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Show PANTUCKET F A L L S. Ifland. It is fituated upon a pretty large river, and is difl:ant from Newport about thirty miles. In the morning I fet out for Bofton and arrived there about fun-fet, after a journey of five and for:y miles. The country, which I tra~elled over, is chiefly grazing ground, laid out into neat mcl~fures, furrounded with fi:one walls, and rows of pfeudo-acaeta, or locufl:-trees, which are [aid with their leaves to manure and fertilife the }and. I pa!red over a beautiful fall of water in Pantucket river, upon a bridge, which is built direCl:ly ove~ it. The fall .is about twenty feet high, through feveral chafms In a rock, wh1ch runs diametrically crofs it, and ferves as a dam to hold up the water. There are two or three mills, which have been erected for the purpofe of conduCling the different fpouts or il:reams of water to their refpeClive wheels. Thefe have taken very much from the beauty of the fcene; which would otherwife be tranfcendently elegant; for the fall, though not large or noble 1 is by far the mofl: romantic and piCturefque of any 1 met with in my tour. During the courfe of my ride from Newport, I obferved pro-digious flights of wild pigeons : they direCled their courfe to the fouthward, and the hemifphere was never intirely free from them. They are birds of pairage, of beautiful plumage, and are excellent eating. The accounts g iven of their numbers are almofi incredible, yet they are fo well atteiled, and the opportunities of proving the truth of them are fo frequent, as not to admit of their being called in quefl:ion. Towards evening they generally fettle upon trees, and fit one upon another jn fuch crouds, as fometimes to break down the largeR branches. The inhabitants, at fuch times, go out with long poles, and knock numbers of them on the head upon the roofi : for they are either fo fatigued by their flight, or terrified by the obfcu-nty B 0 s T 0 N. rity of the night, that they will not move, or take wing, without fome great and uncommon noife to alarm them. I met with fcarcely any oLher food at the ordinaries where I put up: and during their fi1ght, the common people fubfiil: almoll: wholly. upon them. Boll:on, the metropolis of MaiTachufets-Bay, in New EnO'] and, is one of the largefl: and mofl: flouri(hing towns in N or;h America. It is fituated upon a peninfula, or rather an ifland joined to the continent by an ifihmus, or narrow neck. of ]and, half a mile in length, at the bottom of a fpacious ancl noble harbour, defended from the fea by a number of fmall iilands. The length of it is ne,trly two miles, and the breadth of it, half a one; and it is fuppofed to contain 3000 houfes, and 18 or zo,ooo inhabitan ts. At the entrance of the harbour fiands a very good light-houfe; and upon an iil cmd, about a league from the town, a confiderable caf1:1e, mounting near_ I 50 cannon: there are feveral good batteries about it, and one in particular very {hong, built by Mr. Shirley. There are alfo two batteries in the town, for I 6 or 20 guns each ; but th~y are not, I believe, of any force. The buildings in Uoil:on are in · general good; the fireets are open and fpacious, and wellpaved; and the whole has much the air of fome of our belt c::ounty towns in England.-The country round about it is exceedingly delightful; ancl from a hill, which ftands clofe to the town, where there is a beacon ereCted to alarm the neighbourhood in cafe of any furprize, is one of the finefl: profpeCts, the moil beautifully variegated, and richly grouped, of any with-out exception that I have ever feen. • The chief public buildings are, three churches ; thirteen or · fourteen meeting-houfes; the governor's palace; the court .. houfe, or exchange ; Faneuils-hall; a linen manufaeturinghouf.; ; a work-houfe j a bridewell ; a public granary; and a very 77 I 760. |