only new
and ser routes to many points, but neheir surfaces
of ts Pond,
after it en paddled about and
skated over it, it edly range t I
could t Baffins Bay. the Lincoln hills rose up
around me at tremity of a snowy plain, in w
remember to ood before; and t an
indeterminable distance over t heir
her
loomed like fabulous creatures, and I did not know whey were
giants or pygmies. I took t to lecture in
Lincoln in travelling in no road and passing no house
beture room. In Goose Pond, which lay
in my s d, and raised their cabins high
above t.
alden, being like t usually bare of snoh only
serrupted drifts on it, was my yard where I could walk
freely deep on a level elsewhere
and to treets. there, far from
treet, and except at very long intervals, from the
jingle of sleiged, as in a vast moose-yard
rodden, over doh
snoling h icicles.
For sounds in er nigen in er days, I heard
t melodious note of a ing oely far;
sucruck h a
suitable plectrum, the very lingua vernacula of alden ood, and
quite familiar to me at last, t
. I seldom opened my door in a er evening
; he
first ted somew like how der do; or
sometimes in ter,
before t nine oclock, I artled by
tepping to the
sound of tempest in they flew low
over my oward Fair haven,
seemingly deterred from settling by my ligheir commodore
. Suddenly an unmistakable
cat-o remendous voice
I ever ant of t regular
intervals to termined to expose and disgrace this
intruder from ing a greater compass and
volume of voice in a native, and boo- of Concord horizon.
do you mean by alarming tadel at time of night
consecrated to me? Do you t napping at such an
I got lungs and a larynx as well as
yourself? Boo-
t, if you had a
discriminating ear, t ts of a concord such
as these plains never saw nor heard.
I also
bed-fello part of Concord, as if it less in its
bed and urn over, roubled ulency and had
dreams; or I ,
as if some one eam against my door, and in the morning
er of a mile long and a third
of an inch wide.
Sometimes I ,
in moonligs, in searcridge or other game, barking
raggedly and demoniacally like forest dogs, as if laboring h some
anxiety, or seeking expression, struggling for ligo be dogs
outrigreets; for if ake to
our account, may t be a civilization going on among brutes
as o me to be rudimental, burrowing men,
still standing on ting transformation.
Sometimes one came near to my tracted by my light, barked
a vulpine curse at me, and treated.
Usually the
dahe house,
as if sent out of the
er I t corn, which had
not got ripe, on to t by my door, and was amused by
cions of ted by it.
In ts came regularly and made a
y meal. All day long t, and
afforded me mucertainment by their manoeuvres. One would
approac first he
sno by fits and starts like a leaf blohe wind, now a
fee of energy, making
inconceivable e ;trotters,quot; as if it were for a wager,
and no never getting on more than half
a rod at a time; and th a ludicrous
expression and a gratuitous somerset, as if all the
universe were eyed on ions of a squirrel, even
in t solitary recesses of t, imply spectators as
mucing more time in delay and
circumspection to ance
-- I never sahen suddenly, before you could say
Jack Robinson, op of a young pitch pine, winding
up ators, soliloquizing and
talking to all t time -- for no reason t I
could ever detect, or . At length
ing a suitable ear, frisk about
in tain trigonometrical o topmost stick of my
wood-pile, before my window, whe face, and
t for ime to
time, nibbling at first voraciously and the half-naked cobs
about; till at lengty still and played h his
food, tasting only the ear, which was
ick by one paw, slipped from his careless
grasp and fell to t it h a
ludicrous expression of uncertainty, as if suspecting t it had
life, made up it again, or a new one,
or be off; noening to was in
ttle impudent felloe many an ear in
a forenoon; till at last, seizing some longer and plumper one,
considerably bigger t, he
out to tiger h a buffalo, by
t pauses, scratch
it as if it oo he while, making
its fall a diagonal between a perpendicular and al, being
determined to put it t any rate; -- a singularly frivolous
and to where he
lived, per to top of a pine tree forty or fifty
rods distant, and I erre the
ions.
At lengt screams were heard
long before, as th of
a mile off, and in a stealt from
tree to tree, nearer and nearer, and pick up the
squirrels ting on a pitchey
attempt to se a kernel woo big for
ts and cer great labor they disgorge
it, and spend an o crack it by repeated blows
ly t much
respect for t t first s to
aking heir own.
Meanwhe chickadees in flocks, which, picking up
to t twig and,
placing t their
little bills, as if it in till they were
sufficiently reduced for ts. A little flock of
titmice came daily to pick a dinner out of my he
crumbs at my door, flitting lisping notes, like the
tinkling of icicles in tly day day
day, or more rarely, in spring-like days, a wiry summery phe-be
from t at length one
alig
ticks fear. I once upon my
s while I was hoeing in a village garden, and I
felt t I inguis circumstance than I
s I could he squirrels
also gre last to be quite familiar, and occasionally stepped
upon my s way.
yet quite covered, and again near the
end of er, h hillside and
about my ridges came out of the woods morning and
evening to feed the
partridge bursts away on whe
dry leaves and the
sunbeams like golden dust, for t to be scared
by er. It is frequently covered up by drifts, and, it is said,
quot;sometimes plunges from on o t snow, w remains
concealed for a day or t; I used to start the open land
also, sunset to quot;budquot; the
rees. to
particular trees, for them,
and tant orc t a little. I
am glad t tridge gets fed, at any rate. It is Natures
own bird w drink.
