through the marshes between Assawaman Island and the mainland, I crossed
another shoal bay, and another inlet opened in the beach, through which
the ocean was again seen. This last was Gargathy Inlet. Before reaching
it, as night was coming on, I turned up a thoroughfare and rowed some
distance to the mainland, where I found lodgings with a hospitable
farmer, Mr. Martin R. Kelly. At daybreak I crossed Gargathy Inlet.

It was now Saturday, November 28; and being encouraged by the successful
crossing of the inlets in my tiny craft, I pushed on to try the less
inviting one at the end of Matomkin Island. Fine weather favored me, and
I pushed across the strong tide that swept through this inlet without
shipping a sea. Assawaman and Gargathy are constantly shifting their
channels. At times there will be six feet of water, and again they will
shoal to two feet. Matomkin, also, is not to be relied on. Every
northeaster will shift a buoy placed in the channels of these three
inlets, so they are not buoyed.

Watchapreague Inlet, to the south of the three last named, is less
changeable in character, and is also a much more dangerous inlet to
cross in rough weather. From Matomkin Inlet the interior thoroughfares
were followed inside of Cedar Island, when darkness forced me to seek
shelter with Captain William F. Burton, whose comfortable home was on
the shore of the mainland, about five miles from Watchapreague Inlet.
Here I was kindly invited to spend Sunday. Captain Burton told me much
of interest, and among other things mentioned the fact that during one
August, a few years before my visit, a large lobster was taken on a
fish-hook in Watchapreague Inlet, and that a smaller one was captured in
the same manner during the summer of 1874.

Monday was a gusty day. My canoe scraped its keel upon the shoals as I
dodged the broken oyster reefs, called here "oyster rocks," while on
the passage down to Watchapreague Inlet. The tide was very low, but the
water deepened as the beach was approached. A northeaster was blowing
freshly, and I was looking for a lee under the beach, when suddenly the
canoe shot around a sandy point, and was tugging for life in the rough
waters of the inlet. The tide was running in from the sea with the force
of a rapid, and the short, quick puffs of wind tossed the waves wildly.
It was useless to attempt to turn the canoe back to the beach in such
rough water, but, intent on keeping the boat above the caps, I g