Shearwater

“ Shearwater sighed profoundly, like a whale in the night. ”

“ A common species off the Atlantic coast in summer; breeds along our northern coasts, and it is also supposed that many of them nest in southern seas and reach our coasts early in the summer. These Shearwaters are entirely sooty gray, being somewhat lighter below. They are called "black haglets" by the fishermen, whose vessels they follow in the hope of procuring bits of refuse. They commonly nest in burrows in the ground, but are also said to build in fissures among the ledges. ”

“ She had been remarkably well for some days; in the night she shreikd out very loud so that we who slept in the great Cabbin heard her, but becoming quiet immediately no one regarded it. Whatever disease was the cause of her death it was the most sudden that ever came under my Observation. Many Shearwaters were seen about the ship.
1771 July 5. In the night the ship passd through a shoal of Macarels and in the Morning many Crabs and some seaweed was observd with many Shearwaters.
1771 July 6. Several shearwaters and one Gannet were seen; much sea weed like tape flattish and narrow. ”

“ Called "Little Puffins," size of Water Ouzel, in notes.
April 20th.—At 8 a.m., one Manx Shearwater, 770 miles out. Several pairs of little Auks during forenoon. At 5 p.m., two Black-backed Common Shearwaters, 870 miles from land, outward bound. No Petrels.
April 21st.—At 7 a.m., two Common Shearwaters, 1090 miles from Fastnet. At 11.30 a.m., two Wilson's Petrels, 1145 miles out. Lat. 46° 37′, long. 36° 18′; calm. (Note.—Previous to this date the note was appended to each day's entry, "No Petrels.") ”

“ At 10 they returned, with the information that the bay afforded good shelter with soft ground, but was rather objectionable as a harbour, in so high a latitude, on account of its being full four miles wide, and very deep. I determined to run in and anchor, until a more secure port could be found; and having despatched two boats ahead to report the soundings by signal, stood into the bay, and at 12 o’clock P. M. anchored in 10 fathoms, soft mud, the two capes of the bay in one S. S. E. about one league, the western shore one mile distant. ”

“ After the life of the harbour, the chief interest of Shoreham is its river, the Adur, a yellow, sluggish, shallow stream, of great width near the town, which at low tide dwindles into a streamlet trickling through a desert of mud, but at the full has the beauty of a lake. ”

“ The Southwest Shoal is the largest, being 15 miles long SSW and NNE., with an average width of 21⁄2 miles. The position of the center of this shoal is 41° 39' north latitude and 67° 48' west longitude. There are from 2 to 15 fathoms of water on the shoals and between them are depths of from 12 to 30 fathoms. The tide sweeps over these with great force, causing strong rips, and during rough weather the sea breaks heavily on them, rendering approach to their vicinity extremely hazardous. ”

“ Sherwood encouraged the men to work well by the promise of extra pay; and the laborers seemed to regard the occasion as a grand frolic. They exerted themselves to the utmost, and the buckets flew along the lines, while the pumps rolled out the water in a continuous flow. As the steamer, relieved of the weight that pressed her down, rose on the surface of the lake, it was only necessary to lift the water from below and pour it upon the deck, from which it would run off itself. ”

“ Sheerness lies at the mouth of the Medway, a narrow branch of which cuts off a tongue of land termed the Isle of Grain lying opposite Sheerness. Along the banks of the Thames the coast is generally low and marshy, embankments being in several places necessary to prevent inundation. At a few points, however, as at Gravesend, spurs of the North Downs descend directly upon the shore. In the estuary of the Medway there are a number of low marshy islands, but Sheppey presents to the sea a range of slight cliffs from 80 to 90 ft. ”

“ To Thorpe it seemed that Shearer must have been overwhelmed, but the riverman always mysteriously appeared at one side or the other, nonchalant, urging the men to work before the logs should have ceased to move. Tradition claimed that only once in a long woods life had Shearer been forced to “take water” before a breaking rollway: and then he saved his peavey. History stated that he had never lost a man on the river, simply and solely because he invariably took the dangerous tasks upon himself.
As soon as the logs had caught the current, a dozen men urged them on. ”

