Delaware Bay is fixty miles long, from the Cape to the entrance of the river Delaware at Bombay-hook; and fo wide in fome parts, as that a fhip, in the middle of it, cannot be feen from the land. It opens into the Atlantic north-weft and fouth-eaft, between Cape Henlopen on the right, and Cape May on the left. Thefe Capes are eighteen or twenty miles apart. The Chefapeek is one of the largest bays in the known world. Its entrance is nearly E. N. E. and S. S. W. between Cape Charles, lat. 37° 12′, and Cape Henry lat. 37°, in Virginia, it is twelve miles wide, and extends two hundred and feventy miles to the northward, dividing Virginia and Maryland. It is from feven to eighteen miles broad, and generally as much as nine fathoms deep; affording many commodious "From the furvey of the foffils in thefe parts of the American coaft one becomes convinced, that the pr ncipal share of them is GRANITICAL, compofed of the fame forts of materials with the highest Alps, Pyrenees, Caucafus; and Andes, and like them deftitute of metals and petrefactions. The occurrence of no horizontal ftrata, and the frequency of vertical layers, lead us further to fuppofe that these are not fecondary collections of minerals, but are certainly in a ftate of primeval arrangement. The Steatites, Amianthus, Shoerl, Feldspath, Mica, Garnet, Jafpar, Shiftus, Asbestos, and Quartz, muit all be confidered as primitive foffils, and by no means of an alluvial nature. What inference remains now to be drawn from this statement of facts, but that the fashionable opinion of confidering these maritime parts of our country as flats, hove up from the deeps by the fea, or brought down from the heights by the rivers, ftands unsupported by reason, and contradicted by experience? A more probable opinion is, that Long Island, and the adjacent continent, were in former days contiguous, or only feparated by a finall river, and that the ftrait which now divides them, was formed by fucceffive inroads of the fea from the eastward and weftward in the coufe of ages. This conjecture is fupported by the facts which follow, to wit: 1. The foffil bodies on both fhores have a near refemblance. 2. The rocks and islands lying between are formed of fimilar materia's. 3. In feveral places, particularly at White-Stone and Heli-Gate, the diftance from land to land is very fmall. 4. Whereever the fhore is not compofed of folid rock, there the water continues to make great incroachments, and to caufe the high banks to tumble down, not only here, but at Moncton, Newton, and elsewhere, at this very day. 5. The rocky piles in the Sound, called Execution, and Stepping-Stones, and those named Hurtleberry Island, Pea Inland, Heart Ifland, and many more that lie up and down, are strong circumstances in favour of this opinion; for from feveral of them all the earthy matter, as far as the highest tides can reach, has long fince been carried away, and from the rest, the fand and gravel continue to be removed by daily attrition; as is the cafe with the Brothers, Ryker's, Blackwell's, and other iflands. 6. There is a tradition among that race of men, who, previous to the Europeans, poffeffed this tract of country; that at some diftant period, in former times, their ancestors could step from rock to rock, and croís this arm of the fea on foot at Hell-Gate." harbours, and a fafe and eafy navigation. It receives the waters of the Sufquehannah, Potomak, Rappahannok, York and James river, which are all large and navigable. FACE OF THE COUNTRY. The tract of country belonging to the United States, is happily variegated with plains and mountains, hills and vallies. Some parts are rocky, particularly New-England, the north parts of New York, and New-Jersey, and a broad space, including the feveral ridges of the long range of mountains which run fouth-weftward through Pennfylvania, Virginia, North-Carolina, and part of Georgia, dividing the waters which flow into the Atlantic, from those which fall into the Miffiffippi. In the parts, east of the Allegany mountains, in the fouthern ftates, the country for feveral hundred miles in length, and fixty or feventy, and fometimes more, in breadth, is level and entirely free of ftone. It has been a question agitated by the curious, whether the extenfive tract of low, flat country, which fronts the feveral states south of New-York, and extends back to the hills, has remained in its prefent form and fituation ever fince the flood: or whether it has been made by the particles of earth which have been wahed down from the adjacent mountains, and by the accumulation of foil from the decay of vegetable fubftances; or by earth washed out of the bay of Mexico by the gulf ftream, and lodged on the coaft; or by the recefs of the ocean, occafioned by a change in fome other part of the earth. Several phenomena deferve confideration in forming an opinion on this queftion. 