CATARACTS AND INUNDATIONS. 45 



Qn its banks, which produces, in great abundance, all sorts of corn, 

 especially wheat. 



The SchoolkUl 9 or Skulk if I, has its source in the same country, 

 running almost parallel to the two other rivers, till at length it falls 

 into the Delaware, near the city of Philadelphia, above which it is 

 navigable for boats, at least a hundred miles higher up the country. 



These rivers, with the numerous bays and creeks in Delaware bay, 

 capable of containing the largest fleets, render this province admira- 

 >ly suited for carrying on a foreign trade. The country also abounds 

 in streams fit for mills, and all other kinds of mechanical expedients 

 for easing the labour of man ; hence there is here manufactured a 

 greater quantity of iron than in any province on the continent. 



The bay of Chesapeak is one of the largest and safest bays perhaps 

 in the world ; for it enters the country near three hundred miles 

 from the south to the north, having the eastern side of Maryland, 

 and a small part of Virginia, on the same peninsula, to cover it from 

 the Atlantic Ocean. This bay is almost eighteen miles broad for a 

 considerable way, and seven where it is narrowest, the water in most 

 places being nine fathom deep. Through its whole extent it is en- 

 riched , both on the eastern and western side, by a vast number or 

 iine navigable rivers : for, beside those of Maryland, it receives 

 from the side of Virginia, James-river, York-river, the Rappaha. 

 nock, and the Potowmac. 



These rivers are not only navigable themselves for very large ves- 

 sels a considerable way into the country, but have so many creeks* 

 and receive such a number of smaller navigable rivers, as render the 

 communication of all parts of this country inconceivably more easy 

 than that of any other. The Potowmac is navigable for near two 

 hundred miles; it is nine miles broad at its mouth, and for a vast 

 way not less than seven. The other three are navigable upward of 

 eighty ; and in the windings of their several courses approach one 

 another so nearly, that the distance between them is in some parts 

 not more than ten, and in others not more than five miles ; while in 

 others again there are fifty miles between each of them. The planters, 

 as in Maryland, load and unload vessels of great burden at tluir 

 own doors; which, as their commodities are of small value in pr w - 

 jiortion to their bulk, is an incalculable convenience. 



CONNECTICUT river rises in New Hampshire state, latitude 45* 

 10'; it pursues a remarkably straight course to the south, and dis- 



