slowly and mysteriously increasing in size. If the miller were to take +the toll of the grist he grinds by gathering the particles of flour +from his coat and hat, as he moved rapidly about, or catching them in +his pockets, he would be doing pretty nearly what the bee does. The +little miller dusts herself with the pollen of the flower, and then, +while on the wing, brushes it off with the fine brush on certain of +her feet, and by some jugglery or other catches it in her pollen +basket. One needs to look long and intently to see through the trick. +Pliny says they fill their baskets with their fore feet, and that they +fill their fore feet with their trunks, but it is a much more subtle +operation than this. I have seen the bees come to a meal barrel in +early spring, and to a pile of hardwood sawdust before there was yet +anything in nature for them to work upon, and, having dusted their +coats with the finer particles of the meal or the sawdust, hover on +the wing above the mass till the little legerdemain feat is performed. +Nature fills her baskets by the same sleight-of-hand, and the observer +must be on the alert who would possess her secret. If the ancients had +looked a little closer and sharper, would they ever have believed in +spontaneous generation in the superficial way in which they did; that +maggots, for instance, were generated spontaneously in putrid flesh? +Could they not see the spawn of the blow-flies? Or, if Virgil had been +a real observer of the bees, would he ever have credited, as he +certainly appears to do, the fable of bees originating from the +carcass of a steer? or that on windy days they carried little stones +for ballast? or that two hostile swarms fought each other in the air? +Indeed, the ignorance, or the false science, of the ancient observers, +with regard to the whole subject of bees, is most remarkable; not +false science merely with regard to their more hidden operations, but +with regard to that which is open and patent to all who have eyes in +their heads, and have ever had to do with them. And Pliny names +authors who had devoted their whole lives to the study of the subject. + +But the ancients, like women and children, were not accurate +observers. Just at the critical moment their eyes were unsteady, or +their fancy, or their credulity, or their impatience, got the better +of them, so that their science was half fact and half fable. Thus, for +instance, because the young cuckoo at times appeared to take the head +of its small foster mother quite into its mouth while receiving its +food, they believed that it finally devoured her. Pliny, who embodied +the science of his times in his natural history, says of the wasp that +it carries spiders to its nest, and then sits upon them until it +hatches its young from them. A little careful observation would have +shown him that this was only a half truth; that the whole truth was, +that the spiders were entombed with the egg of the wasp to serve as +food for the young when the egg shall have hatched. + +What curious questions Plutarch discusses, as, for instance, "What is +the reason that a bucket of water drawn out of a well, if it stands +all night in the air that is in the well, is more cold in the morning +than the rest of the water?" He could probably have given many reasons +why "a watched pot never boils." The ancients, the same author says, +held that the bodies of those killed by lightning never putrefy; that +the sight of a ram quiets an enraged elephant; that a viper will lie +stock still if touched by a beechen leaf; that a wild bull grows tame +if bound with the twigs of a fig-tree; that a hen purifies herself +with straw after she has laid an egg; that the deer buries his +cast-off horns; that a goat stops the whole herd by holding a branch +of the sea-holly in his mouth, etc. They sought to account for such +things without stopping to ask, Are they true? Nature was too novel, +or else too fearful, to them to be deliberately pursued and hunted +down. Their youthful joy in her, or their dread and awe in her +presence, may be better than our scientific satisfaction, or cool +wonder, or our vague, mysterious sense of "something far more deeply +interfused;" yet we cannot change with them if we would, and I, for +one, would not if I could. Science does not mar nature. The railroad, +Thoreau found, after all, to be about the wildest road he knew of, and +the telegraph wires the best aeolian harp out of doors. Study of nature +deepens the mystery and the charm because it removes the horizon +farther off. We cease to fear, perhaps, but how can one cease to +marvel and to love? + +The fields and woods and waters about one are a book from which he may +draw exhaustless entertainment, if he will. One must not only learn +the writing, he must translate the language, the signs, and the +hieroglyphics. It is a very quaint and elliptical writing, and much +must be supplied by the wit of the translator. At any rate, the lesson +is to be well conned. Gilbert White said that that locality would be +found the richest in zooelogical or botanical specimens which was most +thoroughly examined. For more than forty years he studied the +ornithology of his