1. It is a fact, well known to every person of observation who has lived in, or travelled through the fouthern ftates, that marine shells and other substances which are peculiar to the fea-fhore, are almost invariably found by digging eighteen or twenty feet below the furface of the earth. A gentleman of veracity has afferted; that in finking a well many miles from the fea, he found, at the depth of twenty feet, every appearance of a falt marsh; that is, marsh grass, marsh mud, and brackish water. In all this flat country until you come to the hilly land, wherever you dig a well, you find the water, at a certain depth, fresh and tolerably good; but if you exceed that depth two or three feet, you come to a faltish or brackish water that is fcarcely drinkable, and the earth dug up, resembles, in appearance and fmell, that which is dug up on the edges of the falt marshes. 2. On and near the margin of the rivers are frequently found fand hills, which appear to have been drifted into ridges by the force of water. At the bottom of fome of the banks in the rivers, fifteen or twenty feet below the furface of the earth, are washed out from the folid ground, logs, logs, branches, and leaves of trees; and the whole bank, from bottom to top, appears ftreaked with layers of logs, leaves and fand. These appearances are seen far up the rivers, from eighty to one hundred miles from the fea, where, when the rivers are low, the banks are from fifteen to twenty feet high. As you proceed down the rivers toward the fea, the banks decrease in height, but ftill are formed of layers of fand, leaves and logs, fome of which are entirely found, and appear to have been fuddenly covered to a confiderable depth. 3. It has been obferved, that the rivers in the fouthern States frequently vary their channels; that the swamps and low grounds are con ftantly filling up; and that the land in many places annually infringes upon the ocean. It is an authenticated fact, that no longer ago than 1771, at Cape Look-out on the coast of North-Carolina, in about latitude 34° 50', there was an excellent harbour, capacious enough to receive an hundred fail of shipping at a time, in a good depth of water: it is now entirely filled up, and is folid ground. Inftances of this kind are frequent along the coaft. It is obfervable, likewife, that there is a gradual defcent of about eight hundred feet, by measurement, from the foot of the mountains to the fea board. This defcent continues, as is demonftrated by foundings, far into the fea. 4. It is worthy of obfervation, that the foil on the banks of the rivers is proportionably coarfe or fine according to its diftance from the mountains. When you firft leave the mountains, and for a confiderable distance, it is obfervable, that the foil is coarfe, with a large mixture of fand and fhin ing heavy particles. As you proceed toward the fea, the foil is lefs coarse, and fo on; in proportion as you advance, the foil is finer and finer, until, finally, is depofited a foil fo fine, that it confolidates into perfect clay; but a clay of a peculiar quality, for a great part of it, has intermixed with it reddish ftreaks and veins, like a fpecies of ochre; brought probably from the red-lands which lie up towards the mountains. This clay, when dug up and expofed to the weather, will diffolve into a fine mould, without the leaft mixture of fand or any gritty fubftance whatever. Now we know that running waters, when turbid, will depofit, first, the coarsest and heavieft particles, mediately, those of the feveral intermediate degrees of fineness, and ultimately, thofe which are the moft light and fubtle; and fuch in fact is the general quality of the foil on the banks of the fouthern rivers. 5. It is a well-known fact, that on the banks of Savannah river, about ninety miles from the sea in a direct line, and one hundred and fifty or two hundred, as the river runs, there is a very remarkable collection of oyfter oyfter fhells of an uncommon fize. They run in a north-eaft and fouthweft direction, nearly parallel to the fea coaft, in three distinct ridges, which together occupy a space of feven miles in breadth. The ridges commence at Savannah river, and have been traced as far fouth as the northern branches of the Alatamaha river. They are found in fuch quantities, as that the indigo planters carry them away in large boat loads, for the purpose of making lime water, to be used in the manufacture of indigo. There are thousands and thousands of tons fill remaining. The question is, how came they here? It cannot be fuppofed that they were carried by land. Neither is it probable that they were conveyed in canoes, or boats, to fuch a diftance from the place where oyfters are now found. The uncivilized natives, agreeable to their roving manner of living, would rather have removed to the fea fhore, than have been at