BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF THOREAU. 19 



a bird in brandy. He liked to speak of the manners 

 of the river, as itself a lawful creature, yet with exact 

 ness, and always to an observed fact. As he knew 

 the river, so the ponds in this region. 



One of the weapons he used, more important than 

 microscope or alcohol-receiver to other investigators, 

 was a whim which grew on him by indulgence, yet 

 appeared in gravest statement, namely, of extolling 

 his own town and neighborhood as the most favored 

 centre for natural observation. He remarked that the 

 flora of Massachusetts embraced almost all the impor 

 tant plants of America, most of the oaks, most of 

 the willows, the best pines, the ash, the maple, the 

 beech, the nuts. He returned Kane s &quot; Arctic Voy 

 age &quot; to a friend of whom he had borrowed it, with 

 the remark that &quot; most of the phenomena noted might 

 be observed in Concord.&quot; He seemed a little envious 

 of the Pole, for the coincident sunrise and sunset, or 

 five minutes day after six months : a splendid fact, 

 which Annursnuc l had never afforded him. He 

 found red snow in one of his walks, and told me that 

 he expected to find yet the Victoria regia in Concord. 

 He was the attorney of the indigenous plants, and 

 owned to a preference of the weeds to the imported 

 plants, as of the Indian to the civilized man; and 

 noticed with pleasure that the willow bean-poles of 

 his neighbor had grown more than his beans. &quot; See 

 these weeds,&quot; he said, &quot; which have been hoed at by a 

 million farmers all spring and summer, and yet have 

 prevailed, and just now come out triumphant over all 

 lanes, pastures, fields, and gardens, such is their vigor. 

 We have insulted them with low names, too, as Pig 

 weed, Wormwood, Chickweed, Shad-Blossom.&quot; He 

 1 A hill in Concord on the border of Acton. 



