158 EARLY SPRING IN MASSACHUSETTS. 
to be due to moisture more than direct heat. 
It is not on bare, dry banks, but in hollows 
where the snow melts last, that it is most con¬ 
spicuous. 
March 17, 1855. See now along the edge of 
the river, the ice being gone, many fresh heaps 
of clam-shells which were opened by the mus¬ 
quash when the water was higher, about some 
tree where the ground rises. And in very many 
places you see where they formed new burrows 
into the bank, the sand being pushed out into 
the stream about the entrance, which is still be¬ 
low water, and you feel the ground undermined 
as you walk. 
March 17, 1857. These days, beginning with 
the 14th, more spring-like. I hear the note of 
the woodpecker from the elms, that early note. 
Launch my boat. No mortal is alert enough 
to be present at the first dawn of the spring, 
but he will presently discover some evidence 
that vegetation had awaked some days at least 
before. Early as I have looked this year, per¬ 
haps the first unquestionable growth of an in¬ 
digenous plant detected was the fine tips of grass 
blades which the frost had killed, floating pale 
and placid, though still attached to their stems, 
spotting the pools like a slight fall or flurry of 
dull-colored snow-flakes. After a few mild and 
sunny days, even in February, the grass in still 
