watering-places, and others were daily following. Long
Branch is a fashionable bathing place on the Jersey shore,
to which many resort, both from this place and from New
York; the description given of the manner of bathing ap-
peared to me rather extraordinary, but the account was con-
firmed by so many different people, that I could not doubt
its correctness. The shore, it seems, is too bold to admit
of bathing machines, and the ladies have, therefore, re-
course to another mode for ensuring the enjoyment of a
sea-bath with safety. The accommodation at Long Branch
is almost entirely at large boarding-houses, where all the
company live at a table d'hôte. It is customary for ladies
on arriving to look round among the married gentlemen,
the first time they meet at table, and to select the one her
fancy leads her to prefer as a protector in her purposed
visits to the realms of Neptune; she makes her request,
which is always graciously received, that he would lead her
to taste the briny wave; but another fair one must select
the same protector, else the arrangement cannot be com-
plete, as custom does not authorize tête à tête immersion.

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