THERE SHE BLOWS!

THE AUTHOR TO HIS READERS.

The story embodied in these pages is not to beregarded as a mere "yarn." It is rather a series ofillustrated sketches of actual life on the ocean, madeup of real incidents and introducing for the mostpart real characters, many of which will be recognized.Indeed the author may truly say that in writing these"Leaves," he felt himself simply telling a story—notmaking one.

Since its first publication in serial form, nine yearsago, he has been stricken with one of the heaviest ofphysical infirmities. Doomed to life-long blindness,the recollection of years spent at sea in the prime ofmanhood, come crowding upon him more thickly thanever, and he finds his chief solace in having still retainedthe ability to write them down for the benefitand amusement of others. His seafaring friends, asthey overhaul the log of their own experience, will atonce recognize the truthfulness of the pictures he hasdrawn here.

W. H. M.

Nantucket, Mass., August, 1877.