CHAPTER XI.――BAYS, HARBORS, SOUNDS, AND GULFS.
I. BAYS AND HARBORS.
THE seacoast of Maine is indented with numerous bays. Of these the largest is _Penobscot Bay_, which forms the estuary of the river of that name, is about thirty miles in length, and eighteen in width at its entrance between the isle of Holt and Owl’s Head. It incloses Fox, Haut, Long, and Deer islands, besides a number of small islands and rocks. On a fine peninsula in this bay the British, in the late war, built a fort, and made a settlement, which is now the shire town of the county of Hancock, and is a very commodious place for the lumber trade. _Broad Bay_ is situated about twelve miles westwardly, and is bounded by Pleasant-point on the east, and Pemaquid-point on the west, the latter of which projects considerably into the sea. _Casco Bay_ lies between Cape Elizabeth and Cape Smallpoint, and averages twenty-five miles in width by fourteen in length; it forms the entrance into Sagadahok river, and has sufficient depth of water for vessels of any burden. This is a very handsome bay, and contains not less than three hundred small islands, some of which are inhabited, and nearly all more or less cultivated; the land on these islands, and on the opposite coast, being the best for agriculture of any near the seashore of this part of the country. _Wells Bay_ lies between Cape Porpoise and Neddick, which are twenty-one miles apart. _Passamaquoddy Bay_, forming a part of the boundary between Maine and New Brunswick, is six miles long and twelve wide; it contains many islands, and receives the St. Croix river. Small harbors are numerous, and the shores are rocky and bold. Besides the bays here described, are the _Saco_ and _Machias_ bays.
_Massachusetts Bay_ is about forty miles in extent, lying between Cape Ann on the north and Cape Cod on the south. Within this lies _Boston Bay_, comprising the space between Nahant on the north and Point Alderton on the south, and including the harbors of Boston, Lynn, Dorchester, Quincy, and Hingham, with Nantucket and President Roads, and the numerous islands within the Boston lighthouse. The most noted of these are Governor’s Island, and Castle Island, on both of which fortifications are erected; they lie about two and a half miles easterly from Boston, at the distance of about a mile from each other, dividing the inner from the outer harbor. The only channel for large ships passes between them. This harbor is of sufficient extent, and its water is sufficiently deep to admit five hundred ships of the largest class to ride at anchor in safety; while its entrance is so narrow as scarcely to admit two ships abreast.
In the south of Massachusetts Bay is _Cape Cod Bay_, fifteen or twenty miles in extent, lying between Cape Cod and Plymouth; within this are Barnstable and Plymouth Bays. In the south of the state is _Buzzard’s Bay_, on the south-west side of Cape Cod, twenty miles deep, and inclosing the harbor of New Bedford. ‘Buzzard’s Bay,’ says a recent and entertaining tourist, ‘has much that is interesting on its extensive shores. A beautiful little spot called _Naushaw_, will not fail to attract the attention of the voyager on his way to Nantucket. Parts of it are thickly covered with woods. From its centre, on an eminence, rises a picturesque spot, which was built by an English gentleman of wealth, for his summer residence. Some time previous to his death, he became impressed with the belief that, at the expiration of twenty years after his decease, he should return and resume the occupations of life. He accordingly gave orders that the house with its furniture, should remain unmolested until the expiration of that time, when he should again return to occupy it. Every thing remained as he would have it for some time after his death. But eventually the house and furniture were sold, and passed into other hands. Thirty or forty summers have reinvigorated the turf of his grave, but he has not yet returned, to claim his property, or to reinhabit the decaying mansion.’ The boat passes from the bay into the sound, through a narrow passage called Wood’s Hole, a place very intricate and difficult of navigation. Breakers run out from the shore in all directions; so that a straight course through, would be impossible. The boat in passing through this miniature Hurl Gate, makes a course in the form of the letter _s_.
_Narraganset Bay_ intersects the state of Rhode Island, and is about twenty-eight miles long and ten miles broad. It contains fifteen islands; it has many excellent harbors, and affords great advantages for navigation. Newport harbor, in the channel between Conanicut and Rhode Island, is one of the finest in the world, being safe, deep, capacious, and easily accessible. Its entrance is defended by Fort Wolcott on Goat’s Island, and Fort Adams on Rhode Island; the latter is a large stone castle of great strength. The banks of this bay are covered with fine settlements, the view of which from the water is highly pleasing and picturesque.
The seacoast of New York is nearly all comprised within the shores of Long Island, which contain a few harbors and inlets, but none that are much frequented by shipping. The bay or harbor of New York is very safe and capacious; its boundaries towards the sea are Long Island and Staten Island; it extends nine miles below the city, and is from a mile and a half to five miles broad; inclosing several small islands, on which are fortifications. The Hudson enters this bay from the north. The East river, or channel between New York Island and Long Island, communicates with Long Island Sound on the east. The Kills, a strait between Staten Island and the Jersey shore, communicates with Newark Bay and the river Raritan on the west; and the Narrows open into the Atlantic towards the south. At low water, the entrance by the Narrows is somewhat difficult for large ships, and the entrance from the Sound is obstructed by the rocky strait of Hell Gate. There are several harbors on Lake Ontario, the most noted of which is Sacket’s Harbor, toward the east end of the lake; it is deep and safe, and was an important naval station during the war of 1812.
