with their gtiests have one week's tun. At dinner in the 

 little hotel at Chatham we met the party wlio had pre- 

 ceded us, retitrning to the "Hub" with seventy-four 

 "brant," bronzed cheeks and ravenous appetites. 



Four gtiides are engaged by the cli;b. They are men 

 who thoroughly know the habits of the lairds, understand 

 the tides and currents, and handlins: of boats, and know 

 how to shoot besides. 



One of them has been continuously at the business of 

 "gtiidin" "" for thirty-one years, during all that time onh- 

 missing two days — one when he had to go to a funeral 

 and the other when he had to go to court. The care of 

 family, the tender offices of friends, the seductions of 

 courtship, the excitement of the play or the circus, none 

 of these has any allurement for these weather-beaten, 

 bhte-eyed and kindly men when once the branting season 

 opens. During the rest of the year the}" earn a comfort- 

 able but precarious living b}' fishing and wrecking. They 

 watch the shifting sands, the gloomy fogs and the blind- 

 insr snow .storms with earnest solicitude, for this is trulv 

 a dangerous place for the iniwary mariner. Close by the 

 island lies the wreck of the Yacht Alva, which all the 

 wealth of its owner, Mr. A'anderbilt, could not save. 

 Right on the beach lie the keel, the ribs and spars of the 

 good ship Altamah, while her cargo of lumber is strewn 

 on the shore for a long distance, the drifting sand now 

 covering it up as with a winding sheet. This vessel 

 struck the wreck of the Alva, opening a huge rent in 

 her bow, and the lashing surf did the rest. During the 

 winter the fine steamer Cottage Cit}', from Portland, Me., 

 to New York, strtick in about fourteen feet of water, 



92 



