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EARLY SPRING IN MASSACHUSETTS.

died more than forty years ago (he lived in Jacob Baker's home in Lincoln, came from Weston, and was some seventy years old when he died), told him that he had killed not only bears about Fair Haven among the walnuts, but moose.

March 10, 1854. Misty rain, rain. The third day of more or less rain.

p. m. C. Miles road via Clam Shell Hill. . . . . It occurs to me that heavy rains and sudden meltings of the snow, such as we had a fortnight ago (February 26), before the ground is thawed, so that all the water, instead of being soaked up by the ground, flows rapidly into the streams and ponds, is necessary to swell and break them up. If we waited for the direct influence of the sun on the ice, and the influence of such water as would reach the river under other circumstances, the spring would be very much delayed. In the violent freshet there is a mechanic force added to the chemic. . . . .

Saw a skunk in the corner road, which I followed sixty rods or more. Out now, about 4 p. m., partly because it is a dark, foul day. It is a slender, black (and white) animal, with its back remarkably arched, standing high behind, and carrying its head low, it runs, even when undisturbed, with a singular teter or undula-