district without exhausting the subject. I thought +I knew my own tramping ground pretty well, but one April day, when I +looked a little closer than usual into a small semi-stagnant lakelet +where I had peered a hundred times before, I suddenly discovered +scores of little creatures that were as new to me as so many nymphs +would have been. They were partly fish-shaped, from an inch to an inch +and a half long, semi-transparent, with a dark brownish line visible +the entire length of them (apparently the thread upon which the life +of the animal hung, and by which its all but impalpable frame was held +together), and suspending themselves in the water, or impelling +themselves swiftly forward by means of a double row of fine, waving, +hair-like appendages, that arose from what appeared to be the back,--a +kind of undulating, pappus-like wings. What was it? I did not know. +None of my friends or scientific acquaintances knew. I wrote to a +learned man, an authority upon fish, describing the creature as well +as I could. He replied that it was only a familiar species of +phyllopodous crustacean, known as _Eubranchipus vernalis_. + +I remember that our guide in the Maine woods, seeing I had names of my +own for some of the plants, would often ask me the name of this and +that flower for which he had no word; and that when I could recall the +full Latin term, it seemed overwhelmingly convincing and satisfying to +him. It was evidently a relief to know that these obscure plants of +his native heath had been found worthy of a learned name, and that the +Maine woods were not so uncivil and outlandish as they might at first +seem: it was a comfort to him to know that he did not live beyond the +reach of botany. In like manner I found satisfaction in knowing that +my novel fish had been recognized and worthily named; the title +conferred a new dignity at once; but when the learned man added that +it was familiarly called the "fairy shrimp," I felt a deeper pleasure. +Fairy-like it certainly was, in its aerial, unsubstantial look, and in +its delicate, down-like means of locomotion; but the large head, with +its curious folds, and its eyes standing out in relief, as if on the +heads of two pins, were gnome-like. Probably the fairy wore a mask, +and wanted to appear terrible to human eyes. Then the creatures had +sprung out of the earth as by magic. I found some in a furrow in a +plowed field that had encroached upon a swamp. In the fall the plow +had been there, and had turned up only the moist earth; now a little +water was standing there, from which the April sunbeams had invoked +these airy, fairy creatures. They belong to the crustaceans, but +apparently no creature has so thin or impalpable a crust; you can +almost see through them; certainly you can see what they have had for +dinner, if they have eaten substantial food. + + [Illustration: BY THE STUDY FIRE] + +All we know about the private and essential natural history of the +bees, the birds, the fishes, the animals, the plants, is the result of +close, patient, quick-witted observation. Yet Nature will often elude +one for all his pains and alertness. Thoreau, as revealed in his +journal, was for years trying to settle in his own mind what was the +first thing that stirred in spring, after the severe New England +winter,--in what was the first sign or pulse of returning life +manifest; and he never seems to have been quite sure. He could not get +his salt on the tail of this bird. He dug into the swamps, he peered +into the water, he felt with benumbed hands for the radical leaves of +the plants under the snow; he inspected the buds on the willows, the +catkins on the alders; he went out before daylight of a March morning +and remained out after dark; he watched the lichens and mosses on the +rocks; he listened for the birds; he was on the alert for the first +frog ("Can you be absolutely sure," he says, "that you have heard the +first frog that croaked in the township?"); he stuck a pin here and he +stuck a pin there, and there, and still he could not satisfy himself. +Nor can any one. Life appears to start in several things +simultaneously. Of a warm thawy day in February the snow is suddenly +covered with myriads of snow fleas looking like black, new powder just +spilled there. Or you may see a winged insect in the air. On the +selfsame day the grass in the spring run and the catkins on the alders +will have started a little; and if you look sharply, while passing +along some sheltered nook or grassy slope where the sunshine lies warm +on the bare ground, you will probably see a grasshopper or two. The +grass hatches out under the snow, and why should not the grasshopper? +At any rate, a few such hardy specimens may be found in the latter +part of our milder winters wherever the sun has uncovered a sheltered +bit of grass for a few days, even after a night of ten or twelve +degrees of frost. Take them in the shade, and let them freeze stiff as +pokers, and when thawed out again they will hop briskly. And yet, if a +poet were to put grasshoppers in his winter poem, we should require +pretty full specifications of him, or else fur to clothe them with. +Nature will not be cornered, yet