OLD BRITISH FORTS ON STATEN ISLAND. 69 



does not show any more signs of advancing civilization to-day than it 

 did when the old Fort was occupied by the British. 



It is now entirely overgrown with a sort of semi-wild vegetation 

 consisting of cedars, seedling cherries, celtis, mulberry, and some old 

 apple and pear trees that have been planted near the surrounding 

 trench. One of the cedars on the top of the embankment measures 

 four feet four inches in circumference, and evidently dates from the 

 time the British left the Island. There are also two tall Lombardy 

 poplars on the edge of the embankment that were planted years ago 

 by some aesthetic persons and they certainly make the place more 

 conspicuous. The Huguenots brought numbers of them to the Island 

 and perhaps a La Tourette or a Journeay planted these trees. The 

 blackberry bushes and sumachs form a thick tangle over the entire 

 central portion of the fort, which still shows considerable of the 

 original depression. In outline it is square with the exception that 

 the South-west side, facing the Kill, bulges slightly. As in the 

 earth-work on Fort Hill the corners point North, East, South and 

 West, and the entrance is on the North-east side, which is also the 

 most easy of access"-. On this side also, the hill has been dug away 

 to furnish earth for the embankments, though nearly all signs of the 

 work have now been obliterated. Each parapet measures about 

 forty-four feet along the top. On the South-Avest side the descent to 

 the Kills is as precipitous as the nature of the soft crumbling ser- 

 pentine will permit, but from the other sides the fort is more approach- 

 able. 



In the surrounding ditch, which is now not very well defined, there 

 grows a large plainwood tree, ten feet nine inches in circumference. 

 The high-holders have their nests in its many dead branches; an 

 occasional fish-hawk uses it as a station of out-look when he flies over 

 from his New Jersey home and the crows make it a place of rendezvous, 

 a black member of the fraternity usually occupying a conspicuously 

 high branch. Quite an extensive pit has been dug at the roots of 

 this tree and indeed it is some wonder that it did not cause its death. 

 It probably was supposed, or really was the case, that treasure was 

 hidden there, some of George's gold. Years ago a man came all the 

 way from England and desired to dig in a certain placs on the farm that 



* It has been erroneously stated in one of the i>tateu Island histories that this entrance was on 

 the North-west side. 



