CONCORD 
1892 
December 15 
To Concord by 8.03 train. (i) drove to the 
Buttricks’ from the station and launching my "Stella Maris" 
canoe started down river at 10.30. [Landed at Dakin's Hill 
and walked to Holden's, then returning paddled to Ball’s 
Hill where I opened my cabin at about noon and spent an hour 
or more cooking and ea.ting dinner after which Holden 
arrived and together we went to his wooded hills where we 
staked the bounds of my recent ourchase. I then crossed 
the fields to Bensen’s house and from there returned to my 
cabin through the pine woods and swamp. At 4 P. M. I 
started up river and after talcing tea at the Buttricks’ 
took the 6 P. M. train for Cambridgerj 
Although the sky was gray and lowering and the 
woods and fields sloppy with melting snow, the river, calm 
all day, and the meadow views, veiled in a delicate smoke- 
gray haze, were very attractive, and pleasing after the 
oustle of any city home. Birds appeared unusually numerous 
for the season, probably because the mild weather tempted 
them out of the woods to the thickets and isolated trees 
along the river or partly, perhaps, because the still, damp 
air Drought the sound of their voices from exceptionally 
great distances. I heard or sawRed-shouldered Hawk (a 
fine adult perched in a tree over the river), five or six 
Blue Jays, a flock of five Tree Sparrows, three small parties 
of Chickadees, a single Crow (sitting in an oak on the meadows) 