New Jersey has a long line of seacoast, but it is quite deficient in good harbors. _Newark Bay_ is rather a small lake, communicating by long outlets with the sea. The Bay of _Amboy_, between Staten Island and Sandy Hook, affords little shelter for vessels. There is a long bay, formed by a beach four or five miles from the shore, extending along the coast from Manasquan river, in Monmouth county, almost to Cape May. Through this beach are a number of inlets, by which the bay communicates with the ocean. _Delaware Bay_ lies between the states of Delaware and New Jersey, formed by the mouth of Delaware river and several other smaller ones. It is sixty-five miles long, and in the centre about thirty miles across, and about eighteen at its mouth, from Cape May to Cape Henlopen. This bay has many shoal places, but is in general deep and favorable to navigation. A breakwater and dike are now constructing by the United States’ government at the entrance of the bay. The anchorage ground is formed by a cove in the southern shore, directly west of the pitch of Cape Henlopen and the seaward, and of an extensive shoal called the _Shears_: the tail of which makes out from the shore about five miles up the bay, near the mouth of Broadkill Creek, from whence it extends eastward, and terminates at a point about two miles to the northward of the shore at the cape. The breakwater consists of an insulated dike or wall of stone, formed in a straight line from east south-east to west north-west, and twelve hundred yards in length. At the distance of three hundred and fifty yards from the western end of the breakwater, a similar dike of five hundred yards in length is projected in a direct line, west by south, one half south, forming an angle of one hundred and forty-six degrees fifteen minutes with the breakwater. This part of the works is more particularly designed as an ice-breaker. The whole length of the two dikes above described, is seventeen hundred yards. The entrance to the harbor is six hundred and fifty yards in width, between the north point of the cape and the east end of the breakwater. At this opening, the harbor will be accessible during all winds coming from the sea.[28]
The _Chesapeak Bay_ is a deep gulf opening from the Atlantic ocean, between capes Henry and Charles, and lying in the states of Maryland and Virginia. It is one hundred and eighty-five miles in length, extending northwardly, and its entrance is sixteen miles wide. Its general breadth varies from seven to twenty miles, and its average depth is nine fathoms; it affords a safe and easy navigation, and many fine harbors. Among these may be mentioned that of Norfolk, in the southern part of the bay near the mouth of the James. The embouchure of this river forms a spacious haven, called Hampton Roads.
The channel which leads in from the capes of Virginia to _Hampton Roads_, is, at Old Point Comfort, reduced to a very narrow line. The shoal water, which, under the action of the sea, and re-acted upon by the bar, is kept in an unremitting ripple, has given the name of Rip Raps to this place. When the bar is passed, Hampton Roads afford the finest anchorage in the world, and in them all its navies might ride with perfect safety. With a view of making this a secure retreat for ships of war and for our commerce, in any future contest with a naval power, Fort Monroe was built on the point, on the right side of the channel at the entrance of the Roads; and the Castle of the Rip Raps is directly opposite the point, at the distance of about one thousand nine hundred yards. The two forts will completely command the channel, and it will be impossible for a single ship of war to pass without the permission of the power holding the fortresses. They are so constructed, as to present immense batteries of cannon upon an approaching ship, from the moment she comes in reach, from the capes, and throughout all the bendings of the channel.[29]
_Chesapeak Bay_, and its tributary streams, have been known from their discovery as the great place of resort for water-fowl in the United States. This is attributed to the great abundance of their favorite food, which is found on the immense flats or shoals near the mouth of the Susquehanna, the whole length of North, East, and Elk rivers, and on the shores of the Bay as far south as York and James rivers.
The harbors of North and South Carolina are generally bad. That of Charleston is obstructed at its entrance by a dangerous sand-bar; that of Georgetown will admit only small craft. The harbor of Beaufort or Port Royal is the best in the state, but is little frequented. The largest bays of Florida are those of Apalachicola, St. Andrew’s, Ochlockney, and Pensacola. Alabama has but about sixty miles of seacoast, containing the spacious Bay of Mobile, which extends thirty miles inland. It has two principal entrances, one of which has eighteen feet depth of water. To the west it communicates by a shallow passage with the Bay of Pascagoula, which lies within a number of islands, on the coast of this state and Mississippi.
