apparently much
nearer to each other, and to the looker-on, than they had ever before
appeared. The city of Jersey, the woods of Hoboken, and the far-off
bluffs of the Palisadoes, were each seen to stand separated and alone;
not blended together into one harmonizing mass, as, through the medium
of a rich warm atmosphere, I had hitherto viewed them. The effect was
for a moment to render this scene, which frequent observation had made
familiar, quite strange to me; and at the same time to invest its now
separate portions with new and peculiar attractions.

The yet quiet city soon dropped astern; and on a good plan of its
streets one might have traced the earliest and most notable of its
sections, if not the particular houses, by the thin spiral lines of
smoke which curled distinctly high above the chimneys from which they
escaped.

We held our course close along the east side of Staten Island; and as we
shot by the quarantine establishment, with its hospital and many
offices, the sun rose, without one attendant cloud, over the forest
heights of Brooklyn, burnishing, as with gold, every window and
weathercock opposed to its radiance.

The drooping boughs of the graceful willow tribes, and all the
neighbouring shrubs, which only a moment before I had shivered to look
upon, bent down, as they appeared, beneath a load of ungenial icicles,
were now, as though touched by some enchanter's wand, sparkling and
brilliant, reminding one of the diamond-growing trees of young Aladdin's
cave.

The Narrows were next passed, but the view seaward was bleak and
cheerless: the Neversink hills for the first time appearing to me worthy
such a high-sounding distinction. Not a symptom of frost was here,
although the wind had ceased to stir the waters of the bay, and to the
sun alone was left the task of opposing the advance of the ice-king.
Sol, though with diminished powers, had made a glorious rally on this
day; for not a thicket or creek within sight but rejoiced in his
cheering rays, and gladly owned his supremacy.

The smoothness of the sea enabled our boat to make rapid way; and by a
little after ten o'clock we were landed at Amboy, where we found the
train awaiting our arrival. As we left our first stage, Hights-town, an
accident occurred similar to the one I had, on my last trip southward,
seen attended by such fearful consequences. We were proceeding, luckily
at a moderate rate, when the axle of the engine-tender broke in two:
t