70 THE ISLAND OP NANTUCKET. 



ence io the large number of herring caught and eaten 

 there ; but the Cape-Codders and Vineyarders retali- 

 ated by calling the Nantucketers " Scrap Islanders," 

 or "Nantucket Scraps." 



The compiler was guilty, some time since, of hear- 

 ing a story to the effect that a certain gentleman, 

 whose reputation is national, had lately made a re- 

 mark " that in future he should employ the women 

 of Nantucket and not the men, as the former were 

 much superior in intelligence and vim to the latter." 

 Whether the story be true or not, it is certain that the 

 majority of the women of Nantucket are fully up in 

 intelligence, and far too many of them do more than 

 their share of the labor. During the halcyon days of 

 the whale fishery, the captains of the ships were fre- 

 quently accompanied by their wives on their long and 

 perilous voyages ; and there are even now living in 

 Nantucket a number of gentle, quiet, unassuming, and 

 womanly women, who are just as good sailors and nav- 

 igators as any man who walks the quarter-deck. It 

 was no unusual thing for a whale ship, when she vis- 

 ited an island of the Pacific for water, fruits, and vege- 

 tables, to have on board at departure an additional 

 mouth to feed, in the cabin, for which no provision 

 had been made when she sailed from Nantucket. You 

 will find, any day, on the streets of the town, boys and 

 girls and men and women who were " born round 

 Cape Horn," at some of the coral isles of the Pacific. 



The question is often asked, " How do the Nantuck- 

 eters live; what supports them? " This is a conundrum 

 that is difficult to answer. The story is told that a 

 Nantucketer once, being asked the question, answered 



