Page:Summer - from the Journal of Henry D. Thoreau.djvu/292

282 crow hoarsely, ushering in the long-drawn, summer-day.

An abundance of red lilies in an up land dry meadow, from one to two feet high, upright-flowered, more or less dark shade of red, freckled and sometimes wrinkle-edged petals. Must have been out some days. This has come with the intense summer heat, a torrid July heat. The spring now seems far behind, yet I do not remember the interval; I feel as if some broad, invisible, Lethean gulf lay between this and spring.

July 2, 1855. Young bobolinks are now fluttering over the meadow, but I have not been able to find a nest, so concealed are they in the meadow grass.

At 2 Thermometer north side of house, 93°.

Air over river at Hubbard s bathing-place, 88°.

Water six feet, from shore and one foot deep, $84 1⁄2$°.

Water near surface in middle when up to neck, $83 1⁄2$°.

Water at bottom in same place, pulling [thermometer] up quickly, $83 1⁄2$°.

Yet the air on the wet body, there being a strong southwest wind, feels colder than the water.