274 THE ISLAND OF NANTUCKET. 



let by the day or hour. The prices vary from twenty- 

 five to fifty cents per hour, and from $1.50 to $3.00 per 

 day, according to the size of the boat.- 



Sanatory Advantages. 



See Meteorological. 



Nantucket as a sanitarium for many diseases is 

 unsurpassed by any summer or winter resort in the 

 country. All the resident physicians (one of whom 

 has lived here forty years) unite in saying that 

 during the months of June, July, August, and Sep- 

 tember, no better place can be found in New England 

 for consumptives ; and at no time are there as many 

 cases, neither is that dread disease as severe upon the 

 island in proportion, as upon the main. There is and 

 can be no malaria. Being entirely surrounded by 

 water, thirty miles at sea, a gentle breeze in the sum- 

 mer and a stronger one in winter continually sweeping 

 over it, which carries off any poisonous gases or 

 exhalations that might possibly arise, the air of this 

 island cannot be otherwise than pure, and free from 

 malaria. Neither are there the extremes of heat and 

 cold experienced upon the mainland. Rarely does the 

 temperature m the hottest summer reach ninety de- 

 grees, and for it to drop below zero in the coldest win- 

 ters is something to be talked of. 



During the summer of 1881, when people in the cities 

 were sweltering and suffering untold torments from the 

 terrible heat, the mercury marking in many places 

 through the country over one hundred degrees, a 

 44 Kendall" thermometer which hung in the doorway 



