No. 216.] 685 



ganized and various enquiries made, to which answers were given by 

 residents of the vicinity or persons well acquainted with the whole 

 region, and that part particularly. 



At this point the railroad is ninety-two feet above the level of 

 the ocean, and about thirty feet above the level of Ronkonkama pond, 

 which is a beautiful sheet of the purest water filled with fish, parti- 

 cularly the perch, distant N. E. about four miles. The soil here, or 

 the upper surface of the Island, has the usual characteristics of the 

 whole extent of these unimproved lands, and of the whole Island to 

 a great extent. First, there is a coating of vegetable mould seve- 

 ral inches deep, then a yellow loam and sand mixture of one, two, 

 or three feet thickness, well adapted to be the basis of good tillage, 

 and of a most easy kind. 



At Millville, fifteen miles further on, or nearly sixty miles from 

 Brooklyn, a pedestrian excursion of a mile or so from the road, led 

 us over the beautiful stream that rises not far east of the pond just 

 mentioned, called Connetquot, which means the stream of the Pines, 

 which is a very large sized trout brook, abounding with that beau- 

 tiful and pure fish in great perfection. At a little distance is the 

 very pleasant residence of the President of the Railroad Company, 

 who introduced the visitors to his family and mansion, and welcomed 

 us to the beauties of these lovely and quiet scenes. Having enjoyed 

 this adventure, a few miles further brought us to Wampmissic, a region 

 of similar beautiful locality and undulating plain lands with those of 

 Suffolk Station, the examination of which resulted in similar testi- 

 mony to the susceptibility of profitable high cultivation. 



From this point the lands are more uneven till you reach River- 

 head, and covered with a slight coat of vegetable mould, and then 

 the usual layers of earth of other parts of these plains succeed. At 

 Riverhead commences the rich corn fields and other fruits of good 

 cultivation of the east end of the Island; but all this is recent, as it 

 is not thirty years since this region did not produce corn and grain 

 enough for its own consumption. Here lands were pointed out richly 

 laden, or from which great crops had been taken, and in one case a 

 field yielding last season 140 bushels of corn to the acre was pointed 

 out, that a few years before was bought for a trifle and supposed to 

 be barren. Here you come into the vast region where the mossbunker 

 fish, a kind of herring, or old wife fish, is used in myriads for 

 manure. 



