EARLY SPRING IN MASSACHUSETTS. 101 
evergreen, like the buttercup now beginning to 
start. Methinks the first obvious evidence of 
spring is the pushing out of the swamp willow 
catkins, the pushing up of skunk cabbage 
spathes, and pads at the bottom of water. 
This is the order I am inclined to, though, per¬ 
haps any of these may take precedence of all 
the rest in any particular case. What is that 
dark pickle-green alga (?) at the bottom of this 
ditch, looking somewhat like a decaying cress, 
with fruit like a lichen ? 
At Nut Meadow Brook Crossing we rest 
awhile on the rail gazing into the eddying 
stream. The ripple marks on the sandy bot¬ 
tom where silver spangles shine in the sun 
with black wrecks of caddis casts lodged under 
each, the shadows of the invisible dimples re¬ 
flecting prismatic colors on the bottom, the 
minnows already stemming the current with 
restless, wiggling tails, ever and anon darting 
aside, probably to secure some invisible mote 
in the water, whose shadows we do not at first 
detect on the sandy bottom, though, when de¬ 
tected, they are so much more obvious as well 
as larger and more interesting than the sub¬ 
stance, in which each fin is distinctly seen, 
though scarcely to be detected in the substance, 
these are all very beautiful and exhilarating 
sights, a sort of diet drink to heal our winter 
