"Thursday," opening with rain, brings the travelers to Concord, New Hampshire. In presenting the local history, Thoreau comments on the fact that geographical frontiers no longer exist, but adds that frontiers and wilderness endure "wherever a man fronts a fact." He discusses travel, metaphorically stating that continued travel is not productive — "True and sincere travelling is no pastime, but is as serious as the grave, or any other part of the human journey, and it requires a long probation to be broken into it." The wild country of the Pemigewasset and of Amonoosuck (Ammonoosuc) — the "Unappropriated Land" — is described. With a striking absence of detail about the ascent, Thoreau writes simply, "we were enabled to reach the summit of AGIOCOCHOOK [Mount Washington]." All the remaining narrative relates to the trip back home to Concord, Massachusetts. Thoreau considers the swallowing up by nature of man's works; the innate refinement of the wildest nature; and the close relationship between nature and ideal art. But nature is God's art, which man's art can never match. Reaching a point at which the past almost seems to enter into the present, Thoreau tells the story of Hannah Dustan (also spelled elsewhere "Dustin" or "Duston"). A white woman taken and held captive by Indians, Dustan endured savagery in the wilderness. She and two other captives murdered their captors and escaped. Thoreau reflects on the great age of the world, and says that Hannah Dustan's story is, though relatively recent, nevertheless ancient. Universal history is thus expressed not just in ancient myth and history, but in events close to our own time as well. He writes about describing things as they are; considers Goethe, genius, and the artist; and reaffirms the importance of poetry — "atmospheric and irreducible" — as the "mysticism of mankind." He describes the power of composition as dangerous, possessing a certain savagery of its own. As the river flows on, he comments on the centrality of man in the universe. The travelers pitch camp at Merrimack, New Hampshire. Thoreau notes the difficulty of keeping a journal as a record of life while trying to live fully. The chapter ends with the sound of the blowing wind.
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