CLIMATE, SEASONS, ETC. 



12. The situation of Long Island is this : It is about 130 miles 

 long. It extends in length from the Bay of the City of New 

 York to within a short distance of the State of Rhode Island. 

 One side of it is against the sea, the other side looks across an arm 

 of the sea into a part of the State of New York (to which Long 

 Island belongs) and into a part of the State of Connecticut. At 

 the end nearest the city of New York it is separated from the site 

 of that city by a channel so narrow as to be crossed by a Steam- 

 Boat in a few minutes ; and this boat, with another near it, 

 impelled by a team of horses, which works in the boat, form the 

 mode of conveyance from the Island to the city, for horses, 

 waggons, and every thing else. 



13. The Island is divided into three counties ; King s county, 

 Queen s county, and the county of Suffolk. King s county takes 

 off the end next New York city, for about 13 miles up the Island ; 

 Queen s county cuts off another slice about thirty miles further 

 up ; and all the rest is the county of Suffolk. These counties are 

 divided into townships. And, the municipal government of 

 Justices of the Peace, Sheriffs, Constables, &c. is in nearly the 

 English way, with such differences as I shall notice in the second 

 part of this work. 



14. There is a ridge of hills, which runs from one end of the 

 Island to the other. The two sides are flats, or, rather, very easy 

 and imperceptible slopes towards the sea. There are no rivers, 

 or rivulets except here and there a little run into a bottom which 

 lets in the sea- water for a mile or two as it were to meet the springs. 

 Dryness is, therefore, a great characteristic of this Island. At 

 the place where I live, which is in Queen s county, and very nearly 

 the middle of the Island, crosswise, we have no water, except in a 

 well seventy feet deep, and from the clouds ; yet, we never ex 

 perience a want of water. A large rain-water cistern to take the 

 run from the house, and a duck-pond to take that from the barn, 

 afford an ample supply ; and I can truly say, that as to the article 

 of water, I never was situated to please me so well in my life before. 

 The rains come about once in fifteen days ; they come in 

 abundance for about twenty-four hours : and then all is fair 

 and all is dry again immediately : yet here and there, especially 

 on the hills, there are ponds, as they call them here ; but in England, 

 they would be called lakes, from their extent as well as from their 

 depth. These, with the various trees which surround them, are 

 very beautiful indeed. 



15. The farms are so many plots originally scooped out of 

 woods ; though in King s and Queen s counties the land is 

 generally pretty much deprived of the woods, which, as in every 

 other part of America that I have seen, are beautiful beyond all 

 description. The Walnut of two or three sorts, the Plane, the 

 Hickory, Chesnut, Tulip Tree, Cedar, Sassafras, Wild Cherry 

 (sometimes 60 feet high) ; more than fifty sorts of Oaks ; and 

 many other trees, but especially the Flowering Locust, or Acacia, 



a 