II. SOUNDS.
_Long Island Sound_ is an extensive gulf or channel, from three to twenty-five miles broad, and about one hundred and forty in length, extending the whole length of Long Island, and dividing it from Connecticut. It is narrow at the eastern entrance, and expands in the middle; it communicates with the ocean at both ends. Towards the west it contracts gradually, till it joins the harbor of New York by a narrow and crooked strait. It admits of a free navigation throughout its whole extent for the largest ships, except at the celebrated passage called _Hell Gate_,[30] situated near the west end of this sound, about eight miles from the city of New York. It is a very singular strait, about three or four hundred yards in breadth, having a ledge of sunken rocks across it in an angular direction, which occasions many whirlpools and cross currents in the water. These, at certain periods of the tide, make a tremendous noise, and render a passage impracticable; but at other times the water is smooth, and the navigation easy.
_Pamlico Sound_ is a kind of a lake or inland sea, from ten to thirty miles broad, and seventy miles in length. It is separated from the Atlantic ocean, in its whole length, by a beach of sand hardly a mile wide, generally covered with trees or bushes. Through this bank are several small inlets, by which boats may pass; but Ocrecock Inlet is the only one that will admit vessels of burden. This inlet communicates with _Albemarle Sound_, which is also a kind of inland sea, sixty miles in length, and from four to fifteen in breadth, lying north of Pamlico Sound. _Core Sound_ lies south of Pamlico, and has a communication with it. These sounds are so large, when compared with their inlets from the sea, that no tide can be perceived in any of the rivers which empty into them, nor is the water salt, even in the mouths of these rivers.
III. GULFS.
_Gulf of Mexico._――The Gulf of Mexico washes the shores of Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana, on the side of the United States. It extends between the eighteenth and thirtieth parallels of north latitude, and is nearly of a circular form, but somewhat elongated from east to west. In the latter direction it is one thousand one hundred and fifty miles long; in the transverse direction it is about nine hundred and thirty. It opens in a south-east direction, between the peninsula of Yucatan and Florida, or the capes Catoche and Sable, which are about four hundred and sixty-five miles distant from each other. The Island of Cuba divides this opening into two channels: the one to the south-west, communicating with the Sea of the Antilles, and the other to the north-east with the Atlantic, by means of the Straits of Bahama or Florida. South from the mouth of the Rio del Norte, round about the mouth of the Rio Alvarado, an extent of six hundred miles, this gulf does not present a single good port, as Vera Cruz is merely a bad anchorage amidst shallows. The Mexican coast may be considered a sort of dike, against which the waves, continually agitated by the trade-winds blowing from east to west, throw up the sands carried by the violent motion. The rivers descending from the Sierra Madre, have also contributed to increase these sands, and the land is gaining on the sea. No vessels, says Humboldt, drawing more than twelve and a half inches water, can pass over these sand-bars without danger of grounding.
The Mississippi is the principal tributary of the Gulf of Mexico, and carries down with it, besides its vast body of waters, a prodigious quantity of organic and unorganic debris. The town of New Orleans, near the mouth of this river, is the principal commercial station along the whole gulf. In the middle of the gulf the winds blow regularly from the north-east; but they vary considerably on approaching the shore. From the Mississippi, along the Florida coast, the south-west wind blows violently in the months of August, September, and October; the north wind prevails during the other nine months. Between the Mississippi and San Bernardo, the wind generally blows in the morning from the south-east or east-south-east, and in the evening from the south-west. Between Catoche and Campeachy the reigning wind, during a great part of the year, blows from the north-east; but from the end of April to September, it comes from the opposite direction. The most remarkable current in the gulf, is that called the _Gulf Stream_, described in the following chapter.
GENERAL REMARKS ON BAYS.
Many portions of the land and sea extend reciprocally the one into the other. If the sea penetrate into the interior of any continent, it forms there a _mediterranean_, or inland sea, almost surrounded by land, and having only a narrow opening into the sea. If the extent of such seas be less, and the opening larger, they are called _gulfs_ or _bays_, two terms which geographical writers have wished to distinguish, but which customary language more frequently confounds. The still smaller portions of sea, surrounded as it were by land, and which afford a shelter for ships, are called ports, creeks, or roads. The first term means a secure asylum; the second is applied to places or ports of much smaller size, and which, when improved or completed by artificial aid, are styled harbors, and roads afford only a temporary anchorage and security from certain winds. The principal bays in the world are Baffin’s, Hudson’s, James’s, Fundy, Massachusetts, Narraganset, Delaware, Chesapeak, Campeachy, Honduras, Bristol, All Saints, Cardigan, Donegal, Galway, Biscay, Bengal, Walwich, Table, False, Angola, Natal, Saldanha, and Botany. The principal gulfs are St. Lawrence, Mexico, Amatique, California, Panama, Guayaquil, St. George, Bothnia, Finland, Riga, Genoa, Naples, Taranto, Venice, Salonica, Persian, Ormus, Siam, Tonquin, Corea, Obi, and Guinea. The principal sounds are Long Island, Albemarle, Pamlico, Prince William’s, Queen Charlotte’s and Nootka.