Page:Early Spring in Massachusetts (1881).djvu/288

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274
EARLY SPRING IN MASSACHUSETTS.

hole was arched above and flat on the bottom like an oven, ⌓ about five inches in diameter at the base. It seemed to have a pretty hard crust as I probed into it. There was a little enlargement, perhaps ten inches in diameter, in the angle at the end of twelve feet. It was thus, It was a wonder where the sand was conveyed to, for there was not a wheelbarrow load at the entrance.

March 30, 1854 Read an interesting article on Etienne Geoffroy St. Hilaire, the friend and contemporary of Cuvier, though opposed to him in his philosophy. He believed species to be variable. In looking for anatomical resemblances he found that he could not safely be guided by function, form, structure, size, color, etc., but only by the relative position and mutual dependence of organs. Hence his "Le Principe des Connexions" and his maxim, "An organ is sooner destroyed than transposed," "Un organ est plutôt altéré, atrophié, anéanti, que transposé." A principal formula of his was, "Unity of Plan, Unity of Composition." "Westminster Review," January, 1854.

March 30, 1855. . . . . He must have a great deal of life in him to draw upon, who can pick up a subsistence in November and March. Man comes out of his winter quarters this month as lean as a woodchuck. Not till late could the