CHAPTER X. CAPES AND PENINSULAS.

Previous

Cape Ann, the northern limit of Massachusetts Bay, is a rocky promontory, fifteen miles in length, containing several good harbors. The peninsula of Cape Cod, in the south-east part of Massachusetts, is about sixty-five miles long, and from one to twenty miles broad; its shape is nearly that of a man’s arm bent inward at the elbow and wrist. The greater part of the peninsula is a barren desert; in the south-western portion the land, though sterile, is under some little cultivation; but the northern part consists almost wholly of hills of white sand. The houses are built upon stakes driven into the ground, with open spaces between for the sand to drift through. The cape is well inhabited, notwithstanding its sterility, and supports a population of twenty-eight thousand, who derive their subsistence chiefly from the fisheries. The coast is beset with numerous shoals, and has long been the dread of mariners. At the first settlement of the country, there was an island east of the cape, about nine miles out at sea, which was twenty acres in extent, and covered with savin and cedar trees; for a century this island has been entirely submerged, and the water is above six fathoms deep.

The peninsula of Nahant, a few miles north of the harbor of Boston, is connected with the main land by Lynn beach, a smooth and level floor of sand two miles in length. It is divided into Great Nahant, Little Nahant, and Bass Neck: the two former being connected by a delightful beach ninety rods long. These beaches are hard and smooth, and of sufficient width at low water to accommodate thousands with a pleasant walk or ride. Great Nahant contains three hundred and five acres of land. The shores of this peninsula are bold and rocky. On its southern side is a large and curious cavern called the Swallows’ House, inhabited by a great number of swallows, which here make their nests. On the northern shore is a chasm thirty feet deep, called the Spouting Horn, into which, at about half-tide, the water rushes with great violence and a tremendous sound.

Nahant presents some of the most striking sea views in the world. After an easterly storm, the violent dashing of the huge waves against the rocks presents a spectacle possessing all the elements of the sublime. During the heat of summer, Nahant is a favorite place of resort for invalids, and people of fashion, on account of its cool and refreshing breezes.

Cape May, on the coast of New Jersey, and the northern point of the mouth of Delaware Bay, is the termination of a range of low, sandy, barren coast, commencing at Shrewsbury. It is eighteen miles north-east of Cape Henlopen, a point on the southern coast of the entrance to the same bay. On this cape is a lighthouse of an octagon form, handsomely built of stone, one hundred and fifteen feet high, and on a foundation nearly as much above the level of the sea. Cape Henry is the southern salient point at the mouth of Chesapeak Bay; and its northern salient point, twelve miles distant to the north, is the promontory of Cape Charles.

Cape Hatteras, the most remarkable and dangerous cape on the coast of North American, is situated in latitude thirty-five degrees and twelve minutes, and has occasioned the destruction of many a fine vessel, and the loss of hundreds of valuable lives. The water is very shoal at a great distance from the cape, which is remarkable for sudden and violent squalls of wind, and for the most severe storms of thunder, lightning, and rain, which happen almost every day for one half the year. The shoals lie about fourteen miles south-west of the cape, and are nearly five or six acres in extent, with about ten feet water. Here, at times, the ocean breaks in a tremendous manner, spouting as it were to the clouds, from the violent agitation of the Gulf Stream, which touches the edge of the banks.

Cape Fear and Cape Lookout are dangerous capes on the coast of North Carolina. The former is the southern extremity of Smith’s Island, at the mouth of the river of the same name. About sixty years ago, Cape Lookout afforded an excellent harbor, capacious enough for a large fleet in good deep water; but the basin is now filled up. Roman is the name of a cape on the coast of South Carolina, and of one on the western coast of East Florida. Cape Cannaveral is on the Atlantic coast of Florida, being the projecting point of a long, narrow and low sandy island between Indian river and the ocean. Cape Florida is a promontory of the south-eastern coast of Florida, projecting to the south, and inclosing on the north-east the Bay of Biscino. Cape Sable is the extreme point of Florida. Every part of the coast of the Southern States is low and flat, without a single lofty headland to warn the navigator of his approach to the land. The peninsula of East Florida may be considered an immense cape, and much the largest in the United States. The Mississippi has formed at its mouth, by the mud brought down in its waters, a cape forty miles in extent, the extreme point of which is called the Balize, through the whole length of which the river passes into the Gulf of Mexico.

GENERAL REMARKS ON CAPES AND PENINSULAS.

Parts of continents which shoot into the sea, and are connected with the main land by only a small portion of their circumference, are named peninsulas, and their figures often correspond with those of gulfs and inland seas. When such masses of land are attached to the continent by a greater extent of line than one fourth of their circumference, they are not considered as peninsulas. If the projection of land reach but a short distance, they are called capes, promontories, or simply points. The most remarkable capes in the world are, Cape Horn, St.Roque, Blanco, Cod, Verd, Good Hope, Gardafui, North, Comorin, and Taymour.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                           

Clyx.com


Top of Page
Top of Page