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fluence of the Connecticut; Duck island, near that of the Menunketesuck; Falconer and Goose island, opposite the former; Indian Neck and Thimbie islands, to the east of Bromford river; Allen's island, opposite Milford harbour; Fairweather island, to the east of Ash creek; Longram and other islands near the mouth of Norwich river.

ore.

Minerals.-Iron ore is found at Salisbury, Canaan, Colebrook, Stafford, Kent, and Ridgefield. The brown scaly iron ore of Kent and Salisbury yields bar iron of a superior quality. Native silver, containing arsenic, and united with native bismuth, is found at Trumbull; lead ore in Milford, at Trumbull, and on the bank of the Connecticut river, two miles below Middleton; copper ore in Cheshire, also at Symsbury and Fairfield. The mines at Symsbury were worked before the revolution, and have been exhausted of their Native copper, at Bristol, in a small vein, with the red oxyde of copper. A mass of this metal, weighing ninety pounds, was found many years ago on the Hampden hills. White copper ore at Fairfield, twentytwo miles from Newhaven; antimony (sulphuret of antimony) found in Glastenbury, and at Harrington; ore of cobalt (white) at Chatham, near Miduieton, which was exported to England about forty years ago; freestone at Chatham, East Windsor, North Haven, Durham, and other places. In East Hartford and Middleton there are several quarries of fine red stone, which is soft and easily worked, but soon becomes hard, by exposure to the weather. * Serpentine on

* From Mr Martin Stanley.

Milford hills, near Newhaven. Its colour is yellow, or green, and it is susceptible of a high polish. It is found in masses of primitive limestone. Magnesian limestone (dolomite) at Washington, in Litchfield county, and near Newhaven, of a friable nature, employed in the preparation of mineral waters. Bituminous limestone, of a black colour, near Middleton. Jasper, near Newhaven. Beryl, in granite, at Brookfield, Huntington, Chatham, and Haddam. Marble, of a fine texture and beautiful green colour, was discovered near Newhaven, in 1814, by a student of that college. Marble also abounds in Washington and New Milford, of a grey and blue colour, richly variegated. Garnets are found at Haddam; soap-stone, near Newhaven ; white clay, or kaolin, at Washington, Litchfield county, of which a species of porcelain is made; it is not in great quantity. A fine yellow pigment was discovered at Toland, in 1809. Mica, (known to the inhabitants by the name of isinglass,) of a violet colour, at Woodbury. The bituminous inflammable substance, known by the name of shale, containing impressions of fish and vegetables, distinctly marked, is found at Westfield, near Middleton. Coal.-A bed extends from Newhaven, across Connecticut river, at Middleton, where it is several miles in breadth, on each side of the river.

Mineral Springs.-In Litchfield county there is a mineral spring impregnated, as it is said, with carbonic acid gas and sulphureted hydrogen gas. hydrogen gas. In Stafford county, twenty four miles north-east from Hartford, there is another medicinal spring, not yet analyzed,

which is much frequented in the summer season, by persons labouring under cutaneous disorders, for which it is supposed to be a sovereign remedy. In Suffield county there are four springs, strongly impregnated with sulphur, which "operate on some as emetic, on others as cathartic, and on all as diuretic." Dr Morse further states," that they have either wholly cured, or greatly relieved the gravel, the salt rheum, the hooping cough, and the headach."

Vegetable Kingdom.-The principal forest trees are: Oak-white, red, and black; mountain chestnut, butter-nut; white, bitter, and shagbark walnut ; common and slippery elm; ash-white and swamped; maple-white, red, and sugar; pine-white, pitch, and yellow; button-wood, or plane tree; spruce-double and single; cedar-swamp and red; juniper, hemlock, fir; willow-white, red, and yellow; poplar-white, black, and aspen; dogwood-white berried, red willow, and common; hornbeam, beech; plum-mountain and black; sassafras, alder, tulip tree, or whitewood; basswood, crab-apple, crab-pear, black mulberry, locust-thorn; birch-white and black; pepperidge. Near the Connecticut river elm, ash, soft maple, and poplar abound; and towards the mountains butter-nut, hickery, oak, chestnut, beech, cherry, and pine..

At Hartford, forty miles from the sea coast, a house built of American oak, in the year 146, was perfectly sound in 1781. This dwelling was also remarkable as the birth-place of Jonathan Belcher, formerly governor of this and New Jersey province. An elm near this place was long held sacred, in which, during a moment

of imminent danger, the charter of the province was concealed and preserved.

*

The grasses are: White clover, white top and red top, (varieties of the herd grass,) Agrostis stricta, black grass, (Juncus bulbosus,) fowl meadow grass. The meadow lands of the Connecticut valley yield two crops annually. The first is cut in the beginning of July; the last in September. The first yields about two tons per acre; the second about half this quantity. t

Quadrupeds.-The animals yet common are red foxes, squirrels of different kinds, (black, grey, red, flying, and striped,) the pole cat, weasel, musk-rat, racoon, and woodchuck.

The moose and deer, wolf and bear, wild cat, mink, black and grey fox, otter and beaver, have all nearly disappeared. The pigeons were formerly so numerous, that the noise of their flight, in the spring of 1751, was compared to distant thunder. They were then sold at fourpence a dozen. ‡

Fishes.-Those which annually ascend the rivers, in great quantity, are sturgeon, salmon, and shad. Pike, carp, and perch, sucker, herring, roach, eel, catfish, are also numerous in the rivers and ponds. Herring arrive about the middle of May.

In the harbours are sea-bass, blackfish, cod, sheepshead, flounder, plaise, whitefish, sunfish, skullfish,

* Anburey's Travels, Vol. II. p. 460. +From Mr Martin Stanley.

Douglas, article Connecticut,

turtle, lobster, escallop, oyster, long clam, round clam, crab and mussel.

Concerning the frogs of this country, Anburey, in his Travels, has related the following extraordinary circumstance, which is said to be currently believed by the natives. During the great heat of the month of July 1758, a pond, containing an area of nearly three miles square, lost all its waters, and the frogs which inhabited it, many thousands in number, by some wonderful instinct, set out for the river Winnomantic, a distance of nearly five miles; and passing, in the night, through the town of Windham, the inhabitants imagined that their noise was that of an enemy's detachment of French and Indians, with whom not being able to cope, they fled, almost naked, to the neighbouring woods, where hearing a sound dree tété, which was supposed to mean treaty, three persons were sent for the purpose of negociation, who soon discovered that it was an army of thirsty frogs, led on by their king, who refused all treaty out of his natural ele

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* General History of Connecticut, published in London 1781.

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