Clarksville weekly chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1873-1890, 1886-05-08
LIFE AT NANTUCKET ISLAND
a Paradise for, Observation-Disclosures
Bathing and Blue Fishing.

Paradise for, t-seezzers--Boatins,
Bathing and Blue Fishing.
lCor. Boston Herald
From the time when the Norsemen
visited the place In, the eleventh CEN
fury, or perhaps from creations dawn
down to the present day, Nantucket has
always been an island gem in ocean set
ting. Whatever of change and reyolu4
ton may have taken place among the
peoples which have from time to time
occupied its territory, always this isle of
the sea must have presented the same
attractive and winsome features as at
present. Between thirty and forty
miles from the mainland, this scrap of
the world has offered itself to succeed
ing generations, haven of refuge and
rest and peace, and now, as never be-
fore, do these attributes appear conspic-
uous to those who seek its shores, and
their number is multiplying with mar
velous rapidity.
There is no telegraph communication
between this island and the mainland
but there will be SOON; it sometimes
happens in winter that weeks 60 by
without the possibility of passing to or
from its shores. Its population is not
increased, nor has it ever been by ad-
yenturers or ''roughs," or by discordant
elements from various clinics and ma
tlonalities. The restless, scheming, ex-
citement-seeker or wrong-doer finds
nothing attractive here; nor does the
dead beat, the hotel thief or sneak, and
the rogue that plays upon society gener-
ally, care to operate in place where he
cannot slip away o'nights aud where the
surroundings are even too Strengthened
for his line of business.
This is a paradise for women and
children, and men seeking rest and
quiet and recreation through contact
with nature best disposed for these ends.
White winged, or stately moving steam,
yachts animate the ofing on every hand,
and fit silently to or from haven and
anchorage and mooring, their companies
adding constantly shifting and always
welcome element by day or evening to
circles wherein courtesy and noble
bearing and refined intercourse are not
occasional features, but the rule of life.
Old ocean offers here all that can char
acterize her best ministrations for
humanity, and whether one whites
away the hours in boating, bathing,
fishing or watching the various ocean
moods from shore or headland, always
the entertainment furnished is superla-
tive-the very best possible under the
condition of the union of land and sea.
Most men who recognizes at all the
element of sport in fishing are agreed
that for unalloyed enjoyment, free from
dangerous or annoying features, blue
fishing takes the palm, uniting as it
does the very finest and most exciting
elements of fishing and boating. For
this pastime, and others like it, Nan
tucket seems to have been especially
formed and dropped down where she is,
there being no stint of room or any
qualification necessary to the perfection
of the sport in it's season And this,
indeed, may oe said with regard to all
kinds Of fishing incidental to ocean or
its shores, the fresh waters of Nantucket
ponds and lakelets being included in the
category of advantages
Nor do the lords of creation alone
find amusement or recreation in these
directions. On certain day last week,
as it happened within the knowledge of
the writer Of this, lady sojourner at
Nantucket secured with her own hands
upward Of 800 perch, while on the same
day, another lady caught shark nine
feet in lengtht. The range of sea game
here pursued includes varieties from
diminutive perch to sharks, swordfsh,
and all that the waters of the latitude
can furnish, and there is very little Of
''toiling all night and catching nothing
in the region of Nantucket.
But bluefshing, as has been said is
indeed the king of ocean sports. The
rendezvous, where the company is select
and sympathetic, and anticipation and
expectancy form of themselves keen en-
joyment; the boat, clean eeled, swift,
stanch and fitted up to a nicely for the
service she is to perform; the start, the
first heeling over gunwale deep before
the breeze, which promises to keep at
least one individual busy in the stern
sheets for the trip; the incidental mea
surfing of speed and qualities with other
craft outward bound each crew intend
ing to be 'high line" for the day, if
pluck and energy can assist perform
ance; the getting down to business, the
first throw, the first bite, the first fish
landed under the thwarts; think you
the evolutions of naval battle, or the
pursuit and capture of pirate in the
Yellow sea, were ever half SO salts
faotorily exciting2