BIRDS OF THE CAMBRIDGE REGION. 31 



In Spring they lie one broad expanse of green, 

 O'er which the light winds run with glimmering feet : 



Here, yellower stripes track out the creek unseen. 

 There, darker growths o'er hidden ditches meet ; 



And purpler stains show where the blossoms crowd. 



As if the silent shadow of a cloud 

 Hung tliere becalmed, with tlie next breath to fleet. 



In Summer 'tis a blithesome sight to see, 

 As, step by step, with measured swing, they pass. 



The wide-ranked mowers wading to the knee. 

 Their sharp scythes panting through the wiry grass ; 



Another change subdues them in the Fall, 

 But saddens not ; tliey still show menier tints, 

 Thoui;h sober russet seems to cover all ; 



But crowned in turn by ^ying seasons three. 

 Their winter halo hath a fuller ring ; 



This glory seems to rest immovably, — 

 The others were too fleet and vanishing : 



When the hid tide is at its highest flow, 



O'er marsh and stream one breatliless trance of snow 

 Willi brooding fulness awes and hushes everything. 



Lowell. — An Indian-summer Reverie. 



The tidal reaches of Charles River above the Basin have changed strik- 

 ingly in general aspect within my personal recollection. I can remember when 

 they were bordered on both sides, nearly all the way from Cambridgeport to 

 the W'atertown Arsenal, by salt or brackish marshes. These must have been 

 practically continuous, originally, for most of the hard, dry ground that comes 

 to the water's edge is evidently filled land. Very little of it had been built 

 upon prior to 1870, excepting in the neighborhood of Har\^ard Square and of 

 the several bridges, where there were a few houses and a number of coal and 

 lumber wharves. In Cambridgeport the marshes stretched uninterruptedly 

 along the northern shore of the river — or rather of its expansion, the Back 

 Bay — from West Boston Bridge to Brookline Bridge and beyond. Between 

 these bridges they were more than a mile in length and from one to several 

 hundred yards in width. Save for the presence of a railroad embankment, 

 which crossed them from east to west, they showed here no obvious defacement 



