EARLY SPRING IN MASSACHUSETTS. 7 
executed engravings of some old broken shells 
picked up on the road. 
There are several men of whose comings and 
goings the town knows little, — I mean the 
trappers. They may be seen coming from the 
woods and river, perhaps with nothing in their 
hands, and you do not suspect what they have 
been about. They go about their business in a 
stealthy manner for fear that any should see 
where they set their traps, for the fur-trade 
still flourishes here. Every year they visit 
the out-of-the-way swamps and meadows and 
brooks to set and examine their traps for mus¬ 
quash and mink, and the owners of the land 
commonly know nothing of it. But few as 
the trappers are here, it seems by G—’s 
accounts that they steal one another’s traps. 
All the criticism I got on my lecture on 
“ Autumnal Tints at Worcester,” on the 22d, 
was that I presumed my audience had not seen 
so much of them as they had. But after read¬ 
ing it I am more than ever convinced that they 
have not seen much of them, that there are 
very few persons who do see much of nature. 
February 25,1860. The fields of open water 
amid the thin ice of the meadows are the spec¬ 
tacle to-day. They are especially dark blue 
when I look southwest. Has it anything to 
do with the direction of the wind ? It is pleas- 
