the Thoreau Log.
11 January 1854. Concord, Mass.

Thoreau writes in his journal:

  Thick fog in the night. The trees, accordingly, now white with hoary frost, just as the frost forms on a man’s beard or about a horse’s mouth.

  P.M.—To Cliffs and Walden.

  The north side of all stubble, weeds, and trees, and the whole forest is covered with a hoar frost a quarter to a half inch deep. It is easily shaken off. The air is still full of mist. No snow has fallen, but, as it were, the vapor has been caught by the trees like a cobweb. The trees are bright hoary forms, the ghosts of trees. In fact, the warm breath of the earth is frozen on its beard. Closely examined or at a distance, it is just like the sheaf-like forms of vegetation . . .

(Journal, 6:62-65)

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