In the northern part of Massachusetts, at the mouth of the Merrimack, lies _Plum Island_, nine miles long and one wide. On the side towards the ocean it consists of sand hills twenty or thirty feet high, thrown into a thousand fantastic shapes like snow drifts in a storm. These hills are covered with low bushes bearing the beach plum, a fruit about the size of a musket ball, and of a pleasant taste; wild cherries and grapes also grow in different parts. In autumn it is much frequented by parties of pleasure from the neighborhood. At the northern extremity are two lighthouses and a hotel. _Nantucket_, twenty miles south of the main land at Cape Cod, is an island of triangular form, about fifteen miles long and eleven broad in the widest part, containing twenty-nine thousand three hundred and eighty acres. It is removed at least twenty miles from the nearest land, and, during some parts of the winter, the water is frozen around it as far as the eye can reach, for a number of weeks. The climate is comparatively of an equal temperature. Springs of water on the island below a certain level have a peculiar taste, and are disagreeable to those unused to them. The frequency of dense and heavy fogs has frustrated the attempts made here, to manufacture salt by evaporation from sea-water. The inhabitants of this island are a robust and enterprising race, chiefly seamen and mechanics; and those employed in the whale fishery are said to be superior to all others; the island, being sandy and barren, is calculated only for such people as are willing to depend almost entirely on the ocean for subsistence.[24] The people are mostly of the society of Friends, and are warmly attached to their island; few wishing to remove to a more desirable situation. There is a sand-bar at the entrance of the harbor of Nantucket, which effectually excludes large vessels, deeply laden. Some attempts have been recently made to remove this bank, and an appropriation of twenty-eight thousand dollars was made by government for this purpose; but the sand removed in summer was more than supplied in winter, and the project was abandoned. Ships now unlade at Edgartown, Martha’s Vineyard, and their cargoes are taken in small vessels to the island. Some months in the year, they can unload at the bar. South-east of the island, and out of sight of land, lie Nantucket Shoals, a dangerous reef of sand, fifty miles in extent.