Harbour Hill, 384; John M. Clarke’s Hill, 326. From the foot of the hills southward stretches a vast nearly level plain, with an average height of 70 feet, and consisting of post-glacial stratified sand and gravel; and across this run a large number of shallow parallel watercourses, remarkable mainly for the regularity with which they present an elevated bank on the western side and a long declivity on the eastern. On the northern side of the range the surface is very uneven, some of the elevations exceeding 200 feet, and deep fiord valleys stretching down to the sound, and forming a series of excellent harbours. The glacial drift of Long Island is of immense depth, and contains a wonderful number of boulders. “At the eastern extremity,” says Lyell on the authority of Mather, “they are of such kinds of granite, gneiss, mica, slate, greenstone, and syenite as may have come across the sound from parts of Rhode Island. Opposite the mouth of the Connecticut river they are of such varieties of gneiss and hornblende slate as correspond with the rocks of the region through which that river passes. Still further west they consist of red sandstone and conglomerate and the trap of that country, and lastly, adjoining the city of New York, we find serpentine, red sandstone, and various granitic and crystalline rocks which have come from the district immediately to the north.” One of the boulders near Manhasset measures 54 feet long and 40 feet wide, and rises 16 feet above the level of the soil. Of the numerous lakelets scattered throughout Long Island it is enough to mention Ronkonkoma, near Lakeland, the waters of which are said to decrease and increase in regular periods of four years. Much of the surface of the country is still covered with wood—oak, hickory, and chestnut growing freely on the unmodified drift, and pine forests extending for about fifty miles through the sandy plains. A good rich loam abounds in the northern districts, and the lighter soils of the south are easily rendered productive. Marketgardening especially is carried on with success. The climate is comparatively mild, the mean annual temperature being 49° to 51°, the maximum for the year between 95° and 100°, and the minimum 4° to 8°. The average rainfall is about 421 inches. Towards its western end more especially, the northern coast of Long Island presents a number of important bays—Glen Cove, Oyster Bay, Huntington Bay, Smithtown Bay, <fcc.; the western extremity is deeply bifurcated by a very irregular inlet, broken up by various islands into Gardiner’s Bay, Little Peconic, and Great Peconic; and along a large part of the southern coast stretches a remarkable series of lagoons, formed by a line of dunes varying in breadth from ∣ to 1 mile, and connected at various points with the ocean. These last—of which the most important is Great South Bay, 40 miles long by about 5 or 6 miles wide—are of great service to the island, and an Act has been passed to increase their utility by connecting them by canals. Coney Island and Rockaway Beach, the most frequented of the many seaside resorts in the Island, lie near the south-western extremity. As regards both birds and fishes, Long Island seems a kind of meeting place between the arctic and the equatorial species. In winter, for instance, it is visited by the eider-duck, the little white goose, the great cormorant, and the auk, in summer by the turkey buzzard, the swallow-tailed kite, and the fork-tailed flycatcher. A few deer are still to be found; and various tracts of country and islands in the great bays are stocked with game and fish by sportsmen’s clubs. The east portion of the island is one of the chief seats of the menhaden fisheries, and the oyster beds of both the north and the south coast are of great value. Those of the Great South Bay (furnishing, amongst others, the famous “blue points”) alone give employment in the season to 1500 fishermen. (See E. Ingersoll, “The Oyster Industry,” in the Tenth Census publications of the United States, 1881.)

Administratively Long Island consists of King’s County (72 square miles), Queen’s County (410), and Suffolk (1200), which·in 1880 bad the following population:— [table]

Of the thirteen or fourteen Indian tribes living in the island at the time of its discovery, the only remnants are about fifty Shinecocks and Montauks.

Besides Brooklyn, which had 566,689 inhabitants, King’s County contained Flatbush town, 7634; Flatlands town, 3127; Gravesend town (including Coney Island village), 3676; New Lots town, 13,681; and New Utrecht town, 4742. In Queen’s county are Flushing town, 15,919; Hempstead town (including East Rockaway, Garden City, and sixteen other villages), 18,160; Jamaica town, 10,089; Long Island City, 17,129; