Page:Winter - from the Journal of Henry D. Thoreau.djvu/82

68 mirror. But in summer, how many hundreds crawl along the weedy shore, or plunge in the long river unsuspected by the boatman!

Dec. 30, 1860. It is remarkable how universally, as respects soil and exposure, the whortleberry family is distributed with us. One kind or another flourishes in every soil and locality. The Pennsylvania and Canada blueberries especially in elevated, cool, and airy places, on hills and mountains, in openings in the woods and in sproutlands, the high blueberry in swamps, and the low blueberry in intermediate places, or almost anywhere but in swamps hereabouts. The family thus ranges from the highest mountain tops to the lowest swamps, and forms the prevailing shrub of a great part of New England. Not only is this true of the family, but hereabouts of the genus, Gaylussacia, or the huckleberry proper, alone. I do not know of a spot where any shrub grows in this neighborhood, but one or another species or variety of the Gaylussacia may also grow there. Such care has nature taken to furnish to birds and quadrupeds, and to men, a palatable berry of this kind, slightly modified by soil and climate, wherever the consumer may chance to be. Corn and potatoes, apples and pears have comparatively a narrow range, but we can fill our basket with whortleberries on the summit