Page:Winter - from the Journal of Henry D. Thoreau.djvu/170

156 from the snow there about fifteen minutes before the sun sets. This gradually deepens to purple and violet in some places, and the pink is very distinct, especially when, after looking at the simply white snow on other sides, you turn your eyes to the hill. Even after all direct sunlight is withdrawn from the hill-top, as well as from the valley in which you stand, you see, if you are prepared to discern it, a faint and delicate tinge of purple and violet there. This was on a very clear and cold evening when the thermometer was —6°.

This is one of the phenomena of the winter sunset, this distinct pink light reflected from the brows of snow-clad hills on one side of you, as you are facing the sun.

The cold rapidly increases, and it is —14° in the evening. I hear the ground crack with a very loud sound, and a great jar in the evening and in the course of the night several times. It is once as loud and heavy as the explosion of the Acton powder mills.

Jan. 11, 1839.