PENIKESE AND AGASSIZ. 29 



Penikese, itself, is an hourglass-shaped little islet, 

 and, in general appearance, though evidently not in 

 size, "Gosnold's Hat" indeed, with all its pokes 

 and crinkles, and just as its owner, having ' grasped 

 it in his hand, had tossed it into the broad, placid 

 bosom of the bay. When I said that it was four- 

 teen miles from land, I should have said, that it was 

 fourteen miles from New Bedford, for it is much 

 nearer the little village of Quansett, directly north- 

 west of it; and when I said that it resembled a hat, I 

 should rather have likened it to two hats placed side 

 by side, the one smaller than the other, the smaller 

 one lying nearest to the mouth of Buzzard Bay, and 

 both running parallel to the shore. Little Gull Is- 

 land is a minute near neighbor. Thus are we 

 situated. 



The beauty and attractions of Penikese Island are 

 not, at first, apparent; yet no lover of nature can 

 look upon green slopes, browned and whitened rocks, 

 plains and hillocks, or the variety in contour upon 

 our sea-girt, rocky island, without seeing in every- 

 thing both beauty and attractions. To us, it is a 

 Morgana's fairy isle, with always something new to 

 engage our attention, and wherein we would willingly 

 remain our hundred years or more, and never grow 

 old. We wander about it. On every crag the 

 sea swallows build their nests, and in every bank the 

 bank swallows dig their holes wherein they lay their 

 eggs and rear their young. The turnstone and the 

 plover linger all day among their dear pebbles, and 

 the sandpiper brings forth its nestlings amidst the 

 sparce vegetation of the sanded beach above. Birds, 

 birds, birds everywhere! The ground, the air, and 

 the waters, abound with them; and the sound of 

 their notes is incessant. The cricket and the grass- 

 hopper sing from their grassy coverts, and all nature 

 smiles. These are some of the beauties and attrac- 

 tions of Penikese. Thus did we, I, all of us, find it 

 on that first night, as we strolled here, there, every- 



