276 EARLY SPRING IN MASSACHUSETTS. 
and abundant, all surrounded and hemmed in 
by snow which has covered the ground since 
Christmas, and stretches as far as you can see 
on every side. The spring advances in spite of 
snow and ice and cold even. The ground un¬ 
der the snow has long since felt the influence of 
the spring sun whose rays fell at a more favor¬ 
able angie. The tufts or tussocks next the 
edge of the snow were crowned with dense 
phalanxes of spears of the stiff, triangularish 
sedge grass five inches high, but quite yellow, 
with a very slight greenness at the tip, showing 
that they pushed up through the snow, and, 
though it had melted, had not yet acquired 
color. In warm recesses in meadows and clefts, 
in rocks in the midst of ice and snow, nay, even 
under the snow, vegetation commences and 
steadily advances. 
March 30, 1858. P. M. To my boat at Car¬ 
dinal Shore and thence to Lee’s Cliff. 
Landing at Bittern Cliff I went round through 
the woods to get sight of ducks on the pond. 
Creeping down through the woods I reached 
the rocks and saw fifteen or twenty sheldrakes 
scattered about. The full-plumaged males, con¬ 
spicuously black and white, and often swim¬ 
ming in pairs, appeared to be the most wary, 
keeping farthest out. Others, with much less 
white, and duller black, were very busily fishing 
