96 EARLY SPRING IN MASSACHUSETTS. 
on the water with a slanting flight, launch 
themselves, and sail along so stately. The 
pieces of ice, large and small, drifting along, 
help to conceal them. In the spaces of still, 
open water I see the reflection of the hills and 
woods, which for so long I have not seen, and 
it gives expression to the face of nature. The 
face of nature is lit up by these reflections in 
still water in the spring. Sometimes you see 
only the top of a distant hill reflected far with¬ 
in the meadow, where a dull, gray field of ice 
intervenes between the water and the shore. 
March 9, 1855. P. M. To Andromeda 
Ponds. Scare up a rabbit on the hillside by 
these ponds which was gnawing a smooth su¬ 
mach. See also where they have gnawed the 
red maple, sweet fern, Populus grandidentata , 
white and other oaks (taking off considera¬ 
ble twigs at four or five cuts), amelanchier, 
and sallow. But they seem to prefer the 
smooth sumach to any of them. With this 
variety of cheap diet they are not likely to 
starve. The rabbit, indeed, lives, but the su¬ 
mach may be killed. I get a few drops of the 
sweet red-maple juice which has run down the 
main stem where a rabbit has nibbled a twig 
off close. 
The heart-wood of the poison dog-wood, 
when I break it down with my hand, has a 
