After a still er nig some

    question  to me, wo

    anshere was

    daure, in  my broad

    isfied face, and no question on her lips.

    I ao an ansion, to Nature and daylighe snow

    lying deep on tted he very slope

    of to say, Forward!

    Nature puts no question and answers none wals ask.  She

    aken ion.  quot;O Prince, our eyes contemplate

    ion and transmit to the wonderful and varied

    spectacle of t veils  doubt a part of

    tion; but day comes to reveal to us t

    o t;

    to my morning  I take an axe and pail and go in

    searcer, if t be not a dream.  After a cold and snowy

    nig needed a divining-rod to find it.  Every er the liquid

    and trembling surface of tive to every

    breated every ligo the

    dept or a foot and a  it  the

    teams, and perc to an equal depth,

    and it is not to be distinguishe

    marmots in t closes its eyelids and becomes

    dormant for tanding on the snow-covered

    plain, as if in a pasture amid t my  through

    a foot of sno of ice, and open a window under my

    feet, o t parlor of

    tened lighrough a window of

    ground glass, s brighe same as in summer;

    ty reigns as in t

    sky, corresponding to temperament of the

    inants.   is well as over our heads.

    Early in t, men

    come  doheir fine

    lines to take pickerel and perch; wild men,

    ively follorust oties

    toitcowns

    togets

    tout fear-naughe

    sural lore as tizen is in artificial.

    ted ell much less

    tice are said not

    yet to be known.  h grown perch

    for bait.  You look into o a summer pond,

    as if  summer locked up at home, or knew where she had

    retreated.   ter?  O

    of rotten logs since t

    tself passes deeper in nature tudies of

    turalist penetrate;  for turalist.  the

    latter raises tly h his knife in search of

    insects; to th his axe, and

    moss and bark fly far and wide.  s his living by barking

    trees.  Suc to fiso see nature

    carried out in he pickerel

    she pickerel; and so

    all the scale of being are filled.

    rolled around ty imes

    amused by tive mode wed.

    he narrow holes in

    t and an equal distance

    from tened to a stick

    to prevent its being pulled the slack line over

    a t or more above tied a dry

    oak leaf to it, which, being pulled down, would show when he had a

    bite.  t at regular intervals as

    you walked he pond.

    Ahe ice, or

    in ts in ttle

    o admit ter, I am aly,

    as if to treets,

    even to to our Concord life.  they

    possess a quite dazzling and transcendent beauty wes

    terval from the cadaverous cod and haddock whose

    fame is trumpeted in our streets.  t green like the

    pines, nor gray like tones, nor blue like t they

    o my eyes, if possible, yet rarer colors, like flowers and

    precious stones, as if the animalized nuclei

    or crystals of ter.  they, of course, are alden all

    over and all the animal

    kingdom, aldenses.  It is surprising t t here --

    t in ttling

    teams and cinkling sleig travel the alden road,

    t gold and emerald fiso see its

    kind in any market; it here.

    Easily, ery

    gs, like a mortal translated before ime to thin air of

    heaven.

    As I o recover t bottom of alden

    Pond, I surveyed it carefully, before the ice broke up, early in

    46, here have been many

    stories told about ttom, or rattom, of this pond,

    is remarkable

    tomlessness of a pond

    taking trouble to sound it.  I ed tomless

    Ponds in one

    alden reace to the globe.  Some

    ime, looking dohrough

    tery eyes into the bargain,

    and driven to y conclusions by tching cold in

    ts,  ;into w

    be driven,quot; if to drive it, ted source

    of tyx and entrance to ts.

    Ot;fifty-sixquot; and a

    o find any bottom; for

    y-sixquot; ing by t

    ttempt to fatruly immeasurable

    capacity for marvellousness.  But I can assure my readers t

    alden igtom at a not unreasonable, though

    at an unusual, dept easily h a cod-line and a

    stone ely

    ttom, by o pull so much harder

    before ter got underneato est depth was

    exactly one ; to whe five

    feet w his

    is a remarkable dept not an inc

    can be spared by tion.   if all ponds were shallow?

    ould it not react on t this

    pond was made deep and pure for a symbol.  he

    infinite some ponds  to be bottomless.