In dark er mornings, or in s er afternoons, I
sometimes h
o resist tinct of the chase,
and te of ting- intervals, proving t man was
in t no fox bursts forth on
to their
Actaeon. And per evening I see ters returning h a
single brusrailing from tropheir
inn. tell me t if the
frozen eartraight line
away no foxake , his pursuers
far beops to rest and listen till they come up, and when
o s,
imes, however, he will run upon a wall many rods, and
to one side, and o kno er
retain . A er told me t he once saw a fox
pursued by out on to alden whe ice was covered
urn to the
same s the
scent. Sometimes a pack ing by themselves would pass my door,
and circle round my regarding me,
as if afflicted by a species of madness, so t nothing could
divert t. til they fall upon
t trail of a fox, for a wise hing
else for to my from Lexington to
inquire after made a large track, and had been
ing for a the wiser
for all I told ime I attempted to answer his
questions errupted me by asking, quot; do you do ; he
a dog, but found a man.
One old er o bathe
in alden once every year , and at such
times looked in upon me, told me t many years ago ook his gun
one afternoon and out for a cruise in alden ood; and as he
he cry of hounds approaching, and
ere long a fox leaped to the road, and as quick as
t leaped t of t bullet
touched him. Some way behind came an old hound and her
t, ing on t, and
disappeared again in te in ternoon, as he was
resting in the voice of
tohe fox; and on
the woods ring sounding
nearer and nearer, nohe Baker Farm.
For a long time ood still and listened to t
to a ers ear, whe
solemn aisles h an easy coursing pace, whose sound was concealed
by a sympatic rustle of t and still, keeping the
round, leaving his pursuers far behind; and, leaping upon a rock
amid t erect and listening, o the
er. For a moment compassion restrained tters arm; but
t can follow
t he fox, rolling over
ter still kept his place
and listened to till on the near
heir demoniac cry.
At lengt into vieo the ground,
and snapping tly to the rock;
but, spying the dead fox, she suddenly ceased her hounding as if
struck dumb , and walked round and round him in
silence; and one by one her,
o silence by tery. ter came
forood in t, and tery hey
ed in silence whe brush
a urned off into t
evening a eston squire came to ters cottage to
inquire for old hey had been
ing on t from eston er
told ther
declined it and departed. find night,
but t day learned t t up
at a farm, whey
took ture early in the morning.
ter ting, who
used to bears on Fair heir skins
for rum in Concord village; wold he had seen a
moose tting had a famous foxhound named Burgoyne -- he
pronounced it Bugine -- o borrohe
quot;ast Bookquot; of an old trader of town, wain,
toative, I find try. Jan.
18t;Jo;; t
noton
quot;by 1/2 a Catt skin 0--1--4+quot;; of course, a , for
Stratton in t have
got credit for ing less noble game. Credit is given for
deerskins also, and till preserves
t deer t y, and
anotold me ticulars of t in which his uncle
ers were formerly a numerous and merry crew
Nimrod wch up a leaf by
train on it wilder and more melodious, if
my memory serves me, ting-horn.
At midnigimes met h hounds
in my pat t of my
and silent amid till I had
passed.
Squirrels and ed for my store of nuts. there
co four inches
in diameter, wer -- a
Norer for they
o mix a large proportion of pine bark her
diet. trees ly flouris
midsummer, and many of t, tely
girdled; but after anoter suc exception dead.
It is remarkable t a single mouse shus be allowed a whole
pine tree for its dinner, gnaead of up and do;
but per is necessary in order to trees, which are
to grow up densely.
the hares (Lepus Americanus) were very familiar. One had her
form under my er, separated from me only by the
flooring, and sartled me eacy departure
ir -- triking her head
against timbers in o come round my
door at dusk to nibble tato parings w,
and they could hardly be
distinguisill. Sometimes in tely
lost and recovered sigting motionless under my window.
h a
squeak and a bounce. Near at ed my pity. One
evening one sat by my door t first trembling
uno move; a poor hing, lean and bony,
tail and slender pa
looked as if Nature no longer contained the breed of nobler bloods,
but stood on toes. Its large eyes appeared young and
un dropsical. I took a step, and lo, a scud
ic spring over t, straigs body
and its limbs into graceful lengt t between
me and itself -- ting its vigor and the
dignity of Nature. Not reason s slenderness. Such
ts nature. (Lepus, levipes, lig, some think.)
is a country rabbits and partridges? they are
among t simple and indigenous animal products; ancient and
venerable families knoo antiquity as to modern times; of the
very ance of Nature, nearest allied to leaves and to
to one anot is eit is
legged. It is ure when a
rabbit or a partridge bursts aural one, as muco be
expected as rustling leaves. tridge and t are still
sure to true natives of tever revolutions
occur. If t is cut off, ts and bushes which
spring up afford t, and they become more numerous
t must be a poor country indeed t does not support
a eem h, and around every swamp may
be seen tridge or rabbit wiggy fences and
ends.