65
Concord, Mass.
1898.
April 27
  Cold last night with heavy white frost & slightly frozen
ground early this morning. Forenoon brilliantly clear.
Afternoon cloudy. A violent & most piercing S. wind
blowing all day.
  Spent the forenoon in the woods and fields near
Ball's Hill. In the afternoon sailed to Concord
(using an umbrella) and then paddled up the
Assabet to Angu's [sic] [Angus'] Mill in search of some slabs
for the new cabin. The Assabet is unchanged save
for the recent cutting of the f[?]s & remarkably 
tall grey birches in the swamp above the hemlocks.
  Started back at 5.45 and reached the cabin just
an hour later, paddling all the way. The water
 is now almost at maximum spring pitch and the
current is very strong. The wind blowing against
it raised a really ugly sea in places. Very few 
birds singing. My hands were particularly numb with
the cold 'ere I reached the cabin.
  Despite the cold weather I noted two animals to-day,
a Parula Warbler that sang for half-an-hour or more
near the cabin this forenoon and a Spotted Sandpiper
at Dakin's Hill at evening.
  Just after leaving Angus' brook on my return I saw
a curious looking object crossing the Assabet about 30 yds.
ahead. It proved to be a pair of Muskrats engaged in 
copulation. There were two periods of sexual contact each
lasting about half-a-minute. During their continuance
the female kept on swimming steadily across the swift
[margin]Muskrats
in sexual
union.[/margin]