    A factory-o t it

    could not be true, for, judging from ance h dams,

    sand  lie at so steep an angle.  But t ponds are

    not so deep in proportion to t suppose, and, if

    drained,  leave very remarkable valleys.  t like

    cups bethis one, which is so unusually deep for

    its area, appears in a vertical section ts centre not

    deeper te.  Most ponds, emptied, would leave a

    meadow no more ly see.  illiam Gilpin, who

    is so admirable in all t relates to landscapes, and usually so

    correct, standing at tland, which he

    describes as quot;a bay of salt er, sixty or seventy fathoms deep,

    four miles in breadt; and about fifty miles long, surrounded by

    mountains, observes, quot;If ely after the

    diluvian crasever convulsion of nature occasioned it,

    before ters gus a  it have

    appeared!

    quot;So umid hills, so low

    Doom broad and deep,

    Capacious bed of ers.quot;

    But if, using test diameter of Lochese

    proportions to alden, which, as we have seen, appears already in a

    vertical section only like a se, it will appear four

    times as she chasm of

    Locied.  No doubt many a smiling valley s

    stretcly suc;; from

    and

    t of t to convince ting

    inants of t.  Often an inquisitive eye may detect the

    sive lake in the low horizon hills, and no

    subsequent elevation of to conceal

    tory.  But it is easiest, as the highways

    knoo find ter a s

    of it is, tion give it t license, dives deeper

    and soars ure goes.  So, probably, the

    ocean o be very inconsiderable compared s

    breadth.

    As I sounded termine the

    bottom er accuracy than is possible in surveying harbors

    its general

    regularity.  In t part there are several acres more level

    t any field he sun, wind, and plow.

    In one instance, on a line arbitrarily c

    vary more t in ty rods; and generally, near the

    middle, I could calculate tion for eac in

    any direction beforehree or four inches.  Some are

    accustomed to speak of deep and dangerous  sandy

    ponds like t t of er under tances

    is to level all inequalities.  ty of ttom and its

    conformity to the neighboring hills were

    so perfect t a distant promontory betrayed itself in the

    soundings quite across ts direction could be

    determined by observing te shore.  Cape becomes bar, and

    plain ser and channel.

    en rods to an inch,

    and put dohan a hundred in all, I observed

    ticed t the number

    indicating test deptly in tre of the

    map, I laid a rule on thwise, and

    found, to my surprise, t test lengtersected

    test breadtly at t of greatest depth,

    notanding t tline of

    treme length were

    got by measuring into to myself,

    t  to t part of the ocean as well as

    of a pond or puddle?  Is not t of

    mountains, regarded as te of valleys?  e kno a hill

    is not  at its narro part.

    Of five coves, three, or all which had been sounded, were

    observed to e across ter

    tended to be an expansion of er hin

    t only ally but vertically, and to form a basin

    or independent pond, tion of two capes she

    course of t, also, s bar

    at its entrance.  In proportion as the cove was wider

    compared s lengter over the bar was deeper compared

    in the

    cove, and ter of the surrounding shore, and you have

    almost elements enougo make out a formula for all cases.

    In order to see his experience,

    at t point in a pond, by observing tlines of a

    surface and ter of its shores alone, I made a plan of

    e Pond,  forty-one acres, and, like this,

    , nor any visible inlet or outlet; and as the

    line of greatest breadt breadth,

    e capes approace bays

    receded, I ventured to mark a point a s distance from tter

    line, but still on test lengt.  the

    deepest part o be  of till

    fartion to which I had inclined, and was only one

    foot deeper, namely, sixty feet.  Of course, a stream running

    the problem much more

    complicated.

    If ure, we s,

    or tion of one actual po infer all the

    particular results at t point.  Now we know only a few laws, and

    our result is vitiated, not, of course, by any confusion or

    irregularity in Nature, but by our ignorance of essential elements

    in tion.  Our notions of law and harmony are commonly

    confined to tances ; but the harmony which

    results from a far greater number of seemingly conflicting, but

    really concurring, laected, is still more

    icular las of vieo

    traveller, a mountain outline varies ep, and it has

    an infinite number of profiles, tely but one form.

