ALLUVIAL DIVISION. 
9 
The main object in introducing the subject of these alluvions, is their prospective value as 
land, capable of tillage, by diking them out, where the value of land and the small expense 
of diking will justify the change. Some of these alluvions, if reclaimed and tilled, would 
benefit the health of the adjacent country. Where the water stagnates on them, bilious, inter¬ 
mittent and remittent fevers are produced. 
The flats at the mouths of the Rondout, Esopus, Catskill and Norman’s kill, and Mur¬ 
derer’s creek in Newburgh bay, are of some extent, as are those forming in Tappan bay 
between Sing-Sing and Dobbs’ ferry; the meadows near Gen. Van Cortland’s, 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 occupy most of the bay 
between Teller’s point and Sing-Sing; the flats in Haverstraw bay, between Teller’s point 
and Verplanck; the meadows east of Verplanck; the flats between Verplanck and Roya 
hook, in Peekskill bay; the meadows between Anthony’s Nose and Marble point, and the 
meadows and flats that lie southeast, east, northeast and north of Constitution island, below 
Coldspring, The last meadow is the only one that has been diked 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 diked out. A fine 
road has been built across the marsh near its south end within 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 con¬ 
struction 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 
general level of the marsh. Several thousand loads of gravel were necessary to fill a small 
portion of the roadway that sunk, and it was estimated that the depth of the peat must have 
been about forty feet. The peat seen at this place, and which had been raised above the sur¬ 
face by the sinking of the roadway, 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 water, 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. 
The flats along the right bank of the Hudson, opposite West-Point, both below Gee’s point 
and near Camptown, have grown sensibly more shallow within the last fifteen years, during 
which time they have been under my observation. The same may be said of the flats between 
Geol. 1st Dist. 2 
