26 THE ISLAND OF NANTUCKET. 



of building a jetty or pier from Brant Point to the 

 outer bar, believing that by so doing this flat, sandy 

 obstruction could be removed, or at least a sufficient 

 depth of water gained for a ship channel. All of our 

 town meetings were predicated upon the project of 

 overcoming this obstacle that was so subversive of all 

 commercial enterprises. 



" In 1825, Thomas Folger, Esq. (the father of the new 

 Secretary of the Treasury), and others were appointed 

 by the town a committee to proceed to "Washington 

 and solicit aid from Congress. The committee did not 

 succeed in getting an appropriation for a jetty or a 

 pier. That their efforts were not entirely fruitless, 

 however, is evinced by the fact that in 1826 Col. An- 

 derson surveyed the whole bay coast from Brant Point 

 to Great Point; and in 1827, under superintendence of 

 Col. Prescott, a dredging machine of great power was 

 sent here, and was in operation two or three years, dig- 

 ging a channel to the outer buoys, deepening the water, 

 and making the people happy for a time. So soon , how- 

 ever, as the autumn gales came, the channel filled up 

 again, and the project of digging out the bar was 

 abandoned. 



" The attention of our people was then directed to the 

 opening of a channel at the east end of the island sim- 

 ilar to the Suez Canal ; but it was found that this canal 

 or opening would necessitate the building of two stone 

 piers out into deep water, in order to prevent the north 

 and south tides from filling it up again. This would of 

 course be attended with an enormous outlay, and there 

 were grave doubts of its practicability." 



The matter has since then been airitated from time 



