24 SEVERE FROST AT BOSTON. [CHAP. I. 



Anne, and a small and gayly painted green schooner, in full sail, 

 and scudding rapidly through the water, brought us a pilot. In 

 a few hours the long line of coast became more and more distinct, 

 till Salem, Nahant, Lynn, the harbor of Boston and its islands, 

 and at last the dome -of the State House, crowning the highest 

 eminence, came full into view. To us the most novel feature in 

 the architectural aspect of the city, was the Bunker Hill Monu 

 ment, which had been erected since 1842 ; the form of which, 

 as it resembles an Egyptian obelisk, and possibly because I had 

 seen that form imitated in some of our tall factory chimneys, gave 

 me no pleasure. 



After the cloudy and stormy weather we had encountered in 

 the Atlantic, and the ice and fogs seen near the great banks, we 

 were delighted with the clear atmosphere and bright sunshine of 

 Boston, and heard with surprise of the intense heat of the sum 

 mer, of which many persons had lately died, especially in New 

 York. The extremes, indeed, of heat and cold in this country, 

 are truly remarkable. Looking into the windows of a print 

 shop, I saw an engraving of our good ship, the Britannia, which 

 we had just quitted, represented as in the act of forcing her way 

 through the ice of Boston harbor in the winter of 1844 a truly 

 arctic scene. A fellow passenger, a merchant from New York, 

 where they are jealous of the monopoly hitherto enjoyed by their 

 New England rival, of a direct and regular stearn communica 

 tion with Europe, remarked to me that if the people of Boston 

 had been wise, they would never have encouraged the publication 

 of this print, as it was a clear proof that the British government 

 should rather have selected New York, where the sea never 

 freezes, as the fittest port for the mail packets. I had heard 

 much during the voyage of this strange adventure of the Britan 

 nia in the ice. Last winter it appears there had been a frost of 

 unusual intensity, such as had not been known for more than half 

 a century, which caused the sea to be frozen over in the harbor 

 of Boston, although the water is as salt there as in mid-ocean. 

 Moreover, the tide runs there at the rate of four or five miles an 

 hour, rising twelve feet, and causing the whole body of the ice to 

 be uplifted arid let down again to that amount twice every twen- 



