On Salt Marsh. 257 



Philadelphia, February 28, 1818. 



Dear Sir, 



The request you did me the honour of making, for 

 any information I might possess relative to salt marshes, 

 was too flattering to be declined ; and as the subject has 

 never been examined in America, where such marshes 

 require different considerations from those of other coun- 

 tries, I fear you may startle at the length of this commu- 

 nication : — any part of it is at your disposal. 



There are many large tracts of salt marsh on our coast, 

 within the bays, inlets and rivers, susceptible of such 

 improvement as will amply compensate a cautious ad- 

 venturer, render those districts healthy, and add to the 

 revenue, for county purposes. 



I presume that all salt marshes are formed in the same 

 manner, and from similar materials ; and that the super- 

 ficial appearance is nearly alike in every country ; pro- 

 ducing the same herbage, with trifling variations, arising 

 from the altitude of the ground, and the difference of cli- 

 mate. 



Whenever there is a rain that washes the soil from the 

 land near rivers, whenever pieces of the banks fall into 

 rivers, and whenever the channel beds are disturbed by 

 storms, the lighter particles of earth are earned up and 

 down the stream, and kept in motion to the distance of 

 a few miles or hundreds of miles, sometimes settling, and 

 again being disturbed, till they reach a cove near the 

 shore, or some rock or hard shoal near the channel, where 

 the agitation is so diminished, that the floating motes may 

 gradually fall and stick to the bottom ; subsequent rains 



2S 



