Eastern coast

“ As the east coast of the United States may be compared, in equal latitudes, with the Siberian and Chinese eastern coasts of Europe, in respect to mean annual temperature, so the western coasts of Europe and America have also very justly been compared together. ”

“ On the coast and in the rich valleys stand the giant pines and cedars, compared with which the trees of the Eastern division seem mere saplings. The coast is very mountainous and broken into innumerable inlets and islands, all of them heavily timbered to the water's edge. The history of this region offers little of picturesque interest except what may be found in the adventures of daring sailors of various nationalities on the Pacific coast, or in the story of the descent of the Fraser by the Scotch fur-trader who first followed it to the sea, and gave it the name which it still justly bears. ”

“ On the great coast line referred to above is the center of the great natural acclivities of the globe. It is the most varied, the most stimulating, and the most productive in all departments of the vegetable and animal kingdoms. The Atlantic coast belt, which also has great influence on the eastern districts of the new world and the western districts of the old, crosses the great coast belt at almost right angles at the place of its great sundering between Cape Horn and the Cape of Good Hope. ”

“ A single glance at the map will make the reader acquainted with the position of the eastern coast of the Island of Great Britain, as connected with the shores of the opposite continent. ”

“ The depth diminished from 20 to 10 fathoms, in passing near a sunken rock two miles to the south-east of the point, and upon which the sea breaks only at times. The coast from thence trended rapidly to the northward; and in following its direction at from three to five miles distance, we left eight islands of the Eastern Group on the starbord, and two on the larbord hand. These, with the exception of the southernmost, which has a hill at each end and some vegetation, are little better than low sterile rocks. ”

“ In returning you will run along the coast as far as it extends to northward, next proceeding on an eastern course or in such wise as you shall find the land to extend: in which manner you will follow the coast as close inshore and as long as you shall find practicable, and as you deem your victuals and provisions to be sufficient for the return-voyage, even if in so doing you should sail round the whole land and emerge to southward. ”

“ There are practically no rocks on our Southeastern coast, so that we must imagine ourselves now somewhere in New England—let us say on the southern shore of Rhode Island. All along the north side of Long Island Sound, about Buzzards and Narragansett bays, and then from Boston Harbor right up to Labrador, the shore is rock, with many headlands, reefs, and islets, separated by shallow coves or by swift tidal runways. ”

“ While in stays the water was observed to wash on a rock not a hundred yards to leeward of us, on which we must infallibly have struck, had we bore up instead of tacking.
[Sidenote: South-east coast dangerous.]
From the north-east to the south-east point, the coast runs south 40o west; the shore to the north-east of this deep bight is bold, and seems clear; that on the south-west side of it presents a formidable barrier of islands and coral reefs, which break to a great distance: in fine weather this part of the coast ought to be approached very cautiously. ”

“ When the rich meadow-lands of the west coast are in all their glory, they show many dazzling tints and shades, the deep tender green being dashed and flushed with yellow, and purple, and scarlet, and blue, over which the delighted eye wanders to a belt of bright sand upon the shore, and the vast azure expanse of the Atlantic beyond. Inland are the heath-clad moors, sprinkled with grey boulders and masses of barren rock, and interspersed with lakes, some of which are starred with clusters of lovely water-lilies. ”

“ The hungry ocean has gnawed and ravaged the New England coast, until along almost its entire length it is worn into ragged edges, forming islands, capes, promontories, bold headlands, peninsulas, bays, inlets and coves. In this coast are united the grand, the picturesque and the beautiful. Soft masses of foliage are in close juxtaposition with rugged rocks and dashing surf. ”

“ An iron coast, bleak, black, and desolate, without harborage for so much as a catboat for leagues to north or south. A coast so pitiless, so lashed forever by the long, sullen rollers of the North Atlantic, so tormented by the shifting and treacherous currents of the tide between its chains of outlying rocky islets, that no ship ever ventured willingly within miles of its uncompromising menace. A coast so little favored by summer that even in glowing August the sun could reach it seldom through its cold and drenching fogs. ”

