34 EARLY SPRING IN MASSACHUSETTS. 
aspens pretty generally. As I go through the 
cut it is still warm, and more or less sunny, 
spring-like (about 40°) ; and the sand and red¬ 
dish subsoil is bare for about a rod in width 
on the railroad. I hear several times the fine¬ 
drawn phe-be note of the chickadee, which I 
heard only once during the winter.It is 
remarkable that though I have not been able 
to find any open place in the river almost all 
winter, except under the further stone bridge 
and at Loring’s Pond, this winter so remarka¬ 
ble for ice and snow, yet C-s should (as he 
says) have killed two sheldrakes at the falls of 
the factory, a place which I had forgotten, — 
some four or six weeks ago; singular that this 
hardy bird should have found that small open¬ 
ing which I had forgotten, while the ice every¬ 
where else was from one to two feet thick, and 
the snow sixteen inches on a level. If there is 
a crack amid the rocks of some waterfall, this 
bright diver is sure to know it. Ask the shel¬ 
drake whether the rivers are completely sealed 
up. 
March 1, 1860. I have thoughts, as I walk, 
on some subject that is running in my head, 
but all their pertinence seems gone before I can 
get home to set them down. The most valu¬ 
able thoughts which I entertain are anything 
but what I thought. Nature abhors a vacuum, 
