First Steps in Geography, a Manual of Oral Lessons

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1876 edition. Excerpt: ...called Hope's Nose. Near Liverpool there are some rocks of red and yellow sandstone, which are called The Red Noses, and The Yellow Noses.' The nose comes out from the face more than any other feature, and so when the ancient sailors saw a sharp rock projecting into the sea, they fancied it looked like a nose on the face of the land. At the north-east of Essex there is a headland which is called the Naze. That is just the same word as nose, only pronounced differently. A thousand years ago many fierce and hardy sailors used to come from lands over the sea to England. They did not say nose, as we do; they said nscse. And this was often shortened into ness; hence you will find a great many capes inEngland and Scotland called ness. (Harford Ness, Thorp Ness, Fife Ness, &c.) Definition. A cape is a small portion of land stretching out into the sea. It is sometimes called a head, headland, or ness. Observe, when a large piece of land stretches into the sea, we do not call it a cape, but a peninsula. A cape, like a peninsula, is surrounded by water on all sides but one; hence we may say that a cape is a very little peninsula. The Norse for nose. Pronounce e like e in there. Land and water are almost always beautiful together, but they are never finer than when a bold headland meets a stormy sea. It stands straight up out of the water, like a giant soldier on the watch against an enemy. The waves come along rolling and foaming, till they dash against the rock with a roar like thunder; it seems as though they were shouting out of the way! what business have you here? And the rock is quite silent, only stands firm; and the spray is dashed from its...