TOM never's HEAD. 315 



After the above was written, the following item 

 appeared in the Nantucket Inquirer and Mirror of Dec. 

 24, 1S8L: — 



" Telegraphic. — A private letter from Hon. W. W. 

 Crapo, received in town a few days since, states that 

 Lieut. Swift, who recently made a survey here, has 

 recommended to the War Department an appropria- 

 tion of $32,000 for establishing telegraphic communi- 

 cation between Nantucket and Martha's Vineyard." 



This seems to mean business. 



Tom Never's Head. 



This bluff is situated about six miles southeast of 

 the town. Mr. Northrop, in his " 'Sconset Cottage 

 Life," has so beautifully described his u lonely even- 

 ing tramp " to this spot, and has given so realistic a 

 picture of it, that an extract from his book is here 

 given : — 



" Pausing here awhile to gather in all the glamour 

 and romance of the scene, at an hour when one's 

 fancy paints the most common things with rarest 

 shades and hues, I climbed the hill and stood on the 

 brink of the lofty height of the bluff, — the 'Head'! 

 Here, on the right the ocean sweeps away to the west- 

 ward, and on the left to the north, — the ocean, vast, 

 tragic, eternal; the ocean, rolling its mysterious tides 

 around the world, and sweeping all shores. The 

 moon struggled up through the waves, and poured the 

 glory of its beams over the dark and heaving sea. All 

 the crests of the grandly rolling billows gleamed. The 

 gnashing teeth, gnawing at the beach far below, Hashed 

 in the cold light. Dimly 1 discerned the stranded hulk 



