This was "independence day" in Boston.
What firing of guns, and ringing of bells, and rejoicings of
all sorts, in every part of our country!
The ladies (who have
not gone down to Nahant, for a breath of cool air, and sight of
the ocean) walking the streets with parasols over their heads,
and the dandies in their white pantaloons and silk stockings!
What quantities of ice-cream have been eaten, and what quantities
of ice brought into the city from a distance, and sold out by the
lump and the pound! The smallest of the islands which we saw
today would have made the fortune of poor Jack, if he had had it
in Boston; and I dare say he would have had no objection to being
there with it. This, to be sure, was no place to keep the fourth
of July. To keep ourselves warm, and the ship out of the ice,
was as much as we could do. Yet no one forgot the day; and many
were the wishes, and conjectures, and comparisons, both serious and
ludicrous, which were made among all hands. The sun shone bright
as long as it was up, only that a scud of black clouds was ever
and anon driving across it. At noon we were in lat. 54° 27' S.,
and long. 85° 5' W., having made a good deal of easting, but having
lost in our latitude by the heading of the wind. Between daylight
and dark - that is, between nine o'clock and three - we saw thirty-
four ice islands, of various sizes; some no bigger than the hull
of our vessel, and others apparently nearly as large as the one
that we first saw; though, as we went on, the islands became
smaller and more numerous; and, at sundown of this day, a man at
the mast-head saw large fields of floating ice called "field-ice"
at the south-east.
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