    Even  is not compres

    entireness.

    I rue in et

    is ters not only

    guides us toem and t in man, but

    drae of a

    mans particular daily beo his coves

    and inlets, and   or depth of

    er.  Pero know rend

    and  country or circumstances, to infer h and

    concealed bottom.  If ainous circumstances,

    an Aced in his

    bosom, t a corresponding dept a low and

    smoot side.  In our bodies, a bold

    projecting broo and indicates a corresponding depth of

    t.  Also trance of our every cove,

    or particular inclination; each is our harbor for a season, in which

    ained and partially land-locked.  tions are

    not ion are

    determined by tories of t axes of

    elevation.  orms, tides,

    or currents, or ters, so t it

    reaco t  but an inclination

    in t was harbored becomes an individual

    lake, cut off from t secures its own

    conditions -- c to fres

    sea, dead sea, or a mars t of eaco

    t suppose t suco the

    surface somerue,  our

    ts, for t part, stand off and on upon a harborless

    coast, are conversant only s of the bays of poesy, or

    steer for ts of entry, and go into the dry docks of

    science, ural

    currents concur to individualize them.

    As for t or outlet of alden, I  discovered any

    but rain and snoion, th a

    ter and a line, suche

    er floo t  in summer and

    in er.   work he

    cakes sent to ted by those who were

    stacking t being to lie side by side

    ; and tters t the ice over a

    small space han elsewhere, which

    made t t they also showed me

    in anot t ;leac; through which

    t under a o a neighboring meadow, pushing

    me out on a cake of ice to see it.  It y under ten

    feet of er; but I t I can  t to need

    soldering till t.  One ed,

    t if suc;leac; ss connection he

    meadoed, might be proved by conveying some, colored

    po to tting a

    strainer over tch some of

    ticles carried t.

    een inchick,

    undulated under a sliger.  It is  a

    level cannot be used on ice.  At one rod from ts greatest

    fluctuation, wed

    toed staff on ters of an inch,

    ttaco t was

    probably greater in t if our instruments

    e enoug detect an undulation in t of

    the

    ts ed over tter, a

    rise or fall of t infinitesimal amount made a

    difference of several feet on a tree across the pond.  hen I began

    to cut er

    on t t the

    er began immediately to run into tinued to

    run for treams, whe ice on every

    side, and contributed essentially, if not mainly, to dry the surface

    of ter ran in, it raised and floated the

    ice.  t like cutting a tom of a ship

    to let ter out.  hen such holes freeze, and a rain succeeds,

    and finally a new freezing forms a fres is

    beautifully mottled internally by dark figures, s like

    a spiders tes, produced by the

    cer floo a centre.

    Sometimes, also, wh shallow puddles, I

    sahe

    otrees or hillside.

    it is cold January, and snohick and

    solid, t landlord comes from to get ice to

    cool ically, o

    foresee t and t of July now in January -- wearing a

    t and mittens! w provided for.

    It may be t reasures in this world which will cool

    .  s and sahe solid pond,

    unroofs ts off t and

    air,  by cakes like corded he

    favoring er air, to ry cellars, to underlie the summer

    t looks like solidified azure, as, far off, it is drawn

    treets.  tters are a merry race, full of

    jest and sport, and  to invite

    me to sa-fasanding underneath.

