The character of the country is very like that of France ; the land is reasonably hilly and level. To wit, broken along the coast by small Rocky hills unfit for agriculture ; farther in the interior are pretty high Mountains (generally exhibiting great appearance of minerals) between which flow a great number of Small Rivers, in some places there are even some Lofty ones of Extraordinary Height, but not many ; its fertility falls behind no province in Europe in excellence as in cleanness of fruits and seeds. There are three principal rivers, to wit: the Fresh, 'the Mauritius? and the South® River all three reasonably wide and deep, adapted for the navigation of large

1 Connecticut. 2Hudson. 3 Delaware.

4 JOURNAL OF NEW NETHERLAND.

ships twenty five miles up! and of common barks even to the falls, from the river Mauritius off to beyond the Fresh river stretches a Canal that forms an Island, forty miles long, called Long Island, which is the ordinary passage from N. England to - Virginia having on both sides many harbours to anchor in so that people make no difficulty about navigating it in winter. The Country is generally covered with trees, except a few valleys and some large Flats of Seven or Eight miles and less ; the trees are as in Europe--viz. Oak, Hickory, Chestnut, Vines. The animals are also of the same species as ours, except Lions and some other strange beasts, many Bears, abundance of Wolves which harm nobody but the small cattle, Elks and Deer in abundance, Foxes, Beavers, Otters, Minx and such like. The birds, which are natural to the Country are Turkeys like ours, Swans, Geese of three sorts, Ducks, Teals, Cranes, Herons, Bitterns, two sorts of Heath fowls or Pheasants. The River fish is like that of Europe, viz.