Page:Scenes in my Native Land.pdf/48

44 Farewell to Old Montauk, and gave thee thanks, Ultima Thule of that noble Isle Against whose breast the everlasting surge Long travelling on, and ominous of wrath, Incessant beats. Thou lift'st a blessed torch Unto the vexed and storm-tossed mariner, Guiding him safely on his course again; So teach us mid our own dark ills to guard The lamp of charity, and with clear eye Look up to Heaven.

The peninsula of Montauk, on the eastern end of Long Island, is about nine miles in length, and from two to three in breadth, gradually narrowing until ends in a bold cliff upon which the light-house is situated. It is connected with the island by a neck of land called Nappeag Beach, which is but a waste of sand, thrown by the winds and waves into hillocks and ridges, and covered in some places with a scanty vegetation. Leaving this beach and entering upon the upland of the peninsula, we find an uneven surface, moulded into various fantastic forms, the base of which is sand, but which is covered with a soil that yields excellent grass for cattle. The land is, in fact, a vast common, belonging to the people of East Hampton; and here, during the summer, large herds and flocks are fed. There is perhaps no part of our country where the traveller will find such an extent of cleared