I have so enjoyed reading the pond-surveying ch. today, with memories of 4th of July times past at College Pond! I wanted to comment thru the blog, but will here, instead, because, maybe due to imminent thunderstorm, I can't get the comment page to pop up! [Editor's note: Mom emailed this to me, so I put it up for her.]

First, I have to say that, tho I was happy to refresh my knowledge of deductive reasoning, if Thoreau were online right now, what I would say to him is: "Didn't you learn at all about the glacial ponds of Massachusetts? I did, in 7th grade, from a 20-30-yr old geology science book written for Boston schools! (I wonder when the knowledge of the glacial age's causing all the Massachusetts spring-fed ponds began to be used in the Boston schools? Probably after Dewey reformed how children are taught...)" So, I have now that wish (or seed of a "back-to-the future" novel, of testing Thoreau's ability to learn new truths...) And it's fun to realize that I could compare Thoreau to Melville, who writes so factually, in Moby Dick!

I have 2 tales from my own family of going out on the ice, which you know, Anna: One, of my father skating across the Charles River to MIT, as the quickest way for him to get there. The other, of my grandfather Tirrell, maybe that same very cold winter, sometime between 1919 and 1922, driving his car across the ice on College Pond, into which he later sank to its final rest on of the sailboats he'd made. CP, about 1/2 mile wide, was deep enough even in very dry years, not to show the remains of that boat. We were scared to dive too deep to try to find it! I remember so well the cold places we found, swimming, which were supposed to be evidences of springs. I wish Thoreau had wwritten of such discoveries--or maybe I missed that?

Mom --- I was thinking a similar thing, about how Thoreau should have been able to find out a lot about the local ponds by reading a book or two. But I really don't know what they knew about the local geology back then. After all, we hadn't even figured out plate tectonics when Thoreau wrote Walden.

I've googled a bit, and have discovered that Thoreau did refer to the Glacial Age when he wrote of Mt. Monadnock, but, more fascinating: he actually worked for Louis Agassiz, who was 10 yrs older than he was, while he lived at Walden Pond! At that time, supposedly, Agassiz was formulating his theory of the glacial kettles (ponds) in Mass. but Thoreau probably didn't want to pin down his own musings to that hypothesis...maybe because it wasn't really proven yet?? Sorry I still haven't learned "cut and paste" so I can refer to some of the info on "the web"--One essay says that Walden is the deepest pond in Massachusetts...if so, this is probably because its surroundings are less peaty and swampy than around other ponds in Eastern Mass. at least? The sense of wonder and mystery connected to ponds I learned from my father's explaining their origin (I now find this was generally taught in Massachusetts about 20 yrs before he was in school). But my real memory of exploring College Pond is first from swimming, and feeling the scary coldest depths at parts out over my head, when I could feel the cold coming up from maybe 30 feet below...

Mom --- Thanks for doing the legwork on that! Interesting that he worked for Louis Agassiz....