Chapter 104 Winter Lake - 6

To tell the truth, a hundred Irishmen, led by Yankee overseers, come here every day from Cambridge to dig the ice.They cut the ice into cubes in a way so well known that it needs no description, and these cubes are put on sledges, and when they reach the shore they are dragged swiftly to an ice station, where they are again drawn by horses. The iron hands, pulleys, and rigging that were pulled were moved to a platform, just like buckets of flour, arranged one by one, and stacked one after another, as if they were going to build a square tower that soared into the sky. Same basics.They tell me that a good day's work can dig up a thousand tons, and that's the figure per acre.Deep ruts and cradle-holes for racks appear on the ice as they do on the earth, because the sleigh rides over it more often, and the horses eat among the ice dug into buckets. wheat.They thus built a heap of ice in the open air, thirty-five feet high, and about six or seven rods square, with hay in the middle of the outer layer, to keep out the air; , cracking a hole so big that there's no support here or there, and it all ends up toppling over.At first it looked to me like a great blue fortress, a Valhalla; but they began to fill the gaps with rough turf, so that there was hoarfrost and icicles on it, and it looked like a Quaint, mossy gray ruins, all of blue marble the residence of Winter, like the pictures we see in calendars—his hut, as if he planned to spend time with us Over the summer.According to their estimates, 25% of them will not reach their destination, and 2 to 3% will be lost in the vehicle.A larger part of this pile, however, had a different fate than originally intended; for the ice either did not preserve as well as would have been expected, had more air in it than usual, or from some other cause, This part of the ice has never been able to be sent to the market.This pile, built in 1846-1847, is estimated to weigh 10,000 tons. Later, it was nailed up with grass and planks. The box was opened in July of the following year, and part of it was taken out After leaving, the rest was exposed to the sun. The whole summer was passed standing up, and the winter of this year was also passed. It was not completely melted until September of 1848.In the end, the lake took a good portion of them back.

Like the lake water, Walden's ice is green in close quarters, but viewed from a distance, it is blue and beautiful, and you can easily tell that it is the white ice on the river, or a quarter of the ice. There is only greenish ice on the lake a mile away, and this is Walden ice.Sometimes, from the ice-digger's sleigh, a great piece of ice falls on the village street, and lies there for a week like a great emerald, arousing the interest of all passers-by.I noticed a part of Walden, whose water was green, which, once frozen, was blue from the same point of view.So many low places around the lake are sometimes, in winter, filled with water as green as it is, but the next day I find them frozen to blue ice.Perhaps the blue color of water and ice is caused by the light and air they contain, the most transparent being the bluest.Ice is one of the most interesting subjects for meditation.They told me they had some ice that had been in the ice stacks at Fleisch Lake for five years and was still very good ice.Why does a bucket of water smell bad after a long time, but it is always sweet after being frozen?It is commonly said that this is the difference between emotion and reason.

So for sixteen days in a row I saw a hundred people from my window, bustling about, working like farmers, in droves, with their cattle and apparently all the tools, a picture we often see in on the first page of the Almanac; and whenever I look out of the window, I often think of the parable of the Lark and the Reaper, or of the Sower, etc.; and now they are gone, about three more Ten days later, from the same window, I looked out at the pure sea-green water of Walden Pond, reflecting clouds and trees, and sending its evaporated vapors lonely to the sky, and it was impossible to see that anyone had stood on it. of the top.Maybe I can hear a lone loon diving down to the bottom, preening and laughing, maybe I can see a lone fisherman sitting in a boat with the blade of his boat, and his form is reflected in this side of the water , but here not so long ago, a hundred men stood and worked safely.

It seemed that the sweaty denizens of Charleston and New Orleans, Madras, Bombay and Calcutta were going to drink from my well.In the dawn I bathed my intellect in the philosophy of the grand universe of the Dialogues, and how many immortal years have elapsed since the completion of this epic, compared with which our modern world And how wretched and trivial its literature appears; I also doubt whether this philosophy is not limited to the former state of existence, and its sublime is so remote from our point of view!I put down my book, and ran to my well to drink.look!There I met the servants of the Brahmans, the monks of Brahma and Vishnu and Indra, who still sat on the Ganges, in his temple, read their Vedas, or lived in a tree On the roots, there are only some bread crumbs and a water bowl.I met his servant coming to draw water for his master, and our buckets seemed to collide in the same well.The pure water of Walden has been mixed with the holy water of the Ganges.Blown by a soft wind, the waves flowed over the fabled islands of Atlantis and Hysberides, over Fannen, over Ternate, Tidal and the mouth of the Persian Gulf, in Converging in the tropical winds of the Indian Ocean, they reach some ports that even Alexander has only heard the names of.