THE PONDS. 
191 
the air, as well as downward into this element which 
was scarcely more dense. Thus I caught two fishes as 
it were with one hook. 
The scenery of Walden is on a humble scale, and, 
though very beautiful, does not approach to grandeur, 
nor can it much concern one who has not long fre¬ 
quented it or lived by its shore; yet this pond is so 
remarkable for its depth and purity as to merit a par¬ 
ticular description. It is a clear and deep green well, 
half a mile long and a mile and three quarters in cir¬ 
cumference, and contains about sixty-one a^id a half 
acres ; a perennial spring in the midst of pine and oak 
woods, without any visible inlet or outlet except by the 
clouds and evaporation. The surrounding hills rise 
abruptly from the water to the height of forty to eighty 
feet, though on the south-east and east they attain to 
about one hundred and one hundred and fifty feet re¬ 
spectively, within a quarter and a third of a mile. 
They are exclusively woodland. All our Concord wa¬ 
ters have two colors at least, one when viewed at a dis¬ 
tance, and another, more proper, close at hand. The 
first depends more on the light, and follows the sky. In 
clear weather, in summer, they appear blue at a little 
distance, especially if agitated, and at a great distance 
all appear alike. In stormy weather they are some¬ 
times of a dark slate color. The sea, however, is said 
to be blue one day and green another without any per¬ 
ceptible change in the atmosphere. I have seen our 
river, when, the landscape being covered with snow, 
both water and ice were almost as green as grass. 
Some consider blue “to be the color of pure water, 
