40 TRANSACTIONS OF THE 



A. J. Bergen, Edgar F. Peck, M.D., all of Brooklyn; Solon 

 Robinson, and Henry S. Chubb, of New-York; and Henry Steele, 

 Jersey City. 



The chairman addressed the committee, stating his ancient re- 

 gard for the welfare of Long Island, on account of its admirable 

 geographical position, and capability of becoming one mighty 

 garden, whence the city of New- York, our American metropolis, 

 can draw subsistence, and revel in its fruits and flowers from 

 the narrows to Montauk. Covered now and since the deluge 

 with a profuse vegetation, which having become dry in summer 

 or fall — with leaves and branches for miles touching each other 

 — has from time to time, by accident or by design, become a 

 prey to flames, sweeping over tens of thousands of acres of it — 

 and that because there is not a spot on the entire island barren 

 enough to prove a harrier to the flames I Here, where the finest 

 silica in the world abounds, (the natives all say over abounds,) and 

 where the vegetable, insect, and animal remains, and all organic 

 matter, has quietly mixed with the silica and some alumnia, for 

 thousands of years, forming just such a soil, for the most part, 

 as Van Houtte of Belgium, or any gardener who knows his busi- 

 ness, makes by means of sieves — sifting the parts well together. 

 Here, where the struggle between fire and leaves has caused a 

 cry of barrens! on account of the constant effort of vegetation to 

 grow up young trees, which reach many feet in height before the 

 effect of the fire on the bark of older trees have worn oif. So that 

 you see trees of various heights making their way up among 

 burnt pines and scorched barks. 



The committee examined the cleared land, and caused the soil 

 to be dug through to the substrata. This was done in such 

 various spots of the cleared land, as well as in the adjacent na- 

 tive forest, as would enable the committee to judge as to the 

 average depth and character of the soil and subsoil in that region. 

 They found the soil to be nearly what is termed a sandy loam, 

 of the color of burnt coffee on the surface, and some few inches 

 deep. At the depth of two to three feet the color of the soil is 

 yellowish. The subsoil abounds in the quartzose water worn 

 pebbles, for v/hich Long Island is remarkable. These pebbles 

 form an underdrainage for which England could atford to give 

 her crown. There is neither stump, stone, or weed to be seen 

 on the cultivated land. 



Dr Peck, who lias nearly lost his life by his vast efforts to up- 

 lift a mountain of prejudice which has depressed the centre of 



