100 EXCURSION TO SALEM. [CHAP. VII. 



goose, having one leg tied by a string to a small leaden weight ; 

 and near it were a row of wooden imitations of geese, the sight 

 of which, and the cries of the tame goose, attract the wild birds. 

 As soon as they fly down they are shot by sportsmen of a true 

 New England stamp, not like the Indian hunters, impatient of 

 a sedentary life or steady labor, but industrious cobblers, each sit 

 ting all day at his own door, with his loaded gun lying by his 

 side, his hands occupied in stitching &quot; russet brogans&quot; or boots 

 for the southern negroes, to be sold at the rate of twenty cents, or 

 tenpence a pair. After working an hour or two, he seizes his 

 gun, and down comes a goose, which may fetch in the Boston 

 market, in full season, two and a half dollars the value of a 

 dozen pair of brogans. 



As we approached the capital, we met a large wooden barn 

 drawn by twenty-four oxen. It was placed on rollers, which 

 were continually shifted from behind forward, as fast as the barn 

 passed over them. The removal of this large building had be 

 come necessary, because it stood directly in the way of the new 

 railway from Boston to Plymouth, which is to be opened in a few 

 weeks. A fellow-traveler told us of a wooden meeting-house in 

 Hadley, which had been transferred in like manner to a more 

 populous part of the township. &quot; In English steeple-chases,&quot; 

 said he, &quot; the church itself, I believe, does not take part ?&quot; 



Nov. 6. Made an excursion to the seaport of Salem, about 

 fourteen miles to the N.E. of Boston, a place of 17,000 inhab 

 itants, f 



Dr. Wheatland, a young physician, to whom I had gone 

 without letters of introduction, politely showed us over the 

 Museum of Natural History, of which he was curator; and 

 over another full of articles illustrative of the arts, manners, and 

 customs of the East Indies, China, and Japan ; for this city is a 

 great resort of retired merchants and sea-captains. In both col 

 lections there are a variety of objects which may appear, on a 

 hasty view, to form a heterogeneous and unmeaning jurnble, but 

 which are really curious and valuable. Such repositories ought 

 to accompany public libraries in every large city, for they aflord 

 a kind of instruction which can not be obtained from books. To 



