Running the Gamut

Seems that's the way it's been the past week or so.  Everything from the above antique cocoaine bottle (found Tuesday in the Sudbury River) to a balloon...
... a bicycle...

 ...a safe...
...a wallet...
...and an eagle that looked to have an injured talon...

The balloon, bike, safe, wallet, and possibly injured eagle were all seen between Nashua and Hudson on the Merrimack River this past Friday the 13th.  Getting home from that paddle it occurred to me that John and Henry Thoreau might have been on that same stretch of river as they returned down the Merrimack in 1839.  Checked my copy of A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers and found that they did, indeed, traverse the same stretch on September1839's Friday the 13th as the calendars for 2019 and 1839 are the same.  Of course they also covered close to 50 miles that same day from a starting point near the Merrimack's confluence with the Souhegan River all the way to their home in Concord, MA.  I think they could smell the barn.

Back to the Burnett's Cocoaine bottle found in a very shallow Sudbury River...


I found on the internet that it was a late 1800's hair treatment made by chemist Joseph Burnett at his plant in Boston and, despite the name, the product did not actually contain cocaine.  The product did, however, contain cocoa-nut oil...hence the name.  Burnett was from Southborough, MA and among his many accomplishments was the founding of Saint Mark's School in that town.

Regarding bikes, I ran into a fisherman (Bill) on the Assabet who'd arrived via this cool electric-assist bicycle/trailer set-up...


BTW, the wallet was turned over to authorities and the Veoride bicycle's location was provided to its owners.

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