5 February 1855 – 11 February 1855

It was quite cold last evening, and I saw the scuttle window reflecting the lamp from a myriad brilliant points when I went up to bed. It sparkled as if we lived inside of a cave, but this morning it has moderated considerably and is snowing. Already one inch of snow has fallen. According to Webster, in Welsh a hare is “furze or gorse-cat.” Also, “Chuk, a word used in calling swine. It is the original name of that animal, which our an- cestors brought with them from Persia, where it is still in use. Pers. chuk,” etc. “Sans. sugara. Our ancestors while in England adopted the Welsh hwe, hog; but chuck is retained in our popular name of wood- chuck, that is, wood hog.” In a journal it is important in a few words to describe the weather, or character of the day, as it affects our feelings. That which was so important at the time cannot be unimportant to remember.

The coldest morning this winter. Our thermometer stands at —14° at 9 a. m.; others, we » hear, at 6 a. m. stood at —18°, at Gorham, N. H., —30°. There are no loiterers in the street, and the wheels of wood wagons squeak as they have not for a long time, —actually shriek. Frostwork keeps its place on the window within three feet of the stove all day in my chamber. At 4 p. m. the thermometer is at —10°; at six it is at — 14°. | I was walking at five, and found it stinging cold. It stung the face. When I look out at the chimneys, I see that the cold and hungry air snaps up the smoke at once. The smoke 1s clear and light-colored and does not get far into the air before it is dissipated (? ), con- densed. ‘The setting sun no sooner leaves our west windows than a solid but beautiful crystallization coats them, except perhaps a triangularish bare spot at one corner, which perhaps the sun has warmed and dried. (I believe the saying is that by the Ist of Feb- ruary the meal and grain for a horse are half out.) A solid sparkling field in the midst of each pane, with broad, flowing sheaves surrounding it. It has been a very mild as well as open winter up to this. At 9 o'clock p. M., thermometer at — 16°. They say it did not rise above — 6° to-day.

Commenced snowing last evening about 7 o’clock, —a fine, dry snow, —and this morning it is about six inches deep and still snows a little. Continues to snow finely all day.

Snowed harder in the night and blowed considerably. It is somewhat drifted this morning. A very fine and dry snow, about a foot deep on a level. It stands on the top of our pump about ten inches deep, almost a perfect hemisphere, or half of an ellipse. It snows finely all day, making about twice as much as we have had on the ground before this winter.

P. M. — To Walden. A fine, clear day. There is a glare of light from the fresh, unstained surface of the snow, so that it pains the eyes to travel toward the sun. I go across Walden. My shadow is very blue. It is especially blue when there is a bright sunlight on pure white snow. It suggests that there may be some- thing divine, something celestial, in me. Silas Hosmer tells me that a wild deer was killed in Northboro this winter. In many places the edges of drifts are sharp and curving, almost a complete circle, —s reflecting a blue color from within like blue-tinted shells. I hear the faint metallic chirp of a tree sparrow in the yard from time to time, or perchance the mew of a linaria. It is worth the while to let some pigweed grow in your garden, if only to attract these winter visitors. It would be a pity to have these weeds burned in the fall. Of the former I see in the winter but three or four commonly at a time; of the latter, large flocks. This in and after considerable snow-storms. Since this deeper snow, the landscape is in some re- spects more wintry than before; the rivers and roads are more concealed than they have been, and billows of snow succeed each other across the fields and roads, like an ocean waste.

P. M.—To J. Dugan’s via Tommy Wheeler’s. The atmosphere is very blue, tingeing the distant pine woods. The dog scared up some partridges out of the soft snow under the apple trees in the Tommy Wheeler orchard. Smith’s thermometer early this morning at — 22°; ours at 8 a. M. — 10°.