The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1888-02-04
WHERE IS DOWN EAST?
The Story of Yankee Skipper Who
Started on Voyage OF Discovery.

Started on Voyage OF Discovery.
G. T. Holder in 81. Nicholas for February.
1t seems, according to the old story-tellers,
that years ago the captain of a New En-
gland coaster determined to discover the ex-
act location of Down East" AT every
port he visited, from Cape Cod to Boothbay,
the inhabitants all denied that they lived
there, and when asked where "Down East"
was. only pointed mysteriously up the coast.
Finally, when the skipper of the Dancing
Polly received a cargo of goods for Grand
Pre-, he was highly pleased, thinking that at
last Down East would be found, for IN
those days Nova Scotia was considered the
jumping off place"
One fine spring morning the schooner got
under way, and sailed, merrily up through
the maze of islands that skirt the coast of
Maine. Fair westerly winds favored them,
and on the second day they entered the ia
NOUS Bay of Fundy, or Fond de la Bale, as
the French call it.
The skipper had never heard of the great
tide there, and when, the following morning
the mouth of the Minnas channel appeared
on the right shore, he bore away for 1t, wing
and wing, and he was soon under the Shad-
ows of the old Acadian hill.
This rich green fields and the villages
alongshore seemed to give friendly greet
ing, and captain and crew decided that
''Down East" was very pleasant region.
But luck is tickle; and as they were bowl
ing along up the basin proper they felt
sudden jar, then heard a scraping sound,
and a moment later the Dancing Polly was
aground, under full sail.
The small boat was put out with kedge,
and the sails were braced this way and that,
but all TO no purpose-the boat was aground
hard and fast, the tide was going out, and
skipper and "crew" would have to wait until
the high tide came to float them off. 1t was
quite late in the day, and ere long the cap
tain and the cook, the great Newfoundland
dog and a yellow and black cat, who consti-
tuted the Crew all went to bed.
Early the next morning the captain was
awakened by the dog, and when he Crawled
out fhis berth he found the floor of the
cabin so ashanti that he had to scramble on
all-fOurs to reach the ladder. The schooner
was evidently heeled over. But the captain
had expected this and made his way on deck
a best he could.
Was he dreaming? He certainly thought
So and then, having some doubts, he reached
over and gently touched the yellow-and-
black cats tail. An answering wall assured
him that he was awake and that he and the
Dancing Polly were really somewhere high
up i'll midalr.
The bewildered skipper crept to the rail,
The broad stream of the day before had
vanished Not drop of water was in
sight, but far below him could be seen a
vast basin of mud, in which pigs were root
ing and grunting
For some time the skipper stood and
looked, then noticing the cook standing by
and, like himself, lost in wonder, he said;
oval, John, reckon we've reached here at
last"
Reached wheren exclaimed the cook.
'Down East" replied the old man sol
EMMY.
at looks more1ike up East and on a
powerful high perch, moreover" returned
the cook; land I'm for striking in shore"
The two men started forward and they
soon found that the schooner was resting on
a great ledge of rock like tower that rose
out of the mud. Lowering a rope over the
side, they let themselves down upon the
rock and even then were several feet from
the muddy surface.
The great pedestal upon which they stood
was covered with olive hued and black
weeds, which concealed innumerable star
fishes, sea urchins and shells, and it gradu-
ally dawned upon them that the Dancing
Polly had not been transported inland, but
that the water had gone seaward and left
them.
How to get down was the next question,
and after debate about leaving the dog
and cat, the two men finally managed to
slide slip and scramble tie the plain below,
and through mud waist deep foundered to
the shore. whore they were received with
roars of laughter by a group of fine-loolSing
Acadians. who had been watching their de-
scent and their difficult progress.
Then and there, the Yankee navigator
first heard of the Fundy tides; and several
hours later, from the deck of the little craft,
he saw the "bore" come in-first a small
stream, growing rapidly wider and deeper
until the entire basin was filled with the
surging waters that rose higher and higher,
until finally the Dancing Polly hoated free
and once more sailed away in the direction
of Grand Pre-.