AND WHERE TO FIND ONE. 191 



grasses that they produced. None of them mention 

 the land as being poor or barren. The plains, free 

 from timber, and covered with grass, were wonder 

 ful as natural curiosities. A traveller in 1759, says 

 that strangers were always taken to them as the only 

 great curiosity of the kind then known in America. 

 Other portions of the island were covered with im 

 mense forests. 



It is suggested by Mr. Schnebly that the charac 

 ter of barrens attached to these lands in conse 

 quence of their being held in very large bodies, 

 whose owners cultivated only a few acres, allowing 

 the forest to occupy the remainder. The island was 

 mapped out by patents owned by various parties, 

 whose possessions extended from the waters on the 

 north and south sides to the middle and woodlands 

 in the centre. The Nicholas patent, at West Islip, 

 contained originally ten miles square. There were 

 numerous other holders of enormous tracts. They 

 made little effort at cultivation, neither did they de 

 sire any others to improve them, &quot; and consequently 

 shut out all investigation, and while they lived 

 among gorgeous scenery, a genial climate, and on 

 so productive a soil, were satisfied with cultivating 

 a few acres to supply their wants, leaving the bal 

 ance of their territory to unproductiveness, which 

 in time, for that reason, became known as the wild 

 or wood lands of Long Island.&quot; 



Such is Mr. Schnebly s explanation. More mod 

 ern times have substituted &quot; barren&quot; for &quot; wild.&quot; 

 But the fact of land being thus held in vast tracts 

 on Long Island affords another illustration of the 



