Page:Summer - from the Journal of Henry D. Thoreau.djvu/42

32 inch and a half long, but very orbicular. Its scales very distinct, and, as usual, very finely and distinctly sculptured; but there was no orange on it, only buff or leather color on the sides beneath. So the one of similar rounded form and size, and with distinct scales, but faint yellow spots on back, must have been a young spotted turtle, I think, after all.

June 3, 1857. To White Cedar Swamp I see a branch of Salix lucida which has been broken off, probably by the ice in the winter, and come down from far up stream, and lodged, butt downward, amid some bushes, where it has put forth pink fibres from the butt end in the water, and is growing vigorously, though not rooted in the bottom. Thus detained, it begins to sprout and send its pink fibres down to the mud, and finally the water, getting down to the summer level, leaves it rooted in the bank

The pitch pine at Hemlocks is in bloom. The sterile flowers are yellowish, while those of the Pinus resinosa are dark purple. As usual, when I jar them, the pollen rises in a little cloud about the pistillate flowers and the tops of the twigs, there being a little wind

I have several friends and acquaintances who are very good companions in the house, or for an afternoon walk, but whom I cannot make up