she does many things in a corner and +surreptitiously. She is all things to all men; she has whole truths, +half truths, and quarter truths, if not still smaller fractions. The +careful observer finds this out sooner or later. Old fox-hunters will +tell you, on the evidence of their own eyes, that there is a black fox +and a silver-gray fox, two species, but there are not; the black fox +is black when coming toward you or running from you, and silver gray +at point-blank view, when the eye penetrates the fur; each separate +hair is gray the first half and black the last. This is a sample of +nature's half truths. + +Which are our sweet-scented wild flowers? Put your nose to every +flower you pluck, and you will be surprised how your list will swell +the more you smell. I plucked some wild blue violets one day, the +_ovata_ variety of the _sagittata_, that had a faint perfume of sweet +clover, but I never could find another that had any odor. A pupil +disputed with his teacher about the hepatica, claiming in opposition +that it was sweet-scented. Some hepaticas are sweet-scented and some +are not, and the perfume is stronger some seasons than others. After +the unusually severe winter of 1880-81, the variety of hepatica called +the sharp-lobed was markedly sweet in nearly every one of the hundreds +of specimens I examined. A handful of them exhaled a most delicious +perfume. The white ones that season were largely in the ascendant; and +probably the white specimens of both varieties, one season with +another, will oftenest prove sweet-scented. Darwin says a considerably +larger proportion of white flowers are sweet-scented than of any other +color. The only sweet violets I can depend upon are white, _Viola +blanda_ and _Viola Canadensis_, and white largely predominates among +our other odorous wild flowers. All the fruit-trees have white or +pinkish blossoms. I recall no native blue flower of New York or New +England that is fragrant except in the rare case of the arrow-leaved +violet, above referred to. The earliest yellow flowers, like the +dandelion and yellow violets, are not fragrant. Later in the season +yellow is frequently accompanied with fragrance, as in the evening +primrose, the yellow lady's-slipper, horned bladderwort, and others. + +My readers probably remember that on a former occasion I have mildly +taken the poet Bryant to task for leading his readers to infer that +the early yellow violet was sweet-scented. In view of the +capriciousness of the perfume of certain of our wild flowers, I have +during the past few years tried industriously to convict myself of +error in respect to this flower. The round-leaved yellow violet was +one of the earliest and most abundant wild flowers in the woods where +my youth was passed, and whither I still make annual pilgrimages. I +have pursued it on mountains and in lowlands, in "beechen woods" and +amid the hemlocks; and while, with respect to its earliness, it +overtakes the hepatica in the latter part of April, as do also the +dog's-tooth violet and the claytonia, yet the first hepaticas, where +the two plants grow side by side, bloom about a week before the first +violet. And I have yet to find one that has an odor that could be +called a perfume. A handful of them, indeed, has a faint, bitterish +smell, not unlike that of the dandelion in quality; but if every +flower that has a smell is sweet-scented, then every bird that makes a +noise is a songster. + +On the occasion above referred to, I also dissented from Lowell's +statement, in "Al Fresco," that in early summer the dandelion blooms, +in general, with the buttercup and the clover. I am aware that such +criticism of the poets is small game, and not worth the powder. +General truth, and not specific fact, is what we are to expect of the +poets. Bryant's "Yellow Violet" poem is tender and appropriate, and +such as only a real lover and observer of nature could feel or +express; and Lowell's "Al Fresco" is full of the luxurious feeling of +early summer, and this is, of course, the main thing; a good reader +cares for little else; I care for little else myself. But when you +take your coin to the assay office it must be weighed and tested, and +in the comments referred to I (unwisely perhaps) sought to smelt this +gold of the poets in the naturalist's pot, to see what alloy of error +I could detect in it. Were the poems true to their last word? They +were not, and much subsequent investigation has only confirmed my +first analysis. The general truth is on my side, and the specific +fact, if such exists in this case, on the side of the poets. It is +possible that there may be a fragrant yellow violet, as an exceptional +occurrence, like that of the sweet-scented, arrow-leaved species above +referred to, and that in some locality it may have bloomed before the +hepatica; also that Lowell may have seen a belated dandelion or two in +June, amid the clover and the buttercups; but, if so, they were the +exception, and not the rule,--the specific or accidental fact, and not +the general truth. + +Dogmatism about nature, or about anything else, very often turns out +to be an ungrateful cur that bites the hand that reared it. I speak +from