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        Some of the municipalities of Greater Boston have shapes vaguely resembling some of the States.  Somerville is, in shape, very much along the general outlines of Kentucky, while the shape of Malden has some resemblance to that of Pennsylvania.  Lynn’s shape is something like Georgia.  Woburn’s shape vaguely resembles New York State, while Waltham has a similar distant resemblance in shape to Arizona, and Medford to Texas.  The long, lanky, and bent-in-the-middle shape of the town of Stoneham looks much like an inverted map of California.  Other special shapes besides states are found among metropolitan municipalities.  Newton has very distinctly the shape of a girl’s head―but with a flat top, which could be explained by assuming that Waltham is a queer style of hat she is wearing―and the course of the Charles through Waltham completes the head.  Cambridge is in the shape of the bust of a bearded professor, directly facing this girl.  And, would there be any significance in stating that she appears to have taken his name?  (Cambridge’s old-time name was Newtown).  Watertown somewhat resembles a flashlight in shape―from its direction, it might be trying to throw light into some Waltham watches.  And Saugus is shaped much like a meat-axe.  Brookline has some resemblance to the shape of a metronome―or, if your imagination runs in a different direction, it might be considered as looking somewhat like a penguin.  And Nahant has a strong resemblance to the outlines of a forearm and hand, with the little Nahant peninsula as the wrist-knob.

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        Practically all the water of the Arctic Ocean empties past the East Coast of New England.  It sinks under the Gulf Stream off Cape Cod.  Boston, however, is protected from the flow of icy water by the successive waterbreaks of Gloucester, Marblehead, Nahant and Winthrop.

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        There is a queer-looking little pier in Fort Point Channel sticking out about 40 or 50 feet from Dorchester Avenue, right opposite the Parcel Post Station in the South Station building.  It is the remains of the old time Kneeland Street Bridge to South Boston.  When South Station was built, it cut Kneeland Street off from the bridge, and the bridge was taken down, being replaced in the new setup by the bridge on Summer Street.  But, somehow, a tiny bit of the old bridge is still left to show where once so much of the traffic to South Boston passed.

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