No. 275. J 
73 
Hudson in the counties under consideration, are the silt and mud banks 
forming in Tappan bay between Sing-Sing and Dobbs' ferry; the mea- 
dows near Gen, Van Cortland, at the mouth of the Croton river; the 
mud and silt banks extending from the above mentioned meadows to 
Teller's Point on one side and Sing-Sing on the other, and which occu - 
py most of the bay between Teller's Point and Sing-Sing; the flats in 
Haverstraw bay between Teller's point and Verplanck; the meadow^s 
east of Verplanck; the flats between Verplanck and Royd Hook in 
Peekskill Bay; the meadows between Anthony's Nose and Marble 
Point, and the meadows and flats that lie SE, E, NE and N of Consti 
tution Island, below Cold Springs. The last meadow is the only one 
that has been dyked out to prevent its being overflowed by the tides. 
Two or three hundred acres are enclosed, and good hay is produced upon 
these meadows. The meadow east of Verplanck may be said to be 
dyked out. A fine road has been built across the marsh near its south 
end wdthin the last two years, and the tide may now be excluded. 
The amount of drainage water flowing into it is very trifling. 
This meadow is filled with peat to a great depth. While the road 
was in progress of construction across this quaking bog, the weight of 
gravel was so great as to cause the turf to yield, and the road sunk, 
while a mass of peat was forced up on each side, rising above the gene- 
ral level of the marsh. Several thousand loads of gravel were necessa- 
ry to fill the small portion of the road way that sunk, and it w'as esti- 
mated that the depth of the peat must have been about 40 feet. The 
peat seen at this place, and which had been raised above the surface by 
the sinking of the road-way, was of inferior quality, coarse and fibrous, 
but that which is good may be below. This marsh is so convenient to 
water transport, that the peat may be considered valuable. 
Peat is probably abundant in the meadows near Constitution Island, 
though it has not been particularly examined. 
The mud flats that have been mentioned in Tappan Bay, Haverstraw 
Bay, Peekskill Bay, and near Constitution Island, are all increasing 
slowly, and from a variety of causes, such as vegetable decomposition, 
the silt and mud deposited from the \vater, and the growth and decay 
of molluscous and other animals. They have increased more rapidly 
during the last twenty years than before, in consequence of the greater 
amount of cultivated land causing a greater amount of earthy materials 
to be transported by the rains and surface waters into the Hudson. 
These flats will eventually become meadows, but the time may be far 
distant. Should land continue to increase in value near the Hudson as 
[Assera. No. 275.] 10 
