Page:The first and last journeys of Thoreau - lately discovered among his unpublished journals and manuscripts.djvu/83

 pigeons, which were now moving south, looking for mast—and like ourselves, spending their noon in the shade. It is pleasant to stand in the oak or white pine woods, and hear the slight, aery, winnowing sound of their wings, and their gentle, tremulous cooing. You will frequently discover a single pair in the depths of the wood sitting at noon upon the lower branches of the white pine; so silent and solitary, and with such a hermit-like appearance, as if they had never strayed beyond the skirts of the forest; while the acorn which was gathered in the woods of Maine is still undigested in their crops.

We passed in the late forenoon a large and densely wooded island, which would have been an addition to a nobleman's estate. We fancied we could see the deer glancing between the stems of the trees. It was a perfect San Salvador or Bahama isle; and if it had been at evening or nearer night fall we should have occupied and taken possession of it in the name of our majesties; but we passed on, like Americus Vespucius, flattering ourselves that we should discover a mainland. We soon after saw [35]