“ In summer, the season in which we were there, the sky is clear, with but little rain: if fogs and mists are at any time driven in by the south wind, they are immediately dissipated, and at once it becomes serene and bright again. The sea is calm, not boisterous, and its waves are gentle. Although the whole coast is low and without harbours, it is not dangerous for navigation, being free from rocks and bold, so that within four or five fathoms from the shore there is twenty-four feet of water at all times of tide, and this depth constantly increases in a uniform proportion. ”

“ A subsidence of the land adjacent to the sea permits an extension of the waters landward; the sea will enter the valleys so as to form estuaries, bays, straits, etc., while the high land between the partially water-filled depressions will rise above the water-level and appear as peninsulas, capes, and islands. A bold, deeply sculptured coast when depressed will give origin to an intricate, and what may be termed a ragged shore-line; while a lower region crossed by large river-valleys would be changed to a system of broad estuaries. ”

“ There are stretches of undulating upland, with fragrant turf, gorse, bracken; valleys almost too low for sunlight to enter, the wild and tortuous mouths of rapid streams, patches of meadow and pasture, with lonely cottages and isolated church-towns. Different from the southern coast in aspect, more desolate, less fertile, there is yet a special charm even in the desolation, a stimulating appeal in the solitude, and a marvellous purity in the bracing winds that blow, sometimes with ruthless violence, from a thousand leagues of ocean. ”

“ The western coast, on the contrary, lies without a tree, without bushes, with nothing but white sand-hills stretching along the roaring ocean, which scourges the melancholy coast with sand-storms and sharp winds. Between these contrasts, which the east and west coasts present, the Hesperides and Siberia, lies the vast heath which stretches itself from the Lyneborg sand to the Skagen’s reef. No hedge shows here the limits of possession. Among the crossing tracks of carriage wheels must thou seek thy way. ”

“ From Java Head we glided slowly through Princeʼs Strait, and coasting along the island, dropped our anchor in Anjer Roads. The scenery of this coast is extremely lovely, and comprises every feature which can heighten the picturesque; noble mountains, a lake-like sea, and deeply indented coast-line, rocks, islets, and, above all, a vegetation so luxuriant that the eye never wearies with gazing on its matchless tints. ”

“ To the east, the coast retires into a semicircular rocky recess, terminating seawards in a lofty, dark-browed precipice, and bristling, throughout all its extent, with a countless multitude of crags, that, at every heave of the wave, break the surface into a thousand eddies. ”

“ Being under sail, we steered to the West-South-West, until the land opened round Cape Don in an east-northerly direction for eight miles, and then the coast trended to the south-eastward under Mounts Bedwell and Roe, where the land was lost to view. To the westward the land was observed trending in a north and south direction, and bore the appearance of being an island. ”

“ From this I form my judgment of the direction of this Coast, which is nearly South-South-East 3/4 East and North-North-West 3/4 West, and must be nearly a Strait Shore. In about the Latitude 35 degrees 45 minutes is some high land adjoining to the Sea; to the Southward of that the land is of a moderate heigth, and wears a most desolate and inhospitable aspect. Nothing is to be seen but long sand Hills, with hardly any Green thing upon them, and the great Sea which the prevailing Westerly winds impell upon the Shore must render this a very Dangerous Coast. ”

“ As the Powers finally arranged it, the map of the West Coast is like a mosaic, like the edge of a badly constructed patchwork quilt. In trading along the West Coast a man can find use for five European languages, and he can use a new one at each port of call. ”

“ By the west coast is meant the whole of that wondrous succession of far-penetrating fiords and bays, cliff-guarded shores, and sea-washed mountains from Bantry Bay to Malin Head, a distance of over four hundred miles. There may be wilder scenery on the coasts of Norway, Labrador, or Scotland, but for wildness, sublimity, and beauty combined, there is hardly in Europe, or in the world, another four hundred miles of coast equal to it. ”

