waters into a deep bay, at the bottom of which New 

 London stands. 



The waters of the Connecticut river, after passing 

 through a great extent of country, are discharged al- 

 most immediately into Long Island Sound ; the current 

 of which, for nearly three quarters of the ebb and flood 

 tide, being very strong, crosses the mouth of the river 

 almost at right angles. 



At, or very near the confluence of this river, where 

 its current is checked by that of the tide in the Sound, 

 the principal bar, which obstructs its navigation, is 

 formed across its mouth, and is well known by the 

 name of Say -Brook bar. 



This bar, as well as the bed of the river, for a great 

 distance above, is composed of a fine silicious sand ; 

 and at ebb tide, there is not, perhaps, more than six 

 feet of water in the channel. Whereas immediately 

 below it, we have from two and a half to three fathoms, 

 with a bottom composed of a tough blue clay. 



Here is no appearance of alluvial formation occa- 

 sioned by the river. The banks on each side are, ne- 

 vertheless, alluvial, as I have before observed, for 

 about two and a half or three miles above its influx ; 

 but these are far above the surface of the water at 

 flood tide, perhaps twenty or thirty feet, and, in fact, 

 were never known, I believe, to have been over- 

 flowed; not only sp, but the banks on the western 

 shore and the land adjacent, were, about thirty or forty 

 years since, covered with lofty trees quite to the sea- 

 shore, or that of the sound ; many of which must 