“ This bay has many shoal places, but is in general deep and favorable to navigation. A breakwater and dike are now constructing by the United States’ government at the entrance of the bay. The anchorage ground is formed by a cove in the southern shore, directly west of the pitch of Cape Henlopen and the seaward, and of an extensive shoal called the Shears: the tail of which makes out from the shore about five miles up the bay, near the mouth of Broadkill Creek, from whence it extends eastward, and terminates at a point about two miles to the northward of the shore at the cape. ”

“ Nor is Sheerness precisely a joyous holiday resort. It is a place of strength, guarding the entrance to the Thames and Medway, and will have to stand in the forefront of any attack; but exactly wherein its strength resides is not at all apparent to the layman. No doubt booms and floating mines, although not spectacular defences, would play a foremost part. The history of this congeries of four towns—Blue Town, Marine Town, Banks Town, and Mile Town—that constitute72 Sheerness is not a glorious one. The site was a swamp until reclamation was begun under James the First. ”

“ Sheer, in nautical meaning, is a deviation from the line of the course in which a vessel should be steered, and though it may occur from causes unpreventable by the most skilful seamanship, it more frequently happens from an unsteady helmsman; and the latter was the fact in this instance, probably produced by the person then at the helm not being watchful enough of the state of the tide when advancing to the Atlantic dock to land a barge. ”

“ The total number of pennants flying at the close of the war was about 1000, and the last vote for seamen in 1815 included 127,000 sailors and marines. As there was greater depth of water at Sheerness than at any of the dockyards, and as the harbour immediately contiguous was capable of accommodating with ease any number of large vessels, Sheerness was decided upon as the place where the greatest repairs and improvements should be made, and it ended in an entirely new dockyard being built. ”

“ Seagrave, we do not want too much water for a turtle-pond, as, if it is too deep, there is a difficulty in catching them when we want them: what we want is a space of water surrounded by a low wall of stones, so that the animals cannot escape, for they cannot climb up, although they can walk on the shelving sand with their flippers. Now the reef here is high out of the water, and the space within the reef and the beach is deep enough, and the rocks on the beach nearly fill up that side and prevent them crawling away by the shore. ”

“ SHOREHAM HARBOUR will always be a rather anxious place to get in and out of, especially as there is a very strong tide in the Ouse. A dozen miles or so farther westward along the coast is the modern entrance of Shoreham Harbour. ”

“ It took four days for the gang to move the road machinery up to the little brook that marked the town line of Seaberry. There Lem called a halt. The road-machinery experts set up the stone crusher and showed the woodsmen how to use road scrapers and dynamite.
In a straight, purplish-brown line there appeared a gash through the scattered timber and mossy clearings of the town of Seaberry. It extended up the creek valley, with long sweeps over long ridges and great, beautiful curves around the foot of mountain and valley bend. ”

“ Removal of Shoals.—The possibility of securing uniformity of depth in a river by the lowering of the shoals obstructing the channel depends upon the nature of the shoals. A soft shoal in the bed of a river is due to deposit from a diminution in velocity of flow, produced by a reduction in fall and by a widening of the channel, or to a loss in concentration of the scour of the main current in passing over from one concave bank to the next on the opposite side. ”

“ Old Shoreham, with its air of commerce, of stagnant commerce, stood by the sea. The tide was out, the sea gates were dry, only a few pools flashed silver amid the ooze; and the masts of the tall vessels,—tall vessels aground in that strange canal or rather dyke which runs parallel with and within a few yards of the sea for so many miles,—tapered and leaned out over the sea banks, and the points of the top masts could be counted. ”

“ Sears, yelling Whoas and compliments, stood erect upon his newly-mended legs and leaned his weight backward upon the reins. If the skipper of a Hudson River canal boat had suddenly found his craft deserting the waterway and starting to climb Bear Mountain, he might have experienced something of Sears' feelings at that moment. Canal boats should not climb; it isn't done; and horses of the Foam Flake age, build and reputation should not run away.
"Whoa! Whoa! What in thunder—?" roared the captain. ”

