catches of one hundred and twenty-three, weighing from three to six pounds apiece, in one day.

Highland Beach, not more than one mile distant from the Highlands of the Navesink (Parkertown Station) is much frequented by picnic and excursion parties from New York and Brooklyn, and is provided with all manner of amusements in vogue at a one-day resort. The ocean and the Shrewsbury River are but a few yards apart, and the beach and stream afford exceptional facilities for bathing and fishing. On the shore just northward are seen the remains of the wrecked vessel "Kate Markee," which came ashore in the winter of 1893. A pitiful incident of that disaster was the death by drowning of the seven men comprising the crew of the illfated ship, in spite of the desperate efforts of the life saving crew and a multitude of citizens.

The old railroad crossing the river at this point has for many years been the property of the national government, and has been extended to the ordnance proving grounds at Sandy Hook, and over it passes all the great guns conveyed to that point, on cars built especially for that purpose.

Normandie, a very little farther south, is best known for its Hotel Normandie, a large and commodious house, conducted upon the highest scale of excellence. Near by are numerous elegant cottages, notably that belonging to General Frederick P. Earle. The little settlement is a favorite summer home for business men of New York, who travel back and forth daily.

Seabright, distant from New York a little more than twenty-six miles, lying between the ocean and the Shrewsbury River, is one of the most delightful villages on the coast, and in its beautifying no expense has been spared. With a permanent population of not more than twelve hundred (1,198 according to the census of 1900) it affords home-like accommodations for as many as five thousand people during the summer months. The village has a borough government which maintains excellent streets, a system of waterworks and perfect sewerage. The lighting is by electricity. Religion is represented by a Presbyterian church and education by a public school, both of which are liberally supported. In 1890 the principal business portion of the village and a portion of the adjoining fishing settlement were destroyed by fire, but not a hotel or cottage was toched by the flames.

The hotels are of the best, and either stand close alongside the beach or immediately overlook it. The Octagon, of entirely modern construction with spacious piazzas its full length on either side, provides accommodations for three hundred and fifty guests. An orchestra is maintained, and daily and weekly dancing parties are held in the spacious ball room. En connection with this hotel is the Octagon Cottage, for the convenience of

those who need to leave at early hours. Also on the beach is the Peninsula Hotel, and the Rutherford Arms and Panacci's are west of the railroad, facing the principal street. The Casino is an attractive restaurant adjacent to the bathing houses, and reached by a broad promenade of four hundred feet extending the length of the breakwater. The houses of resident property owners are of beautiful design, in all styles of architecture, and are surrounded by well kept lawns adorned with ornamental trees and shrubbery and every flower the climate will nurture.

The social life of the community during the summer season is exclusive, and in large degree centers in various clubs whose membership is restricted to cottage owners and summer visitors of recognized position in society. The Seabright Beach Club, organized to provide for its members exclusive accommodations for bathing and greater conveniences than were afforded by the public bathing houses, occupies a handsome club house upon the beach and near the railroad station. The entire lower floor is divided into handsomely appointed bathing and dressing rooms. The upper floor contains reception, reading and smoking rooms, with a sun-parlor overlooking the ocean. The Shrewsbury River affords excellent boating and fishing. Both hard and soft shelled clams are abundant, and the clambakes at Pleasure Bay near by are farms throughout the country.

The adjoining fishing village of Nauvoo appears in striking contrast with beautiful Seabright, and is in some degree reminiscent of conditions along the entire coast in earlier days, before came wealth and culture. Previous to the destructive fire previously referred to, the fishermen's village consisted of rows of unsightly unpainted single-story shacks and packing houses, and the beach was lined with fishing boats with upturned keels. Hundreds of these poor people were rendered homeless, and were cared for by charity until they were enabled to rebuild homes for themselves. This is the largest fishing settlement on the coast, and was located on account of its proximity to the famous fishing banks on the south and to other productive grounds near by.

Well kept roads lead from Seabright into an inland region, rich in historic reminiscences and presenting beautiful views of landscape adorned with elegant modern dwellings and quaint dignified homes of the Colonial type. The Rumson Road, lying between Seabright and Red Bank, famous as the most beautiful driveway in New Jersey, is constantly thronged in season with equipages which for elegance can not be surpassed in any city in the world. For miles on either side the road is lined with the summer residences of well known people of New York, those who are leaders in finance, in commerce and in the social world, who have expended fortunes in beautifying their estates. Their elegant homes, representing every style

of architecture in every land, are surrounded by spacious, well grassed grounds, guarded by carefully trimmed hedges, and adorned with the most luxuriant shrubbery and artistically constructed beds with the choicest flowers. Particularly noticeable among these is the home of Mr. Edward D. Adams, and among its interior adornments is a masterly panel painting representing the famous "Sovereign of the Sea" under full sail—a piece of work so superb that it has been reproduced on a smaller scale in the highest style of chromo-lithography. Particularly handsome is the Rumson Inn, two miles from the ocean, standing forty feet above the roadway, on a plateau so heavily timbered as to almost conceal the building. Upon the grounds are gardens bearing flowers in all the months from the earliest spring to the latest autumn, and during June and July the rose gardens are particularly attractive with their multitude of varieties. A short distance from the Inn are the grounds of the Rumson Polo Club, organized in the year 1900 by Mr. M. W. Strothers Jones. Not far distant is the pretty club house of the Seabright Tennis and Cricket Club, and beyond it the grounds of the Seabright Golf Club, a tract of nearly one hundred acres, beautifully laid out, and upon it a fine course of eighteen holes.

