198 THE SEA. 



So extreme is the difference between the intense heat of summer and the equally 

 intense cold of winter in New York, that the residents regularly get thin in the 

 former and stout in the latter. And what a sight are the two rivers at that time ! Huge 

 masses of ice, crashing among themselves, and making navigation perilous and sometimes 

 impossible, descending the stream at a rapid rate; docks and slips frozen in; the riggings 

 and shrouds of great ships covered with icicles, and the decks ready for immediate use as 

 skating-rinks. The writer crossed in the ferry-boat from Jersey City to New York, in 

 January, 1875, and acquired a sincere respect for the pilot, who wriggled and zig-zagged 

 his vessel through masses of ice, against which a sharp collision would not have been a 

 joke. When, on the following morning, he left for Liverpool, the steamship herself was 

 a good model for a twelfth-night cake ornament, and had quite enough to do to get 

 out from the wharf. Five days after, in mid- Atlantic, he was sitting on deck in the 

 open air, reading a book, so much milder at such times is it on the open ocean. 



But our leave is over, and although ib would be pleasant to travel in imaginative 

 company up the beautiful Hudson, and visit one of the wonders of the world Niagara, 

 to-day a mere holiday excursion from New York we must away, merely briefly noting 

 before we go another of the wonders of the world, a triumph of engineering skill : the 

 great Brooklyn bridge, which connects that city with New York. Its span is about three- 

 quarters of a mile; large ships can pass under it, while vehicles and pedestrians cross in 

 mid-air over their mast tops, between two great cities, making them one. Brooklyn is a 

 great place for the residences of well-to-do New Yorkers, and the view from its " Heights " 

 an elevation covered with villas and mansions is grand and extensive. Apart from this, 

 Brooklyn is a considerable city, with numerous churches and chapels, public buildings, and 

 places of amusement. 



Halifax is the northernmost depot of the whole West India and North American 

 Station, and is often a great rendezvous of the Royal Navy. It is situated on a penin- 

 sula on the south-east coast of Nova Scotia, of which it is the capital. Its situation is 

 very picturesque. The town stands on the declivity of a hill about 250 feet high, rising 

 from one of the finest harbours in the world. The city front is lined with handsome 

 wharfs, while merchants' houses, dwellings, and public edifices arrange themselves on 

 tiers, stretching along and up the sides of the hill. It has fine wide streets; the 

 principal one, which runs round the edge of the harbour, is capitally paved. The harbour 

 opposite the town, where ships usually anchor, is rather more than a mile wide, and after 

 narrowing to a quarter of a mile above the upper end of the town, expands into Bedford Basin, 

 a completely land-locked sheet of water. This grand sea-lake has an area of ten square 

 miles, and is capable of containing any number of navies. Halifax possesses another 

 advantage not common to every harbour of North America : it is accessible at all seasons, 

 and navigation is rarely impeded by ice. There are two fine lighthouses at Halifax ; that 

 on an island off Sambro Head is 210 feet high. The port possesses many large ships of 

 its own, generally employed in the South Sea whale and seal fishery. It is a very prosperous 

 fishing town in other respects. 



The town of Halifax was founded in 1749. The settlers, to the number of 3,500, 

 largely composed of naval and military men, whose expenses out had been paid by the 



