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Cape Cod

Cape Cod

b. 1986 · musician · Ukraine

4 quotes
Cape Cod is the bared and bended arm of Massachusetts: the shoulder is at ; the elbow, or crazy-bone, at ; the wrist at ; and the sandy fist at ,—behind which the State stands on her guard, with her back to the , and her feet planted on the floor of the ocean, like an athlete protecting her Bay,—boxing with north-east storms, and, ever and anon, heaving up her Atlantic adversary from the lap of earth,—ready to thrust forward her other fist, which keeps guard the while upon her breast at .
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Before the ocean rose to near its current level some six to eight thousand years ago, the Cape and Islands were just relatively nondescript ridges in an immense plain that stretched all the way to . The first pioneer plants were probably various cold-weather berries, along with , , and . and wandered in, followed by the sturdy humans who made a living hunting them. Many of the smaller species of wildlife that now inhabit the various islands arrived by land as well, only to be isolated when the water rose, and ate away at both and . Nantucket and Martha's Vineyard each has its own particular subspecies of short-tailed shrew, both of which differ from the short-tailed shrew of the mainland.
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While the old Cape houses we see today seem just as firmly planted as ever, many are far removed from their original sites. Because they sat low to the ground, it was fairly easy to move them about with the aid of horses and rollers or to float them from place to place on barges. Houses were moved all over the Cape, and some were even floated across the from to the south shore of Cape Cod. It is said that they could be transported with contents intact and that, when stoves came into use, the fires were left burning so cooking could be done en route.
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