The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #87078   Message #1623801
Posted By: Q (Frank Staplin)
09-Dec-05 - 03:09 PM
Thread Name: Lyr Add: SONGS About GEOGRAPHY
Subject: RE: Lyr Add: SONGS About GEOGRAPHY
Charlie, pay attention! We haven't got to lands beyond North America yet. We won't let you sing a chantey unless you learn the Capes letter-perfect!

Lyr. Add: CAPES
Air: Long, Long Ago

1.
Capes of this clime, your names we will rhyme
Seize on the harp, rouse up the lay,
Brewster Cape first, and then North Cape we chime
To Cape Farewell then away.
Walsingham Cape is the next we shall name,
King's Cape is soon o'er the blue misty main,
Chudleigh, St. Louis we must not disdain,
And Cape St. John we survey.
2.
Speed to Cape Race, then Cape Sable we trace;
Glance at Cape Cod, then pass along;
Find for the stormy Cape Hatteras a place,
Sable Cape place in the song.
Now let us go, St. Antonio to meet,
Catoche and Gracias a Dios we greet,
Cape Corrientes, thy name we repeat,
St. Lucas we add to the throng.
3.
Morro Hermoso is next to be sung;
Sweetly the name falls on the ear;
Sound Mendocino on each tuneful tongue,
Oxford Cape then let us hear.
Now a place for Cape Flattery find,
Oh! let us be to Elizabeth kind;
Cape Romanzoff in our song is enshrined,
Cape Prince of Wales shall appear.
6.
East Cape and cold Icy Cape shall succeed;
Point Barrow see, nearer the Pole;
On with the song- to Point Beechey we speed,
Where northern storms have control.
Onward to Point Demarcation we bound,
Glance at Cape Bathurst, on desolate ground;
Point De Witt Clinton more Eastward is found,
York Cape is last on the scroll.

Lyr. Add: MOTIONS OF THE EARTH
1.
By earth's diameter we mean
The shortest distance through,
A fancied line fron side to side,
To touch the centre too.
2.
Now through the centre of this sphere,
The shortest distance,
Eight thousand miles diameter,
The measurement will make.
3.
By earth's circumference we mean
The greatest distance round;
Just five and twenty thousand miles,
That distance has been found.
4.
Earth's axis is a fancied line,
That through the globe extends
From North to South, the centre cuts,
And at the poles it ends.
5.
Two different motions has the earth;
One, on its axis made,
Which brings the glorious light of day,
And night's succeeding shade.
6.
It has its motion around the sun,
Which occupies a year;
Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter, hence
Successively appear.

Lyr. Add: CIRCLES OF THE GLOBE
Air: Auld Lang Syne
1.
The circles on the globe we name;
Imaginary things,
From which the scientific mind,
Important uses brings.
2.
The Equator is a fancied ring
Around the earthly ball,
Dividing it in equal parts,
Which hemispheres we call.
3.
Northern and Southern Hemispheres,
Thus are their names expressed;
And the Equator takes its course
Precisely East and West.
4.
From either Pole its distance is
Undoubtedly the same;
And distance from the Equator North,
North Latitude we name.
5.
South Latitude is distance South
Of that same fancied ring,
And parallels of latitude
To range with it we bring.
6.
Like the equator, East and West,
These parallels go round,
And on the sides of all our maps,
The mark'd degrees are found.
7.
Meridians, ranging North and South,
Are fancied circles too;
They touch each Pole as they proceed,
And cut the Equator through.
8.
By Longitude we understand
The distance East or West
From some meridian that we choose,
Whichever we think best.
9.
Some people Washington will take,
And some will Greenwich choose,
And several other points there are
Which different nations use.
10.
East Longitude is distance East,
As by the words express'd,
West Longitude we can't mistake,
To mean the distance West.
11.
The Tropics are in number two,
Circles of vast extent,
To the Equator parallel,
Round Earth by fancy bent.
12.
Tropic of Cancer North is placed;
We from the Equator rate
Its distance twenty-three degrees,
And minutes twenty-eight.
13.
Tropic of Capricorn due South
From the Equator lies,
Its distance just the same from it,
In measurement precise.
14.
At the same distance from the Pole,
Each Polar Circle trace;
The Arctic Circle on the North,
The Antarctic, South we place.

1851, Key to Felton's Outline Maps, Philadelphia.