“ At the close of the twilight we arrived at Schoharie creek, distant 23 miles from our place of embarkation. This is the first place of danger I have yet observed. The creek is about 30 yards wide at this place, and is crossed by means of ropes stretched across the stream, which ropes are your only security; should they give way, you must inevitably go down the current and pass over a dam immediately below, of several feet perpendicular descent. In times of a freshet it is very dangerous. ”

“ During the summer and early fall, Sheila had become a splendid oarswoman. In a skiff belonging to little John-Ed which was drawn up on the sands not far from the cabin she had paddled out through the narrow neck of the tiny cove's entrance and pulled bravely through the surf and out upon the sea beyond. She had learned more than a bit of sea lore, too, from Cap'n Ira and Tunis. And regarding the edible shellfish to be found along the beaches, she was well informed.
If an old man such as Hosea Westcott, feeble and spent, no doubt, could pick up a living here, why could not she? ”

“ In ten minutes the surfaces of the buckets are black with flies. We have given over trying to keep them clear. We stir the living cream aside with the bottoms of the pints, and guzzle gallons, and sweat it out again. Occasionally a shearer pauses and throws the perspiration from his forehead in a rain.
“Shearers live in such a greedy rush of excitement that often a strong man will, at a prick of the shears, fall in a death-like faint on the board. ”

“ One of the attractions of Shoalwater Bay is the life-saving station on North Cove. The crew is composed of a captain and six men, who not only thoroughly understand their work, but are kept in training by drill. There is no hour of the day or night when the guard is broken, each man being on watch four hours of the twenty-four. When a wreck is discovered the patrol burns a signal which by percussion emits a red light that is visible a long distance, and then gives his warning to the crew in the boat-house by firing a small cannon kept ready at the light-house on the point. ”

“ Speaking in general terms of Shoal-water Bay, I do not conceive it to offer any advantages to ships which may not be had upon almost any other part of the coast; except that the tides rise higher, and in the winter season fish are more plentiful than further to the south. No fresh water was found, unless at a distance from the shore, and then only in small quantities. Pine trees are plentiful; but they grow upon the stony hills at a distance from the water side, and cannot be procured with any thing like the facility offered by Port Bowen. ”

“ It is well known that many existing shoals form, to some extent, safe roadsteads at certain times of tide, e.g. the Goodwin Sands, the banks outside Yarmouth Roads, the banks off the coast of Holland, and many other places. These are generally formed off alluvial shores, where the meeting of opposing currents causes an eddy or line of stagnation, and the alluvial matter held in suspension is deposited, forming a bank, according to the extent, width, and direction of the eddy. ”

“ Preliminary orders had already been given, looking to the digging of a canal, to connect the river at Duckport with Willow Bayou, back of Milliken's Bend, so as to form a channel for the conveyance of supplies, by way of Richmond, to New Carthage; and several steam dredge-boats had come from the upper rivers to assist in the work. One day early in April, I was up at General Grant's headquarters, and we talked over all these things with absolute freedom. Charles A. Dana, Assistant Secretary of War, was there, and Wilson, Rawlins, Frank Blair, McPherson, etc. ”

“ NUMBER SIXTEEN. Spice Islands and Moluccas in Scheerau. The Brandenburg Pond at Bayreuth is an excavated lake of five hundred days' labor, and some months ago I sat in it an hour, for they are drying it up just now for the benefit of the pale dwellers on its shores. The Scheerau pond, at which four Regents in succession kept men digging, has one hundred and twenty-nine days' work more, and is of great importance to Germany, for by its aërostatic vapors it will, as effectually as the Mediterranean Sea, change the weather in Germany, so soon as the wind passes over either. ”

“ We triumphed in the end, I would not return the way we came, so from the mainland opposite our camp, the Irishman got across hand over hand, on a wire hawser that spanned the river. It used to serve the ferry which now lies wrecked and derelict half a mile down-stream; once across he improvised a boat, out of a big wooden box and came across to fetch me.
We were rather silent at supper; there seemed some food for thought.
It is a beautiful but awesome thing, this river. Higher up just around the bend of the mountain it cascades for half a mile: thunderous and forceful. ”