NEW-ENGLAND. 385 



Metals. ...Rich mines of iron, of a most excellent kind and tern- 

 per. have been discovered in New-England, which, if improved, 

 may become very beneficial to the inhabitants. 



Climate.. ..New-England, though situate almost ten degrees more 

 to the south than the mother country, has an earlier winter, which 

 continues longer, and is more severe. The summer is extremely 

 hot, and much beyond any thing known in Europe in the same lati- 

 tude. The clear and serene temperature of the sky, however, makes 

 amends for the extremity of heat and cold, and renders the climate 

 of this country so healthy, that it is said to agree better with British 

 constitutions than any other of the American states. The winds are 

 very boisterous in the winter season, and naturalists ascribe the early 

 approach, and the length and severity of the winter, to the large 

 fresh-water lakes lying to the north-west of New-England, which, 

 being frozen over several months, occasion those piercing winds 

 which prove so fatal to mariners on this coast. 



Soil and produce. ...It has been already observed, that the lands 

 lying on the eastern shore of America are low, and in some parts 

 swampy, but farther back they rise into hills. In New-England, to- 

 wards the north-east, the lands become rocky and mountainous. The 

 soil here is various, but best as you approach the southward. Round 

 Massachusetts Bay the soil is black, and rich as in any part of Eng- 

 land ; and here the first planters found the grass above a yard high. 

 The uplands are less fruitful, being for the most part a mixture of 

 sand and gravel, inclining to clay. The low-grounds abound in mea- 

 dow and pasture-land. The European grains have not been cultivated 

 here with much success ; the wheat is subject to be blasted ; the 

 barley is a hungry grain, and the oats are lean and chaffy. But the 

 Indian corn flourishes in high perfection, and makes the general food 

 of the lower sort of people. They have likewise malt, and brew it 

 into a beer, which is not contemptible. However, the common table 

 drink is cider and spruce beer: the latter is made of the tops of the 

 spruce fir, with the addition of a small quantity of molasses. They 

 likewise raise in New England a large quantity of hemp and flax. 

 The fruits of Old England come to great perfection here, particular- 

 ly peaches and apples. Seven or eight hundred fine peaches may be 

 found on one tree, and a single apple-tree has produced seven bar- 

 rels of cyder in one season. 



But New-England is chiefly distinguished for the variety and value 

 of its timber, as oak, ash, pine, fir, cedar, elm, cypress, beech, wal- 

 nut, chesnut, hazel, sassafras, sumach, and other woods used in 

 dyeing, or tanning leather, carpenter's work, and ship-building. The 

 oaks here are said to be inferior to those of England : but the firs are 

 of an amazing bulk, and formerly furnished the royal navy of Eng- 

 land with masts and yards. They draw from their trees considerable 

 quantities of pitch, tar, resin, turpentine, gums, and balm; and the 

 soil produces hemp and flax. A ship may here be built and rigged out 

 with the produce of their forests, and indeed ship-building forms a 

 considerable branch of their trade. 



Animals.. ..The animals of this country furnish many articles of 

 New-England commerce. All kinds of European cattle thrive here, 

 and multiply exceedingly ; the horses of New-England are hardy, 

 mettlesome, and serviceable. Here are also elks, deer, hares, rabbits, 

 squirrels, beavers, otters, minxes, martens, racoons, sables, bears, 

 wolves, foxes, and a variety ef other tame and wild quadrupeds. 



