Author: Henry David Thoreau
The rise and fall of Walden
at Long intervals serves this
use at least: the water standing
at this great height for a year or
more, though it makes it difficult
to walk round it, kills the shrubs
and trees which have sprung up about
its edges since the last rise, pitch
pines, birches, alders, aspens, and
others, and falling again, leaves
an unobstructed shore;
for, unlike many ponds and all
waters which are subject to a
daily tide, its shore is cleanest when
the water is lowest. On the side of
the pond next my house, a row of pitch
pines 15 feet high has been killed
and tipped over as if by a lever,
and thus a stop put to their
encroachments; and their size
indicates how many years have
elapsed since the last rise to
this height. By this fluctuation
the pond asserts its title to
a shore; and thus the shore is
shorn, and the trees cannot hold
it by right of possession. These
are the lips of the lake on which
no beard grows. It licks its
chaps from time to time. When
the water is at its height, the
alders, willows, and maples send
forth a mass of fibrous red roots
several feet long from all sides
of their stems in the water, and
to the height of 3 or 4 feet from
the ground, in the effort to
maintain themselves; I have known
the high-blueberry bushes about
the shore, which commonly produce
no fruit, bear and abundant crop
under these circumstances.
SOURCE: Walden , 1854
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