fuch immenfe labour in procuring oyfters. Befides, the difficulties of conveying them would have been infurmountable. They would not only have had a ftrong current in the river against them, an obftacle which would not have been easily overcome by the Indians, who have ever had a great averfion to labour; but could they have furimounted this difficulty, oyfters conveyed fuch a distance, either by land or water, in fo warm a climate, would have spoiled on the paffage, and have become ufelefs. The circumftance of thefe fhells being found in fuch quantities, at fo great a distance from the fea, can be rationally accounted for in no other way, than by fuppofing that the fea fhore was formerly near this bed of fhells, and that the ocean has fince, by the operation of certain caufes not yet fully investigated, receded. * "On the Georgia fide of the river, about 15 miles below Silver Bluff, the high road croffes a ridge of high-fwelling hills of uncommon elevation, and perhaps 70 feet higher than the furface of the river. Thefe hills are from three feet below the common vegetative furface, to the depth of 20 or 30 feet, compofed entirely of foffil oyfter thells, internally of the colour and confiftency of clear white marble: they are of an incredible magnitude, gencrally 15 or 20 inches in length; from 6 to 8 wide, and from 2 to 4 in thickness, and their hollows fufficient to receive an ordinary man's foot. They appear all to have been opened before the period of petrifaction; a tranfmutation they seem evidently to have fuffered. They are undoubtedly very ancient, and perhaps antediluvian. The adjacent inhabitants burn them to lime, for building, for which purpose they serve well; and will undoubtedly afford an excellent manure, when their lands require it, thefe hills now being remarkably fertile. The heaps of shells lie upon a ftratum of yellowish fand mould, of feveral feet in depth, upon a foundation of foft white rocks, that has the outward appearance of free-ftone, but on ftrict examination is really a teftaceous concrete, or compofition of fand and pulverifed fea fhells. In fhort, this teftaceous rock approaches near in quality and appearance to the Bahama or Bermudian White Rock." Bartram's Travels, p. 318. 3 Thefe Thefe phenomena, it is prefumed, will authorize this conclufion, that a great part of the flat country which fpreads eafterly of the Allegany mountains, had, in fome past period, a fuperincumbent fea; or rather, that the conftant accretion of foil from the various caufes before hinted at, has forced it to retire. MOUNTAINS. The tract of country caft of Hudfon's river, comprehending part of the State of New York, the four New England States, and Vermont, is rough, hilly, and in fome parts mountainous. Thefe mountains will be more particularly defcribed under New England. In all parts of the world, and particularly on this weftern continent, it is obfervable, that as you depart from the ocean, or from a river, the land gradually rifes; and the height of land, in common, is about equally diftant from the water on either fide. The Andes, in South America, form the height of land between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. The high lands between the diftrict of Maine and the province of Lower Canada, divide the rivers which fall into the St. Lawrence, north, and into the Atlantic, fouth. The Green Mountains, in Vermont, divide the waters which flow eafterly into Connecticut river, from thofe which fall wefterly into Lake Champlain, Lake George, and Hudfon's River. Between the Atlantic, the Miffiffippi, and the lakes, runs a long range of mountains, made up of a great number of ridges. These mountains extend north-easterly and fouth-wefterly, nearly parallel to the fea coast, about nine hundred miles in length, and from fixty to one hundred and fifty and two hundred miles in breadth. Mr. Evans obferves, with refpect to that part of these mountains which he travelled over, viz. in the back part of Pennfylvania, that fcarcely one acre in ten is capable of culture. This, however, is not the cafe in all parts of this range. Numerous tracts of fine arable and grazing land intervene between the ridges. The different ridges which compofe this immenfe range of mountains, have different names in different ftates. As you advance from the Atlantic, the first ridge in Pennsylvania, Virginia, and North Carolina, is the Blue Ridge, or South Mountain, which is from one hundred and thirty to two hundred miles from the fea. Between this and the North Mountain fpreads a large fertile vale; next lies the Allegany ridge; next beyond this is the Long Ridge, called the Laurel Mountains, in a spur of which, about latitude 36°, is a spring of water fifty feet deep, very cold, and it is faid, to be as blue as indigo. From thefe feveral ridges proceed innumerable nameless branches or fpurs. The |