experience. I was once quite certain that the honey-bee did not +work upon the blossoms of the trailing arbutus, but while walking in +the woods one April day I came upon a spot of arbutus swarming with +honey-bees. They were so eager for it that they crawled under the +leaves and the moss to get at the blossoms, and refused on the instant +the hive-honey which I happened to have with me, and which I offered +them. I had had this flower under observation more than twenty years, +and had never before seen it visited by honey-bees. The same season I +saw them for the first time working upon the flower of bloodroot and +of adder's-tongue. Hence I would not undertake to say again what +flowers bees do not work upon. Virgil implies that they work upon the +violet, and for aught I know they may. I have seen them very busy on +the blossoms of the white oak, though this is not considered a honey +or pollen yielding tree. From the smooth sumac they reap a harvest in +midsummer, and in March they get a good grist of pollen from the +skunk-cabbage. + +I presume, however, it would be safe to say that there is a species of +smilax with an unsavory name that the bee does not visit, _herbacea_. +The production of this plant is a curious freak of nature. I find it +growing along the fences where one would look for wild roses or the +sweetbrier; its recurving or climbing stem, its glossy, deep-green, +heart-shaped leaves, its clustering umbels of small greenish-yellow +flowers, making it very pleasing to the eye; but to examine it closely +one must positively hold his nose. It would be too cruel a joke to +offer it to any person not acquainted with it to smell. It is like the +vent of a charnel-house. It is first cousin to the trilliums, among +the prettiest of our native wild flowers, and the same bad blood crops +out in the purple trillium or birthroot. + +Nature will include the disagreeable and repulsive also. I have seen +the phallic fungus growing in June under a rosebush. There was the +rose, and beneath it, springing from the same mould, was this +diabolical offering to Priapus. With the perfume of the roses into the +open window came the stench of this hideous parody, as if in mockery. +I removed it, and another appeared in the same place shortly +afterward. The earthman was rampant and insulting. Pan is not dead +yet. At least he still makes a ghastly sign here and there in nature. + +The good observer of nature exists in fragments, a trait here and a +trait there. Each person sees what it concerns him to see. The +fox-hunter knows pretty well the ways and habits of the fox, but on +any other subject he is apt to mislead you. He comes to see only fox +traits in whatever he looks upon. The bee-hunter will follow the bee, +but lose the bird. The farmer notes what affects his crops and his +earnings, and little else. Common people, St. Pierre says, observe +without reasoning, and the learned reason without observing. If one +could apply to the observation of nature the sense and skill of the +South American _rastreador_, or trailer, how much he would track home! +This man's eye, according to the accounts of travelers, is keener than +a hound's scent. A fugitive can no more elude him than he can elude +fate. His perceptions are said to be so keen that the displacement of +a leaf or pebble, or the bending down of a spear of grass, or the +removal of a little dust from the fence are enough to give him the +clew. He sees the half-obliterated footprints of a thief in the sand, +and carries the impression in his eye till a year afterward, when he +again detects the same footprint in the suburbs of a city, and the +culprit is tracked home and caught. I knew a man blind from his youth +who not only went about his own neighborhood without a guide, turning +up to his neighbor's gate or door as unerringly as if he had the best +of eyes, but who would go many miles on an errand to a new part of the +country. He seemed to carry a map of the township in the bottom of his +feet, a most minute and accurate survey. He never took the wrong road, +and he knew the right house when he had reached it. He was a miller +and fuller, and ran his mill at night while his sons ran it by day. He +never made a mistake with his customers' bags or wool, knowing each +man's by the sense of touch. He frightened a colored man whom he +detected stealing, as if he had seen out of the back of his head. Such +facts show one how delicate and sensitive a man's relation to outward +nature through his bodily senses may become. Heighten it a little +more, and he could forecast the weather and the seasons, and detect +hidden springs and minerals. A good observer has something of this +delicacy and quickness of perception. All the great poets and +naturalists have it. Agassiz traces the glaciers like a _rastreador_; +and Darwin misses no step that the slow but tireless gods of physical +change have taken, no matter how they cross or retrace their course. +In the obscure fish-worm he sees an agent that has kneaded and +leavened the soil like giant hands. + +One secret of success in observing nature is capacity to take a hint; +a hair may show where a lion is hid. One must put this and that +together, and value bits and shreds. Much alloy exists with the truth. +The gold of nature does not look like gold at the first glance. It +must be smelted and refined in the mind of the observer. And one must +crush mountains of quartz and wash hills of sand to get it. To know +the indications is the main matter. People who do not know the secret +are eager to take a walk with the observer to find where the mine is +that contains such nuggets, little knowing that his ore-bed is but a +gravel-heap to them. How insignificant appear most of the facts which +one sees in his walks, in the life of the birds, the flowers, the +animals, or in the phases of the landscape, or the look of the +sky!