It was enlarged and strengthened during the Civil War. At the beginning of the rebellion it mounted sixty heavy guns (a portion of them en harbette), forty-eight of which bore upon the ship channel. The fort is elevated, and commands the Lower Bay from the Narrows towards Sandy Hook. This work, with the fortifications on the opposite shore of Staten Island, and the water battery of Fort Lafayette in the channel, render the position, at the entrance to Xew York Bay, almost impregnable.

A delightful voyage of fifteen minutes in a steamer, or half an hour

SUEF BATHING, CONEl" ISLAND.

in a sail-boat, will take us to Coney Island, once a peninsula of Long Island at the lower end of Gravesend Bay. It is now connected with the main, by a good road, a causeway, and a bridge. The island is about five miles in length, and one in width, and contains about sixty acres of arable land. The remainder is made up of sand dunes, formed by the-

THE HUDSON.

action of the winds. These resemble snow-drifts, and are from five to thirty feet in height. It is a favourite summer resort for bathers, its beach being unsurpassed. ISTear the Pavilion, at its western end, the scene of our little sketch, the beach is very flat, and surf bathing is perfectly safe. There crowds of bathers of both sexes, in their sometimes grotesque dresses, may be seen every pleasant day in summer, especially at evening, enjoying the water. Eefreshments are served at the Pavilion near, and a day may be spent there pleasantly and profitably. There are two or three summer boarding-houses at the other end of the island, which may be reached from Brooklyn in the space of forty-five minutes, by railways.