Journal 02, 1850-September 15, 1851: The Writings of Henry David Thoreau, Volume 08 (of 20)Thoreau, Henry David
Religion
Journal 02, 1850-September 15, 1851: The Writings of Henry David Thoreau, Volume 08 (of 20)
Thoreau, Henry David
Authors, American -- 19th century -- Diaries; Thoreau, Henry David, 1817-1862 -- Diaries
There is a beautiful fine wild grass which grows in the path in sprout
land, now dry, white, and waving, in light beds soft to the touch.
I experience such an interior comfort, far removed from the sense
of cold, as if the thin atmosphere were rarefied by heat, were the
medium of invisible flames, as if the whole landscape were one great
hearthside, that where the shrub oak leaves rustle on the hillside, I
seem to hear a crackling fire and see the pure flame, and I wonder that
the dry leaves do not blaze into yellow flames.
I find but little change yet on the south side of the Cliffs; only the
leaves of the wild apple are a little frostbitten on their edges and
curled dry there; but some wild cherry leaves and blueberries are still
fresh and tender green and red, as well as all the other leaves and
plants which I noticed there the other day.
When I got up so high on the side of the Cliff the sun was setting
like an Indian-summer sun. There was a purple tint in the horizon. It
was warm on the face of the rocks, and I could have sat till the sun
disappeared, to dream there. It was a mild sunset such as is to be
attended to. Just as the sun shines into us warmly and serenely, our
Creator breathes on us and re-creates us.
_Nov. 26._ An inch of snow on ground this morning,—our first.
Went to-night to see the Indians, who are still living in tents. Showed
the horns of the moose, the black moose they call it, that goes in
lowlands. Horns three or four feet wide. (The red moose they say is
another kind; runs on mountains and has horns six feet wide.) Can move
their horns. The broad, flat side portions of the horns are covered
with hair, and are so soft when the creature is alive that you can run
a knife through them.[98] They color the lower portions a darker color
by rubbing them on alders, etc., to harden them. Make _kee-nong-gun_
or pappoose cradle, of the broad part of the horn, putting a rim on
it. Once scared, will run all day. A dog will hang to their lips and be
carried along and swung against a tree and drop off. Always find two or
three together. Can’t run on glare ice, but can run in snow four feet
deep. The caribou can run on ice.[99] Sometimes spear them with a sharp
pole, sometimes with a knife at the end of a pole. Signs, good or bad,
from the turn of the horns. Their caribou-horns had been gnawed by mice
in their wigwams. The moose-horns and others are not gnawed by mice
while the creature is alive. Moose cover themselves with water, all but
noses, to escape flies.[100] About as many now as fifty years ago.
Imitated the sounds of the moose, caribou, and deer with a birch-bark
horn, which last they sometimes make very long. The moose can be heard
eight or ten miles sometimes,—a loud sort of bellowing sound, clearer,
more sonorous than the looing of cattle. The caribou’s, a sort of
snort; the small deer, like a lamb.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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