Chapter 86 Indoor Heating - 4

At last winter came eagerly; and just as I finished the mud-wall, the gale began to howl about the house, as if it had been waiting for a long time, when it was allowed to howl.Night after night, the flying geese rumbled in the dark, howling and flapping their wings, until the ground was covered with snow, some stopped at Walden, and some flew low through the forest to Fair Harbor, ready to go to Mexico, Several times, returning home from the village, at about ten and eleven o'clock, I heard the footsteps of a flock of flying geese, or else wild ducks, behind my house, treading over the dead leaves in the woods at the edge of the hollow, going to They are looking for food there, and I can still hear their leader whispering and rushing away.In 1845, the first night of Walden's total freezing was the night of December 22. More than ten days earlier, Flint and other shallower lakes and swamps had all been frozen; In 16th, it was frozen at night; in 1949, it was about 31 nights; in 1950, it was about December 27th; in 1952, it was January 5th; in 1953, it was December 3rd. Eleventh.Snow had accumulated on the ground since November 25th, and suddenly a winter scene unfolded before me.I retreated even more into my den, hoping to light a fire in my house and in my heart.My outdoor work now consists in finding dead logs in the forest, and carrying them in my hands, or on my shoulders, and bringing them back, and sometimes dragging them home with dry pine branches under each arm.The lush pine trees that once served as a fence in summer are now more than enough for me to haul.I sacrificed them to the god of fire, as they had been sacrificed to the god of the earth.What an interesting thing this is, to hunt in the forest, or to steal fuel, to cook a meal!My bread and meat are delicious.In most of our towns, there is enough fuel and waste-wood in the forest to make a fire, but it is not warming anyone at present, and it is supposed that they hinder the development of young forests.There are also many floating logs on the lake.In the summer I once found a raft of pitch pine nailed up by the Irish when the railroad was built, with the bark still in place.I dragged some of them ashore.It has been soaked for two years, and now it has been lying on the high ground for six months. Although it is still saturated with water and cannot be dried, it is a perfect wood.One day this winter I amused myself by dragging a log, fifteen feet long, across the lake one by one, for half a mile, with one end on my shoulder and the other on the ice, like Slid along like an ice skate; or I tied some logs with alder twigs, hooked it with a longer alder or alder branch, and hooked it across the lake.Although these logs were saturated with water and weighed like lead, they were not only burnt, but burned very hot; moreover, I think they burn better when they are soaked, just like turpentine soaked in water burns especially well in a lamp. durable.

Gilpin, in his account of the inhabitants of the English forests, writes: "Some men encroached upon the land, and thus built hedges and houses in the forest," which in the "Old Forest Statutes" is considered very Harmful and subject to heavy penalties for the crime of usurping land, because ad terrorem ferarum—ad nocumentum fore-stae, etc.” scares birds and damages forests.But I am more concerned with game and forest preservation than with hunters or loggers, as if I were the ranger myself; and if any part of it should be burned, even if I accidentally burn it myself, I would be greatly saddened, Mourned longer and more inconsolably than any Forester himself.I want our farmers to feel the fear when they cut down a forest, as the ancient Romans felt when they thinned the trees in a lucum conlucare to let in the sunlight. same, because they felt that this forest belonged to some gods.The Romans first atone for their sins, and then pray. Whether you are a god or a goddess, this forest is sacred because of you. May you bless me, my family and my children, etc.

It is astonishing that even in such an age the forests of the New World should be of immense value, with a value more permanent and universal than gold.We have invented and discovered many things, but none of us can walk past a pile of lumber without being moved.It is as precious to us as it was to our Saxon and Norman ancestors.If they are used for bows, we use them for gun stocks.Michaud said more than thirty years ago that the price of fuel in New York and Philadelphia "is almost equal to the price of the best wood in Paris, and sometimes even exceeds it, although this big city needs 300,000' caldera a year." ' fuel, and the surrounding three hundred miles of land have been cultivated. "In this township, the price of lumber is rising almost day and night. The only question is how much this year compared with last. A mechanic or a tradesman who comes to the forest himself for nothing else must come for the wood auction; even Some will pay a high price for the right to pick up wood after the loggers have gone. Man has gone to the forest for fuel and materials for art in ages; New Englanders, New Hollanders, Parisians , Celts, farmers, Robin Hood, Goldie Black, and Halle Gill; princes and countrymen, scholars and savages, all over the world, to go into the forest to get some wood out of the woods, to build a fire for warmth and to cook. It is me, and it must be indispensable.