Goose, common name for a number of species of water birds of
the family Anatidae, which also includes the ducks and swans, of
the order Anseriformes. When applied to individual birds, the
word goose strictly speaking refers to the female, the male being
called gander. Only the word goose, however, is used in the names
of species.
Several groups of waterfowl, all generally larger than ducks
and smaller than swans, have been called geese. The so-called
true geese belong to the genera Anser, Branta, and Chen. These
are birds of the Northern Hemisphere, nesting in arctic and
temperate areas. Most are strongly migratory, but are able to
winter as far north as New England and Alaska. In North America
the best-known and most widely distributed species is the Canada
goose, B. canadensis, which has also been successfully
introduced in Great Britain and Scandinavia. Its nesting grounds
extend from arctic Canada and Alaska to the prairie states of the
United States. It is geographically variable in both color and
size, including subspecies ranging in length from 64 to 114 cm
(25 to 45 in). All have the tail, head, and neck black with a
white patch on the cheek, and the body some shade of brown.
Similar in size to the smallest Canada geese is the brant, B.
bernicla, which nests in the Arctic around the world and winters
chiefly on salt water. Also nesting in the Arctic are two white
species, the snow goose, C. caerulescens, and the smaller Ross's
goose, C. rossii, both often placed in the genus Anser. The blue
goose, a bluish-gray bird with a white head, was long thought to
be a separate species but is now known to be a color phase of the
snow goose.
Among the true geese of the Old World, the greylag, A. Anser,
is the ancestor of most breeds of domestic geese; the Chinese
goose is an exception, being a heavyset descendant of the slender
swan goose, A. cygnoides, of Asia.
A number of breeds of geese are raised domestically (see
Poultry Farming). Among the most important domestic geese are the
Toulouse goose, an all-gray breed originating in France; the
Embden, an all-white goose originating in Germany; and the
African, a tall, gray goose that fattens more rapidly than any
other breed. Both the flesh and the eggs of geese are eaten.
Geese are the source of the delicacy pbti de foie gras, made from
goose livers that are abnormally enlarged by overfeeding the
geese and then depriving them of exercise. Domestic geese are
also commercially valuable for their feathers, which are used in
pillows, insulated clothing, and sleeping bags.
Thomas Point Light
Perhaps the most photographed
lighthouse in The Chesapeake Bay, The Thomas Point Shoal
Lighthouse is the last screwpile structure left on its original
site in the bay. It went into service on November 27, 1875, to
replace a light on the shore at Thomas Point at the entrance to
the South River. The Lighthouse Board thought that a light on the
shoal would better serve the shipping traffic in the bay. A
screwpile with a hexagonal 1-1/2-story building perched on the
spidery legs, the light's lantern rises out of the center of the
building. During its early years floating ice tipped over the
fourth-order lens in the lantern. In time heavy riprap was placed
around the lighthouse to fend off the ice. With its red roof and
white sides this picturesque lighthouse is a fine example of its
type. The light and fog signal, both now automated, are still
active.
Marking the Thomas Point Shoals, this screw-pile lighthouse is at
least the symbol of lighthouses of the Chesapeake, and with the
skipjack fleet is regarded by most as the symbol of the
Chesapeake Bay. The light continues to be both an important
navigational and meteorological aid as well as a national
historic treasure. Located on the Thomas Point Shoals at the
entrance to the South River, near Annapolis, MD. The lighthouse's
fourth order Fresnel lens has a range of 13 miles for the white
sector and 11 miles for the red sector.
A peninsula is formed by the juncture of the Severn River and the
South River where they empty into the Chesapeake Bay near
Annapolis, Maryland. The Thomas Point Shoal juts into the Bay at
the tip of this peninsula, and is marked for International
shipping, cruising sailors, and local watermen by the Thomas
Point Light.
The Chesapeake Bay
Archaeologists digging in this
cradle of U.S. history have unearthed countless remnants of an
even deeper past. Layered in sand and clay along Chesapeake Bay
shores are oyster shells, some thousands of years old. The
largest cache was a 30-acre Indian shell midden spread across
Pope's Creek, off the Potomac River. Long before Chesapeake
watermen took up their tongs, the Bay was feeding her people.
The Indians called her Chesapeake Bay, "the Great Shellfish
Bay." In the 16th century, a Jesuit priest sailed through
the Virginia capes described by John Smith and bestowed a second
name: La Bahia de la Madre de Dios -- the Bay of the Mother of
God.
The Chesapeake has always looked after those who lived here. Just
as the Indians thrived on Bay oysters, so early European settlers
grew crops in rich Bay soil. As the Indians paddled canoes from
encampment to encampment, so ferries linked later settlements.
Today, the waters of this ancient river valley fan out into a
complex network of urban bridges and rural lanes. Here endures
the heart of the modern mid-Atlantic megalopolis, and the soul of
19th-century fishing villages. U.S. history here is old;
geological history is young.
The Chesapeake Bay is bookended by two major metropolitan areas
in two states: Baltimore, Maryland's largest city, and
Norfolk--Newport News--Hampton Roads in Virginia's Tidewater.
Both are major Atlantic ports. Near John Smith's Virginia capes,
now spanned by the 17.6-mile Chesapeake Bay Bridge--Tunnel, the
Norfolk Naval Air Station presides over a strong Navy presence
throughout Tidewater.
Much of Maryland's Western Shore life looks to urban centers, as
city dwellers willing to endure the hour-long commute to
Washington or Baltimore emigrate to Annapolis or Kent Island. For
their highway-bound hours during the week, these government
insiders are repaid with long sails on the Bay, or hours anchored
in secluded "gunkholes," shallow coves where green and
great blue herons fly from nearby marshes. On the Eastern Shore,
fishing, farming, tourism, and the retirement business spur local
economic life.
Up the Bay's major tributaries are the major cities of the
region: Washington, DC, on the Potomac; Richmond, Virginia, on
the James; and Baltimore, Maryland, on the Patapsco. Maryland's
capital, Annapolis, stands at the mouth of the Severn River, near
where the William Preston Lane Memorial Bridge, or Bay Bridge,
links the Eastern and Western Shores.
Even as the Chesapeake is defined by her waters, so she is
defined by her history. A stop at Maryland's Statehouse in
Annapolis, where Washington resigned his Continental Army
commission, is as integral to a Chesapeake country visit as a
charter-boat fishing trip from Tilghman Island.
The first permanent colonial English settlement was here, at
Jamestown, Virginia, in 1607. The first Catholic settlers landed
farther north, on the Potomac, and established Maryland at St.
Marys City in 1634. George Washington and his peers used the Bay
first to transport their tobacco, the region's first sizable cash
crop, and then to their military advantage as they plotted their
navigational comings and goings during the Revolutionary War.
For all the Bay's history and enduring navigability, however, she
shares a problem with virtually every other heavily populated
estuary. A confluence of pressures has threatened the health of
her rich waters since the European settlers chopped down forests
to create fields to farm. Soil from the fertile lands lining the
Bay's shores has slipped into the water, silting in harbors and
obscuring marshy invertebrate nurseries. Damage has been
compounded by 20th-century wastes: fertilizers, air pollution,
and sewage.
Many say the magnificent Chesapeake is at the most crucial
crossroads of her most recent geological incarnation. A massive
assault against pollution is well underway, and is producing some
good results. Perhaps, like the estuary's flushing by fresh water
from the north and by saltwater tides from the south, the diverse
mix of urban and rural can maintain a beneficial balance in La
Bahia de la Madre de Dios.
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