Low Moor is the designation of the collection of elegant mansions and beautiful cottages which line the road stretching away southward from Seabright. The course of this splendid avenue is as straight as an arrow, and in breadth and smoothness it is remindful of a driveway in the Central Park of New York. This leads through Galilee, but a mile distant.

Galilee is the name of another little assemblage of beautiful residences similar in character to those of other hamlets mentioned. It is well known for its Protestant Episcopal church of Peter of Galilee, a picturesque architectural conception, situated high up on the plateau overlooking the ocean. During the summer months services are conducted by some of the most eminent clergymen of the denomination to which it belongs. A life saving station is located here, and near by are the huts of many fishermen. Galilee was the point where the French steamship "L'Amerique" grounded years ago, and where the "Russland" stranded and went to pieces.

Monmouth Beach, a single mile farther south, is the home of one of the most exclusive little communities on the coast. It has no public hotel, but a well appointed club house is maintained, and the residents own a few dwellings additional to their own, which are only open to those approved by the permanent residential circle. A casino contains a hall and stage for private theatrical performances and for hops, a billiard room and a bowling alley. The railroad station, erected jointly by the railroad company and the residents, is a beautiful specimen of architecture. In 1871 the spot was wholly uninhabited, and there were but two buildings in the three-mile

stretch between Seabright and North Long Branch, where now are a dozen or more cottages in nearly every hundred yards. The great change and the building up of the present settlement is due to the Monmouth Beach Association.

Within the narrow stretch of land reaching southward from Sandy Hook, upon which are built the towns written of above, are a number of beautiful villages on and adjacent to the Navesink and Shrewsbury Rivers. Among these is Oceanic, on the northern extremity of the peninsula between the two streams named; Fair Haven, to the the southwest of Oceanic, on the Navesink, and Branchport on the south branch of the Shrewsbury—all most desirable spots for boating, fishing and bathing.

Pleasure Bay, two miles farther below, on the Shrewsbury River, and on the outskirts of Long Branch, with its five hotels, has for its principal feature a great park, beautifully laid out, with ample accommodations for seating large assemblages. Near by is witnessed each season one of the most unique entertainments ever brought before the amusement loving public. In 1899 the comic opera "Pinafore" was given from the deck of a barge anchored in the stream, and made to represent a man-of-war, and the realism of the performance marked it as a complete success. After a run of six weeks the "Mikado" was presented, and this was fully as successful as was the first opera. The novelty and picturesqueness of the surroundings, and the indescribable charm of melody floating over the water, delighted all hearers, and this form of entertainment was at once recognized as destined to become one of the most attractive features that could be designed for a summer resort, and an eleven weeks' season of light opera is now given each year, beginning in the last week in June. The accommodations for both performers and audience have been greatly increased. The present stage is built out in the water, about ten feet from the shore, facing a great stand on the bank, capable of seating ten thousand people.

LONG BRANCH.

Long Branch was the first distinctively summer resort of the New Jersey coast to win the favor of the pleasure-seeking public, and for many years it was the only one known to society at home and to travelers from abroad. About it cluster countless reminiscences of the past, which in such a work as this can be spoken of only too briefly, where the theme would require a volume in itself.

The Long Branch of the present day is scarcely to be identified with that of the early part of the past century, which was then a mile inland from the present city of the same name.

In 1792 Herbert & Chandler were conducting a hotel at Long Branch (then called Shrewsbury) and erected bathing houses on the beach. In 1806 the property was sold to Joshua Bennett, who enlarged the building so as to accommodate two hundred and fifty guests. In 1815 Bennett sold to another, and three days later the property was destroyed by fire. The land upon which the hotel stood was washed away by the ocean years ago. In 1819 the place had become somewhat of a resort, and according to "Niles' Register" of that year, "the company at this salubrious retreat is represented to be very numerous and respectable this season." The same publication quotes the "New York Advocate" to the effect that "there is a kind of regulation there which strangers often contravene from ignorance; that is, when the stipulated time for ladies' bathing arrives, a white flag is hoisted on the bank, when it is high treason for gentlemen to be seen there; and when the established time for gentlemen arrives, the red flag is run

LONG BRANCH VIEW.

up, which is sometimes done by mistake, and produces rather ludicrous misunderstandings."

"Gordon's Gazetteer," in 1834, mentions Long Branch as "a millstream and tributary of Shrewsbury. There is a small village of twelve or fifteen houses." In that year there was steamboat communication with New York (probably established in 1828, when a steamboat company was formed) and there was carriage travel between the place and Philadelphia.

Senator John P. Stockton, in a paper written in 1880, described Long Branch as he saw it in 1840. He wrote at considerable length, and presumably from diary entries made at the time. He said:

"I wonder how many who now visit Long Branch realize the change that forty years have brought. My first sight of the sea was from there in 1K40. My brother and I had driven down from Princeton, stopping on the way at Colt's Neck, where my father had a racing stable, and where "Fashion" was trained. Then one little steamer made the trip from New York, rounding the Hook and making her way into the Shrewsbury through an inlet at Seabright, almost at the spot where the Octagon Hotel now