Septr 20th, [1857] Pretty constant occupation has diverted my attention from this Journal. I have been much engaged in putting up a new kitchen to the quarters here, & in superintending the relaying of a heavy wall opposite to the river wharf. Since my last entry I have visited various points on the seaboard, Belfast, Castine, Wiscasset & Hunnewell’s Point, & have been delighted with the scenery on this coast. It is bold, rocky & picturesque in the extreme, abounding with deep bays & rocky inlets. It is wroth a visit to Castine to see its pretty bay [Penobscot]. I was sent to these various points, to inspect the old fortification & examine their sites, probably with reference to the sale of the latter.
The summer has proved a very cold one, justifying the description of the climate of Nova Scotia, where there is “nine months of winter and three months of cold weather.”
We have been visited by various of our friends, among the rest my brother Solomon & his daughter Nellie & my sister Sarah [Gorgas Dorsheimer]. I had not seen them for five or six years.
To-day we are again alone, enjoying our now comfortable quarters, & the wood fire which the cool weather makes very agreeable.
The news of the loss of the Central American steamer from Aspenwall to N. York, with 500 of her crew & passengers reached us the 18th. It is the most fearful catastrophe of the kind that has happened within my memory.
