Page:Thoreau - His Home, Friends and Books (1902).djvu/309

Rh identify varieties, he became versed in a score of nature-forms unknown before his day, he laid the foundations for study of that exhaustive botanical and ornithological region that centres about Concord. In reading Thoreau's journals, as published, one must ever remember that he did not accomplish his own aim, in sifting and revising his notes for press. Doubtless, had he lived to thus publish the volumes, he would have greatly improved their arrangement and value, both by additions and eliminations. In these personal journal-notes, however, compact and orderly even in their incompleteness, one realizes the immense amount of Thoreau's knowledge and its practical value to the naturalists of these later decades. The volumes which narrate excursions to the ocean, or the Maine woods, contain a few facts of natural history, which are suggestive and indicative of his careful method of travel, always eager to note some new fact, to discover some significant trait in nature and in humanity, wherever he might loiter.

His service as naturalist is largely restricted to an exhaustive survey of the soil, products, and landscape about Concord, with the accompanying forms of insect, bird, and animal life. Though thus narrow in theme, his method is remarkable for its breadth and caution, an example to his disciples in