Page:Familiar letters of Henry David Thoreau.djvu/109

 2ET.25.] TO SOPHIA THOREAU. 85

winds have prevailed on the Atlantic. There are always some vessels in sight ten, twenty, or thirty miles off and Sunday before last there were hundreds in long procession, stretch ing from New York to Sandy Hook, and far beyond, for Sunday is a lucky day.

I went to New York Saturday before last. A walk of half an hour, by half a dozen houses along the Richmond Road, that is the road that leads to Richmond, on which we live, brings me to the village of Stapleton, in Southfield, where is the lower dock ; but if I prefer I can walk along the shore three quarters of a mile farther toward New York to the quarantine vil lage of Castleton, to the upper dock, which the boat leaves five or six times every day, a quarter of an hour later than the former place. Farther on is the village of New Brighton, and farther still Port Richmond, which villages another steamboat visits.

In New York I saw George Ward, and also Giles Waldo and William Tappan, whom I can describe better when I have seen them more. They are young friends of Mr. Emerson. Waldo came down to the island to see me the next day. I also saw the Great Western, the Croton water works, and the picture gallery of the National Academy of Design. But I have not had time to see or do much yet.