are very large and excellent. In summer this climate is extremely
pleasant; they are not exposed to the scorching sun of the
continent, the heats being tempered by the sea breezes, with which
they are perpetually refreshed. In the winter, however, they pay
severely for those advantages; it is extremely cold; the northwest
wind, the tyrant of this country, after having escaped from our
mountains and forests, free from all impediment in its short
passage, blows with redoubled force and renders this island bleak
and uncomfortable. On the other hand, the goodness of their houses,
the social hospitality of their firesides, and their good cheer,
make them ample amends for the severity of the season; nor are the
snows so deep as on the main. The necessary and unavoidable
inactivity of that season, combined with the vegetative rest of
nature, force mankind to suspend their toils: often at this season
more than half the inhabitants of the island are at sea, fishing in
milder latitudes.

This island, as has been already hinted, appears to be the summit of
some huge sandy mountain, affording some acres of dry land for the
habitation of man; other submarine ones lie to the southward of
this, at different depths and different distances. This dangerous
region is well known to the mariners by the name of Nantucket
Shoals: these are the bulwarks which so powerfully defend this
island from the impulse of the mighty ocean, and repel the force of
its waves; which, but for the accumulated barriers, would ere now
have dissolved its foundations, and torn it in pieces. These are the
banks which afforded to the first inhabitants of Nantucket their
daily subsistence, as it was from these shoals that they drew the
origin of that wealth which they now possess; and was the school
where they first learned how to venture farther, as the fish of