Striped Bass. 



465 



variegated appearance, which 

 undoubtedly gave the promon- 

 tory its name. Black, red, yel- 

 low, blue, and white are the 

 colors represented, all strongly 

 defined, and on a clear day, dis- 

 cernible at a great distance. 

 Down their steep sides, our feet 

 sticking and sliding in the clay, moist with 

 the tricklings of hidden springs, we pick 

 our way slowly, bearing our rod and gaff-hook ; while 

 our little Indian staggers under a basket load of 

 chicken-lobsters, purchased of the neighboring fisher- 

 men at the extravagant rate of one dollar and fifty 

 cents per hundred. 



At the bottom of the cliffs we skirt along the 

 beach, stopping now and then to pick up bunches of 

 Irish moss, with which the shore is plentifully lined, 

 until we come to three or four large granite bowlders lying at the 

 edge of the water, and offering such attractions as a resting-place 

 that we stop and survey the field to select our fishing-ground. 



ON T1IK BKACII. 



Across the Vineyard Sound, about eight miles away, and stretch- 

 ing out far to the eastward, are Cuttyhunk, Nashavvcna, and Pasque 

 Islands; and about the same distance to the south-westward. the little 

 island of No Man's Land is plainly visible in the clear atmosphere 

 — even to the fishermen's huts with which it is studded. It is a 

 30 



