310 
WALDEN. 
intersected the line of greatest breadth exactly at the 
point of greatest depth, notwithstanding that the mid¬ 
dle is so nearly level, the outline of the pond far from 
regular, and the extreme length and breadth were got 
by measuring into the coves ; and I said to myself, Who 
knows but this hint would conduct to the deepest part of 
the ocean as well as of a pond or puddle ? Is not this 
the rule also for the height of mountains, regarded as the 
opposite of valleys ? We know that a hill is not high¬ 
est at its narrowest part. 
Of five coves, three, or all which had been sounded, 
were observed to have a bar quite across their mouths 
and deeper water within, so that the bay tended to be 
an expansion of water within the land not only horizon¬ 
tally but vertically, and to form a basin or independent 
pond, the direction of the two capes showing the course 
of the bar. Every harbor on the sea-coast, also, has 
its bar at its entrance. In proportion as the mouth of 
the cove was wider compared with its length, the water 
over the bar was deeper compared with that in the 
basin. Given, then, the length and breadth of the cove, 
and the character of the surrounding shore, and you 
have almost elements enough to make out a formula for 
all cases. 
In order to see how nearly I could guess, with this 
experience, at the deepest point in a pond, by observing 
the outlines of its surface and the character of its shores 
alone, I made a plan of White Pond, which contains 
about forty-one acres, and, like this, has no island in it, 
nor any visible inlet or outlet; and as the line of great¬ 
est breadth fell very near the line of least breadth, 
where two opposite capes approached each other and 
two opposite bays receded, I ventured to mark a point 