    In ter of 46-7 there came a hundred men of hyperborean

    extraction so our pond one morning, h many carloads

    of ungainly-looking farming tools -- sleds, plows, drill-barrows,

    turf-knives, spades, saws, rakes, and each a

    double-pointed pike-staff, suc described in the

    Neivator.  I did not know whey

    o soer rye, or some other kind of grain

    recently introduced from Iceland.  As I sa

    t to skim the soil was

    deep and  a gentleman

    farmer, o double his money,

    ed to  in

    order to cover eacook off the

    only coat, ay, tself, of alden Pond in t of a

    er.  t to  once, plowing, barrowing,

    rolling, furro on

    making t wo see w

    kind of seed to the furrow, a gang of fellows by my

    side suddenly began to self, h a

    peculiar jerk, clean doo ter -- for it

    erra firma there was --

    and  a t be

    cutting peat in a bog.  So t every day, h a

    peculiar sive, from and to some point of the

    polar regions, as it seemed to me, like a flock of arctic

    sno sometimes Squaw alden had her revenge, and a hired

    man, he ground

    dooartarus, and he who was so brave before suddenly became

    but t of a man, almost gave up , and was

    glad to take refuge in my  there was

    some virtue in a stove; or sometimes took a piece of

    steel out of a plo in to

    be cut out.

    to speak literally, a h Yankee overseers,

    came from Cambridge every day to get out t

    into cakes by metoo o require description, and

    to to an

    ice platform, and raised by grappling irons and block and tackle,

    ack, as surely as so many barrels of

    flour, and there placed evenly side by side, and row upon row, as if

    to pierce the

    clouds.  told me t in a good day t out a

    tons, s and

    quot;cradle-; erra firma, by the

    passage of track, and the horses invariably

    ate ts out of cakes of ice  like buckets.  they

    stacked up ty-five feet

    ting ween

    tside layers to exclude though

    never so cold, finds a passage t ies,

    leaving sligs or studs only here, and finally

    topple it do first it looked like a vast blue fort or

    Val uck to the

    crevices, and t looked

    like a venerable moss-grointed

    marble, ter, t old man he almanac --

    y, as if o estivate hey

    calculated t not ty-five per cent of ts

    destination, and t t ed in the

    cars.  ill greater part of t

    destiny from ended; for, eithe ice was

    found not to keep so ed, containing more air than

    usual, or for some ot never got to market.  this heap,

    made in ter of 46-7 and estimated to contain ten thousand

    tons,  was

    unroofed t of it carried off, t

    remaining exposed to t stood over t summer and t

    er, and  quite melted till September, 1848.  the

    pond recovered ter part.

    Like ter, t hand, has a green

    tint, but at a distance is beautifully blue, and you can easily tell

    it from te ice of the merely greenish ice of

    some ponds, a quarter of a mile off.  Sometimes one of t

    cakes slips from to treet, and

    lies t emerald, an object of interest to

    all passers.  I iced t a portion of alden whe

    state of er en, whe

    same point of vie this pond will,

    sometimes, in ter, be filled er somew

    like its o t day will he

    blue color of er and ice is due to t and air they

    contain, and t transparent is t.  Ice is an

    interesting subject for contemplation.  told me t they had

    some in t Fresh Pond five years old which was as

    good as ever.   t a bucket of er soon becomes putrid,

    but frozen remains s forever?  It is commonly said t this is

    tions and tellect.

    teen days I saw from my window a  work

    like busy eams and ly all the

    implements of farming, sucure as  page of

    ten as I looked out I he

    fable of the sower, and

    ty days more,

    probably, I she pure sea-green

    alden er ting trees, and sending

    up its evaporations in solitude, and no traces  a

    man ood tary loon

    laugh as he dives and plumes himself, or shall see a lonely fisher

    in , like a floating leaf, beed in

    tely a hundred men securely labored.

    t appears t tering inants of Con

    and Neta, drink at my

    ellect in tupendous and

    cosmogonal p-Geeta, since wion

    years of th which our

    modern s literature seem puny and trivial; and I doubt

    if t p to be referred to a previous state of

    existence, so remote is its sublimity from our conceptions.  I lay

    doo my er, and lo! t the

    servant of t of Brahma and Vishnu and Indra, who

    still sits in emple on the Vedas, or dwells

    at t of a tree  and er jug.  I meet his

    servant come to draer for er, and our buckets as it

    e togeter is

    mingled er of t

    is ed past te of tlantis and the

    ing by ternate

    and tidore and ts in tropic

    gales of ts of which Alexander

    only he names.