Cape May

“ The world outside appears like a series of pictures seen through an artist's finder. If your house tops a dune on the narrow part of the Cape, you may see the sails on the horizon of the Atlantic on the east, and the sails on the horizon of the Bay on the west; a clear view of the salt water straight across the Cape in both directions.
As you go down from Barnstable to Provincetown, in automobile or by train, you notice that there are more windows than you expect to see in the triangle under the slope of the roofs. ”

“ Nature, with its love of simple, sweeping lines, and its feeling for atmospheric effect, has done everything for the place, and bad taste has not quite spoiled it. There is a sloping, shallow beach, very broad, of fine, hard sand, excellent for driving or for walking, extending unbroken three miles down to Cape May Point, which has hotels and cottages of its own, and lifesaving and signal stations. Off to the west from this point is the long sand line to Cape Henlopen, fourteen miles away, and the Delaware shore. ”

“ When we learn its history and observe the age-old forces that continue to work today, the lesson seems to be that any human occupation of the Earth is, at best, tentative and transitory, and particularly so here. The waves, beaches, dunes, and trees of the Cape continue to dance, and we have begun to learn to dance with them—to understand and adapt to the land’s rhythms, tempos, and limits—so that we and those who come after us may continue to enjoy all that it has to offer. For it is we, residents and visitors alike, who are today’s Cape Codders. ”

“ The geographical position of the Cape of Good Hope points out the importance of this colony in a commercial and military point of view; situate half-way between England and India, in a wholesome climate, and producing refreshments of every description, it is capable of becoming a particularly valuable post. In the event of a war, the power which holds the Cape may be said to possess the key of India. It is capable of becoming a valuable station for naval and military establishments to give effectual security to the Indian trade and settlements. ”

“ A view from the top over the sea, the river, and the surrounding country, well repays the climber. Our worthy German vice-consul, Herr Krouse, and his excellent family, have offered civilities tending to make my sojourn very agreeable. The soil is sandy, the streets unpaved, and in some respects I am reminded of Cape May; but an excursion a few miles brings one to dense pine forests, then to fertile pasture fields, where fine crops of hay have been gathered ”

“ The lateness of the arrival on the coast, and the difficulties ever attendant on doubling Cape Cod, properly turned to account, would increase the anxiety for almost any landing-place, and render it easy to retain the sea-worn colonists when once on shore. The grand advantage, however, over and above all else, was the entire ease and certainty with which the cooperation of the one man essential to the success of the undertaking could be secured, without need of the privity of any other, viz. the Master of the MAY-FLOWER, Captain Thomas Jones. ”

“ In summer they are the air-conditioners which give the Cape comfortable temperature while the nearby cities of the Mainland swelter. In November, their warmth holds back the winter and the threat of snow turns to rain. Then, until they are warmed again, they will, in April, hold back the springtime. Then, when your heart is ready for sunlight and the promise of spring, there may be a series of gray days with a chilling blast of moist air from the Sound, and in your impatience it seems as if it must be fated to be a year without a summer. ”

“ We crossed a brook, not more than fourteen rods long, between Orleans and Eastham, called Jeremiah’s Gutter. The Atlantic is said sometimes to meet the Bay here, and isolate the northern part of the Cape. The streams of the Cape are necessarily formed on a minute scale, since there is no room for them to run, without tumbling immediately into the sea; and beside, we found it difficult to run ourselves in that sand, when there was no want of room. Hence, the least channel where water runs, or may run, is important, and is dignified with a name. ”

“ The great ice current, flowing down the east coast of Greenland and diverted by the Gulf Stream, sweeps round Cape Farewell and is closely packed along this shore until late in the season. Almost the whole coast, with numerous islands and entrances to the deep fjords, may be taken in at a glance from Cape Farewell, or at least from Cape Christian to Cape Desolation. It comprises the whole of the ancient colony of the East Bygd. Great precipices face the sea, with black mountains, 3000 to 4000 ft. high, rising above them. ”

“ The high part of Cape-Barren Island, but particularly the peak, may be seen eleven, and perhaps more leagues from a ship's deck. The extremity of the cape is a low point, which runs out two miles east from the high land; and off this point lies a flat, rocky islet and a peaked rock. The shore is sandy on each side of the Cape point: it trends N. 40° W., for about five miles, on one side, and S. 49° W., past two sandy bights on the other, to a rocky projection on which are two whitish cones, shaped like rhinoceros' horns. ”

“ The caudal arrangements of the sheep at the Cape bear a great similarity to those at Shanghae.
After supper set out for a walk, in which were disappointed by a shower. It rains only in the winter season here, but heavy dews in the summer make up this deficiency of nature's nourishment, and the colony is carpeted with herbage of the most delicious fragrance, so that the paths of the colonists may then be said to be strewn with flowers.
The winters at the Cape are extremely mild; no snow falls there; and if at night ice is formed, it does not long withstand the rays of the sun. ”

“ At noon on the 22d March we made the latitude 15° 20' N. and at two p.m. were abreast of Mayo, one of the Cape Verd islands, being S.W. by S. about twelve leagues from Bonavista. To the N. and N.N.W. of Mayo the ground is all foul, and due N. of the high hummocks a great ledge of rocks runs out from the land for five or six miles, a mile without which ledge there are twenty fathoms water. On the west side of the island, you may borrow in twelve or fifteen fathoms, till you come into the road, where we anchored in twenty-four fathoms. ”

“ Cape Cod: a sandbar, one may have the more excuse for judging, as the land lifts to the wind-swept plains of Truro. There is a change in the aspect of the Cape as it turns due north to brace itself against the thunderous approach of the Atlantic. Straight and defiant, it holds its own to the Clay Pounds at Highland Light, the Indians’ Tashmuit, and then, little [Pg 8] by little, the ocean pushes it back and folds it over in the graceful curve of the tip at Provincetown. ”

