the Thoreau Log.
19 December 1856. Concord, Mass.

Thoreau writes in his journal:

  Knew the road by some yellow birch trees in a swamp and some rails set on end around a white oak in a pasture. These it seems were the objects I had noticed. In Nashua observed, as I thought, some elms in the distance which had been whitewashed. It turned out that they were covered from top to bottom, on one side, with the frozen vapor from a fall on the canal. Walked a little way along the bank of the Merrimack, which was frozen over, and was agreeably reminded of my voyage up it . . .

  Got home at 1.30 P.M.

  P. M.—To Walden.

Walden froze completely over last night. This is very sudden, for on the evening of the, 15th there was not a particle of ice in it . In just three days, then, it has been completely frozen over, and the ice is now from two and a half to three inches thick, a transparent green ice, through which I see the bottom where it is seven or eight feet deep. I detect its thickness by looking at the cracks, which are already very numerous . . .

(Journal, 9:188-192)

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