1879 Boston Harbor
Jan. [January] 24 Clear and moderate with
a cold wind. By invitation of Mr.
Andrew Ward I made one of a party
which was organised for [a] shooting trip
down harbor. We met at 8 A.M. at
Congress St. Bridge and going aboard
a pretty little tug were soon steaming down
the bay. The winter scenery was both
novel and beautiful. The forts and
rocky shores were cased in snow and
ice looking like the miniature designs
in frosting and sugar displayed in
shop windows at Christmas time.
The smooth round topped islands
were covered with an unbroken expanse
of spotless white and were often nearly
invisible against the sky. Only
a few sails were to be seen but
busy little tugs were officiously
puffing about the waters of the
harbor and proceeding leisurely
up the ship channel was a huge
ocean steamer, her black hulk
1879 Boston Harbor
Jan. [January 24 and red smoke stacks
looming up conspicuously against
the background of white isolated
islands. Water fowl soon began to
appear and in numbers too that quite
astonished me. In all directions
little clusters of Whistlers (B. [Bucephala] clangula)
and Sheldrake (M. [Mergus] serrator) studded
the blue water while single birds
or long lines stringing out against
the sky, hurtled to & fro from one
feeding ground to another.
The two species just named were
the most abundant but numbers
of others were noted during the
day. A moderate estimate of the
[delete]Ducks[/delete] total number of Ducks seen
would certainly reach one thousand
individual[s]. The first shot fired
was at a small Duck which was
swimming about in the smooth
water under the lee of a wharf. I
could not determine the species.