548 A Bill of Myers 
Bm Bill of Mortality for the or of Salem,, for the Year- 
/:3782. By Epwarp Augustus Horvokr, Me D- 
«F.A... and M. S. Ine Letter to Mr.CALEBGANNETT,. 
sibiltageSe .- ud. 
egr 51-8 ni s 
Herewith fend you a bill of mortality, for the: town of 
^ Salem, for the Jaft«year, which, although not fo accurate 
asil could wifh, may yet perhaps be worth. communicating ta 
the Academy';- heartily wifhing the- public might be favoured 
with more correct bills of a like kind, from a variety of towns, 
of fimilar,and of different fituations, for a courfe of years fuccef- 
fively, as they would certainly afford the beft means of judging of 
the ftate of population, a matter of real ufe andof great curiofity.. 
“Salem is a fea-port town, fituated in the 42d degree of N= 
Lat. onMa/fachu/erts-Bay, about five leagues to the weftward of 
Cape-Ann, and about as far north-eaftward from Bo/fon ; where 
a confiderable trade is carried on both with Europe and the 
Weft-Indies. ' That part of it which 1s fettled thickeft, © i$ 
miftly a peninfula lying between two falt water rivers. The 
ground is flat and low, being fcarcely more than twenty, or 
twenty-four feet above the level of the fea, at high water, any 
where, and in moft places not near fo much ; and excepting a 
hill in the north-weft, and another to the weftward, neither of 
them very high, there are no eminences to interrupt the free 
courfe of the winds. The foil is in general light, dry and 
fandy, and quite free from any marfhes or Collections of ftag- 
nant waters. "Phe water of the wells, which are very nume- 
rous, is pretty good, that of many fo pure as ‘to bear foap well; 
though, I think, our tea-kettles are pe geuendfty covered on the 
infide with a series croft, 
