Page:The first and last journeys of Thoreau - lately discovered among his unpublished journals and manuscripts 2.djvu/119

 outdoor pursuits. They must accommodate his note-book and spy-glass; and so their width and depth was regulated by the size of the note-book. It was a cover for folded papers, on which he took his out-of-door notes; this was his invariable companion, and he acquired great skill in conveying by a few lines or strokes a long story, which in his written Journal might occupy pages. Abroad he used the pencil, writing but a few moments at a time, during the walk; but into the note-book must go all measurements with the foot-rule which he always carried, or the surveyor’s tape; also all observations with his spy-glass,—another invariable companion for years. To his memory he never trusted for a fact, but to the page and the pencil, and the abstract in the pocket."

An exact transcript of these notes towards the close of the entries of June 8, may here be given; they are fuller than he often made them:

P. M. to Lake Harriet along swamp. Saw a new yellow Erigeron very stout and eight inches high, on (gravelly) shore of lake.