394 * PINNATED GROUSE. 



" The country selected by these exquisite birds, requires a 

 more particular description. You already understand it to be 

 the midland and interior district of the island. The soil of 

 this island is, generally speaking, a sandy or gravelly loam. 

 In the parts less adapted to tillage, it is more of an unmixed 

 sand. This is so much the case, that the shore of the beaches 

 beaten by the ocean affords a material from which glass has 

 been prepared. Silicious grains and particles predominate in 

 the region chosen by the heath-hens or grouse. Here there 

 are no rocks, and very few stones of any kind. This sandy 

 tract appears to be a dereliction of the ocean, but is, neverthe- 

 less, not doomed to total sterility. Many thousand acres have 

 been reclaimed from the wild state, and rendered very produc- 

 tive to man ; and within the towns frequented by these birds, 

 there are numerous inhabitants, and among them, some of our 

 most wealthy farmers. 



"But within the same limits, there are also tracts of great 

 extent where men have no settlements, and others where the 

 population is spare and scanty. These are, however, by no 

 means, naked deserts : they are, on the contrary, covered with 

 trees, shrubs, and smaller plants. The trees are mostly pitch- 

 pines of inferior size, and white oaks of a small growth. 

 They are of a quality very fit for burning. Thousands of 

 cords of both sorts of firewood are annually exported from 

 these barrens. Vast quantities are occasionally destroyed by 

 the fires which, through carelessness or accident, spread far 

 and wide through the woods. The city of New York will 

 probably, for ages, derive fuel from the grouse grounds. The 

 land, after having been cleared, yields to the cultivator poor 

 crops. Unless, therefore, he can help it by manure, the best 



not long ago, related to me by my friend Mr Gardiner, of Gardiner's 

 Island, Long Island. The bill was entitled, " An Act for the preserva- 

 tion of Heath-hen and other game." The honest chairman of the 

 Assembly — no sportsman, I suppose — read the title, "An Act for the 

 preservation of Heathen, and other game !" which seemed to astonish 

 the northern members, who could not see the propriety of preserving 

 Indians, or any other heathen. 