“ Round by the south the natives are somewhat more tractable than those farther to northward. Between the 11th and 12th degrees the trend of the coast is S.W. by S. and N.E. by N., next S.S.W. and N.N.E. down to the 13th degree; then running on due south as far as the eye reaches. The coast is mainly level without any reefs, and may be approached sounding. ”

“ The coast to the northward is formed of detached hills, rising perpendicularly from the sea, with ragged and broken summits, the sides covered with wood, and the vallies between them of a fertile and well-cultivated appearance. To the southward we saw an extensive bay, bounded by a low point of land to the S.E., which was covered with cocoa-nut trees, and off it stood a high insulated rock, about a mile from the shore. The haziness of the weather prevented our seeing distinctly the land to the southward of the point, we could only perceive that it was high and broken. ”

“ A glance at a map of North America must impress one with the belief that the Pacific coast with its great extent of harbourless water-front is far less favourable to the growth or ideas, institutions, and industries than the deeply indented Atlantic shore-line. From the Isthmus of Panama to the State of Washington there is, as we have seen, but one harbour of the first class, the estuary of the Sacramento, and one of the second or third class, the estuary of the Columbia. From Puget Sound northward harbours are numberless. ”

“ At the West, although the vast numbers do not collect that congregate in the Chesapeake Bay and Currituck Inlet, there is an independence in the mode of pursuit that has a peculiar charm; and from the facilities afforded by the nature of the ground, the excellent cover furnished by the high reeds, and the immense number of single shots, the average{207} success is as great as in the more open waters of the Southern coast. ”

“ The western coast was, until the last four centuries, cut off from intercourse with mankind by the storm-lashed waters of the northern approach; and to the present day the unbroken seaboard, so scanty in good harbours, and the dangerous bars and bores which defend the deadly river mouths, render it the least progressive part of the old world. ”

“ After steering east-north-east, east, and east-south-east, and having seen the beach all round the head of the Great Bight, we hauled up parallel to the new direction of the coast, at the distance of six miles; and at five o'clock were abreast of the furthest part seen by the French admiral when he quitted the examination. The coast is a sandy beach in front; but the land rises gradually from thence, and at three or four miles back is of moderate elevation, but still sandy and barren. ”

“ As this was the case in all such parts as we came near enough to see, it is reasonable to suppose that the whole coast is so. I am likewise of opinion, that the whole, or greatest part, is surrounded by reefs or shoals, which render the access to it very dangerous, but at the same time guard the coast from the violence of the wind and sea; make it abound with fish, secure an easy and safe navigation along it, for canoes, etc.; and, most likely, form some good harbours for shipping. Most, if not every part of the coast, is inhabited, the Isle of Pines not excepted ”

“ The North Coast appears to have the same winds, with a little exception, as the tropical part of the East Coast. From March or April to November, the south-east trade prevails; often veering, however, to east, and even north-east, and producing fine weather, with sea and land breezes near the shore. ”

“ The east and south coasts show considerable stretches of uniform uninflected coast-line, and except for the Farne Islands and Holy Island in the extreme north, the flat islands formed by ramifications of the estuaries on the Essex and north Kent coasts, and the Isle of Wight in the south, they are without islands. The west coast, on the other hand, including both shores of the great south-western promontory, is minutely fretted into capes and bays, headlands and inlets of every size, and an island-group lies off each of the more prominent headlands from Land’s End northward. ”

“ The western coast was greatly indented by fjord-like bays and studded with many islands, and was less ice-bound than might be supposed, as a continuation of the warm current of the Gulf Stream flowed along the coast. ”

“ Notwithstanding an identity of genera has been remarked upon their opposite shores, there are, nevertheless, certain others, frequent upon the East Coast, that appear wholly wanting on the north-western shores: of these, the existence of some, even in the tropical parts of New South Wales, seems governed by the primary formation of the coast, its mountainous structure, and consequent permanency of moisture in a greater or less degree ”