“ She is more renowned for the comfort and luxury of her internal arrangements than for her speed. As we are to stop at the Cape for a short time, I hardly expect to be with you till the end of May, or the beginning of June. ”

“ Here in New England, the sailing fraternity may be divided into those who prefer the Maine coast and those who cling to the Cape and Buzzard’s Bay. As one of the latter class, I always claim our supremacy by stating two points which I believe to be true: first, that we have more wind, and second, that we have less fog. To me this is convincing. The southwest wind which cools the Cape, blows nearly every day [137] in summer and with a strength that often requires reefing. Rarely between ten in the morning and five at night will the mariner find himself becalmed in Buzzard’s Bay. ”

“ Provincetown—At the tip end of the Cape, except for a narrow strip of land entirely surrounded by water. It has all the attractions of an island and none of its disadvantages. The town is quaint in its architecture, unique in its surroundings and especially attractive to artists who form a large part of the summer colony there. It is the summer rendevouz of the North Atlantic fleet of the U.S. Navy and the home port of a large fishing fleet. It has excellent hotels, and rooms and board may be obtained in many private families. It may be reached by boat from Boston, by train or by automobile. ”

“ To a careful and candid student of all the facts, the proofs are seemingly unmistakable, and the conclusion is unavoid able, that the MAY- FLOWER Pilgrims were designedly brought to Cape Cod by Captain Jones, and their landing in that latitude was effected, in pursuance of a conspiracy entered into by him, not with the Dutch, but with certain of the nobility of England ”

“ Here’s plenty of all sorts of Beasts and Fowl, wild and tame; and in short, there’s nothing wanting at the Cape of Good Hope, for a good Subsistence; nor is there any Place more commodious for a Retirement to such as would be out of the Noise of the World, than the adjacent Country in possession of the Dutch.
Nothing remarkable happen’d till the 1st of May, only I continued very ill, as my Ship did leaky, and sometimes we Sailing from the Cape towards Europe. {309} had Thunder, Lightning, Rain, and Squalls of Wind. Yesterday Afternoon we had sight of the Island St. ”

“ Your ship cannot double Cape Horn by its excellent plans of voting. The ship may vote this and that, above decks and below, in the most harmonious exquisitely constitutional manner: the ship, to get round Cape Horn, will find a set of conditions already voted for, and fixed with adamantine rigor by the ancient Elemental Powers, who are entirely careless how you vote. If you can, by voting or without voting, ascertain these conditions, and valiantly conform to them, you will get round the Cape: if you cannot, the ruffian Winds will blow you ever back again; ”

“ Somehow, Fel, being a lady-child, never stained her cape bonnet, while mine was all streaks; and she never tore her skirts off the waist; but what if I did tear mine? They always grew together again, I never stopped to think how. ”

“ I came at last to the little wind-swept divide between Table Mountain and the Lion's Head. Here Capetown was lost to me, and I stood among sandy wastes where thin pines and whin-like bushes grow. And further still was the cold grey sea with the waves breaking on a rocky point and a little island all awash with white water.
Though beyond this divide the air was cold as death, the slopes of Table Mountain sweeping to the sea were full of colour; deep, strong, stern colour. When the sun shines and full summer rules upon the Cape Peninsula the place must be glorious. ”

“ What a naked, spiritless coast scene! To the south of my position (at Long Beach,) the green headland of the Cape stands with its feet in the sea. Some large rocks and bowlders are scattered for a little distance above that, and then, nothing! Not a shell, or wading bird, not even a rope of kelp on the sands, or a bit of colored seaweed to catch the eye; only the ever-restless, but at this season unimpassioned, sea. Even the wind has ceased to buffet us, and only the free motion of our clean-limbed roadster makes a breeze to quicken the blood in our cheeks. ”

“ Leaving the beach to continue down Cape, you come suddenly upon the strangest scenery of all, where the moors of Wellfleet and Truro swell out of the Bay in fantastic shapes, and merely condescend to allow the old County Road to pass through them—which it does not do easily. The hills have been softly rounded by time and the wind, and they rise sometimes to great heights, only to fall off into sheltered valleys where the scrub pines grow. It is a crazy-quilt of topography and color, nearly smothered by a blanket of wild cranberry that is glossy-green in summer and scarlet in winter. ”

“ It is a time of sunshine, tanning and gilding, and the soft, dreamy haze of August. It is roses tumbling over fences and the merry tinkle of ice in frosted glasses. It is blue skies and white clouds, and blue waters and white sails, and the drone of outboards on the River.... It is extra clerks in the stores and the cheerful jingle of bulging cash registers, and better still, the shouts and laughter of children as they splash in the warm waters of the Cape while the fizzing spray breaks over them, and the sun toasts them, and they are free. Have you seen the sunrise over Chatham Bars? ”

“ We had already come to Pamet River, which empties into the Bay. This was the limit of the Pilgrims’ journey up the Cape from Provincetown, when seeking a place for settlement. It rises in a hollow within a few rods of the Atlantic, and one who lives near its source told us that in high tides the sea leaked through, yet the wind and waves preserve intact the barrier between them, and thus the whole river is steadily driven westward butt-end foremost,—fountain-head, channel, and light-house at the mouth, all together. ”

“ The impressive scenery and bold picturesqueness all about attract many artists, who haunt the rocks and sea views of Cape Ann. The whole district is full of summer-homes, with flower-gardens and shrubbery amid the rocks and boulders, and the cliffs and ocean presenting an endless variety of changing scenery. The outer extremity of the Cape, long called Halibut Point, has been modernized into the Land's End, thus being rightly named as the termination of the great Massachusetts granite ridge, which falls away sharply into the sea. ”