Rambles about Portsmouth. Sketches of persons, localities, and incidents of two centuries: principally from tradition and unpublished documents. By Charles W. Brewster.

172 RAMBLES ABOUT PORTSMOUTH.
who furnished us with a dinner of fine fresh cod, taken
at the edge of the ice, 172 yards from the end of his
wharf. We measured the ice on our return, and found it
18 inches in thickness, over which sleighing parties were
merrily gliding on their way to the Island. T. G. M."
There are few, if any, of the natives of our city, who
have not remembrances, at some period of their lives, of
pleasant hours passed upon the water. In my childhood,
writes one whose early life was passed on the shores of
the Piscataqua, there were five brothers in one family circle,
of whose aquatic adventures, in their youth at the close
of the last century, I never wearied, as they were recalled
when they met at each other's dwellings. One fine summer night, when the moon was shining brightly, they went
to one of the small islands outside of the light-houseWood Island I think-in pursuit of lobsters. After setting
their nets they landed and built a fire among the bushes a
short distance back from the beach, and making a kettle of
chocolate, enjoyed a hearty meal from the stock of refreshments always taken into consideration among the requisite
accompaniments of such expeditions. This pleasant performance over, they went to look for their boat, but great
was their consternation, instead of finding it, as they anticipated, high and dry upon the sand, to discover that it had
got loose from its moorings, and was fast travelling, with
the tide, in the direction of the Shoals. The misfortune
was increased by the fact that it was a new one, the property of a relative, who had given them many injunctions
as to its good usage. Like the man in the play, they were
in a peculiarly perplexing' predicament,' but trusting as a
last extremity, to their usual good luck, in the product of
their nets, which were within reach by swimming, for something to eat, and in the hope that some passing boat would
take them off in the morning, they took the most philosophic view of the matter possible, and wrapping them