"It is about fifteen miles long, and averages four in width. Nantucket
Town is a beautiful, quaint old place; has some fine wide streets
and handsome residences, a great many narrow lanes running in all
directions, and many very odd-looking old houses, some of them
inhabited, but not a few empty; for of the ten thousand former residents
only about three thousand now remain."

"How does that happen, Levis?" asked Violet, as he paused for a moment.

"It used to be a great seat of the whale-fishery," he answered; "indeed,
that was the occupation of the vast majority of the men of the island;
but, as I presume you know, the whale-fishery has, for a number of
years, been declining, partly owing to the scarcity of whales, partly
to the discovery of coal-oil, which has been largely substituted for
whale-oil as an illuminant (as has gas also, by the way), and to
substitutes being found or invented for whale-bone also.

"So the Nantucketers lost their principal employment, and wandered off
to different parts of the country or the world in search of another; and
the wharves that once presented a scene full of life and bustle are now
lonely and deserted. Property there was wonderfully depreciated for a
time, but is rising in value now with the influx of summer visitors. It
is becoming quite a popular resort--not sea-side exactly, for there you
are right out in the sea."

"Let us go there," said Mrs. Dinsmore; "I think it would be a pleasant
variety to get fairly out into the sea for once, instead of merely
alongside of it."

"Oh, yes, do let us go!"