P. M. Sail down to the Great Meadows. A
strong wind with snow driving from the west
<wA thickening the air. The farmers pause to
Bee me scud before it. At last I land and walk
further down on the meadow bank I no-



834 EARLY SPRING IN MASSACHUSETTS.
tice the paths made by the musk-rats when the
water was high in the winter leading from the
river up the bank to a bed of grass above or
below the surface. When it runs under the sur-
face I frequently slump into it, and can trace it
to the bed by the hollow sound when I stamp on
the frozen ground. They have disfigured the
banks very much in some places the past winter.
Clams have been carried into these galleries a
rod or more under the earth. When the ice
still remained thick over the galleries, after the
water had gone down, they kept on the surface
and terminated, perhaps, at some stump where
the earth was a little raised.
March 26, 1856. The Romans introduced
husbandry into England where but little was
practiced before, and the English have intro-
duced it into America. So we may well read
the Roman authors for a history of this art as
practiced by us.
