394 
PINNATED GROUSE. 
44 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, nevertheless, 
not doomed to total sterility. Many thousand acres have been 
reclaimed from the wild state, and rendered very productive to 
man ; and within the towns frequented by these birds, there 
are numerous inhabitants, and among them, some of our most 
wealthy farmers. 
64 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 fire wood 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 
related to me by my friend Mr Gardiner, of Gardiner’s Island, Long Island. 
The bill was entitled, “ An Act for the preservation of Heath-ben, 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 pro- 
priety of preserving Indians , or any other Heathen. 