--insignificant until they are put through some mental or +emotional process and their true value appears. The diamond looks like +a pebble until it is cut. One goes to Nature only for hints and half +truths. Her facts are crude until you have absorbed them or +translated them. Then the ideal steals in and lends a charm in spite +of one. It is not so much what we see as what the thing seen suggests. +We all see about the same; to one it means much, to another little. A +fact that has passed through the mind of man, like lime or iron that +has passed through his blood, has some quality or property superadded +or brought out that it did not possess before. You may go to the +fields and the woods, and gather fruit that is ripe for the palate +without any aid of yours, but you cannot do this in science or in art. +Here truth must be disentangled and interpreted,--must be made in the +image of man. Hence all good observation is more or less a refining +and transmuting process, and the secret is to know the crude material +when you see it. I think of Wordsworth's lines:-- + + "The mighty world + Of eye and ear, both what they half create and what perceive;" + +which is as true in the case of the naturalist as of the poet; both +"half create" the world they describe. Darwin does something to his +facts as well as Tennyson to his. Before a fact can become poetry, it +must pass through the heart or the imagination of the poet; before it +can become science, it must pass through the understanding of the +scientist. Or one may say, it is with the thoughts and half thoughts +that the walker gathers in the woods and fields, as with the common +weeds and coarser wild flowers which he plucks for a bouquet,--wild +carrot, purple aster, moth mullein, sedge, grass, etc.: they look +common and uninteresting enough there in the fields, but the moment he +separates them from the tangled mass, and brings them indoors, and +places them in a vase, say of some choice glass, amid artificial +things,--behold, how beautiful! They have an added charm and +significance at once; they are defined and identified, and what was +common and familiar becomes unexpectedly attractive. The writer's +style, the quality of mind he brings, is the vase in which his +commonplace impressions and incidents are made to appear so beautiful +and significant. + +Man can have but one interest in nature, namely, to see himself +reflected or interpreted there; and we quickly neglect both poet and +philosopher who fail to satisfy, in some measure, this feeling. + + + The Riverside Press + + _Electrotyped and printed by H. O. Houghton & Co._ + _Cambridge, Mass., U. S. A._ + + + + + Books by John Burroughs. + + + WORKS. 14 vols., uniform, 16mo, gilt top, $17.10; half calf, $34.10; + half polished morocco, $37.45. + WAKE-ROBIN. + WINTER SUNSHINE. + LOCUSTS AND WILD HONEY. + FRESH FIELDS. + INDOOR STUDIES. + BIRDS AND POETS, with Other Papers. + PEPACTON, and Other Sketches. + SIGNS AND SEASONS. + RIVERBY. + WHITMAN: A STUDY. + THE LIGHT OF DAY: Religious Discussions and Criticisms from the + Standpoint of a Naturalist. + Each of the above, $1.25. + LITERARY VALUES. A Series of literary Essays. + FAR AND NEAR. + WAYS OF NATURE. + Each of the above, $1.10, _net_. Postage extra. + + WAYS OF NATURE. _Riverside Edition._ 12mo, $1.50, _net_. + Postage extra. + + FAR AND NEAR. _Riverside Edition._ 12mo, $1.50, _net_. + Postage 11 cents. + + A YEAR IN THE FIELDS. Selections appropriate to each season of + the year, from the writings of John Burroughs. Illustrated from + Photographs by CLIFTON JOHNSON. 12mo, $1.50. + + WHITMAN: A Study. _Riverside Edition._ 12mo, $1.50, _net_. + + THE LIGHT OF DAY: Religious Discussions and Criticisms from the + Standpoint of a Naturalist. _Riverside Edition._ 12mo, $1.50, _net_. + + LITERARY VALUES. _Riverside Edition._ 12mo, $1.50, _net_. + Postage, 11 cents. + + WINTER SUNSHINE. _Cambridge Classics Series._ Crown 8vo, $1.00. + + WAKE-ROBIN. _Riverside Aldine Series._ 16mo, $1.00. + + SQUIRRELS AND OTHER FUR-BEARERS. Illustrated. Square 12mo, $1.00. + _School Edition_, 60 cents, _net_. + + + HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN AND COMPANY + BOSTON AND NEW YORK + + + + + TRANSCRIBER'S NOTES + + +1. Passages in italics are surrounded by _underscores_. + +2. Images have been moved from the middle of a paragraph to the +closest paragraph break. + +3. The words phoebe and Oenothera use oe ligature in the original. + +4. 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