Concord, Mass.
1896
October 12
  Cloudy with strong N.E. winds.
  I spent the forenoon in the burned woods near
Goose Pond. The fire, which occurred about the middle 
of last May [May 5] when I was at Umbagog, was the most
destructive ever known in Concord not only in respect
to the area (said to be 1000 acres) but also 
in the thoroughness with which it did its work. The
woods were as dry as tinder and the wind was blowing
a gale from the south-west. These conditions so fanned
the flames that they not only destroyed the undergrowth
but in most places the trunks of the trees were burned
to their very tops. A forest of charcoal alone remains.
As far as the eye can reach to the west and north of
Goose Pond the blackened stems, grim and forbidding,
cover the hills and hollows. Many of the trees have
not sent up any sprouts and but few of them
put out any leaves during the summer. They are
so completely charred that the farmers say there will
be practically no foliage & in many places the land
itself has been ruined. The only successful efforts which 
nature seems to have made to repair the general
ruin is in the growth of asters, grass and 
Roman wormwood which has sprung up very generally
throughout the woods. (I sold the whole of my land at Goose Pond in January 1897)
  In the burned tract I saw Chickadees, Creepers &
a large flock of Juncos.
  In the afternoon I went to Ball's Hill by river.
There was much firing on the meadows & I learned
afterwards that over thirty Snipe were killed there
to-day, twenty one by one man.