Into the Woods, Into the Past

I actually am enjoying Thoreau's Maine Woods the second time around. I keep trying to picture Maine more than 170 years ago.  His is a more philosophical account of travels than the average person would write, I think. He seems respectful of people and nature as well.  He makes interesting observations about the logging business and the fading trapping business.  He seems interested in the indigenous people he encounters; he asks about their words and their customs. At the end of the book there is a glossary of place names that are translated from the native language into English.  Many native place names are gone now, so it's interesting to see what they were when still being used.

He talks about tiny towns like Greenville that are now not really much bigger than they were then. I keep reflecting on my ancestors and other cousins and trying to imagine what they were doing when Thoreau was in their midst. When Thoreau sails down the Penobscot toward Bangor, for instance, he goes by my cousin's house as it is now and was then, since it was built in the 18th century. He talks about Sugar Island, where my grandfather was born about 50 years after that. In fact, my great grandparents weren't even born yet when he was passing through Greenville.  My great-great grandparents were just getting started on their lives in the United States, having migrated from Canada a few years before.

Thoreau details the plants and animals he finds as he travels; the lists are a little boring to me, but his impulse is interesting. It's as if he wants to document these phenomena before they are gone forever.  I get the sense that he knows much of the wilderness will soon be gone and he is mourning its passing.  I wonder if he would have been surprised by just how much wilderness remains in Maine, though most of it is probably regrowth from logging.

It's been a worthwhile read, I think. I recommend it to all who want a close up history of a particular region of our country, and a window into a time when the wilderness was vanishing before our eyes.

Next I'll launch into one of the "M" books, I think. I've started a Walter Mosley novel so I'll probably continue with that.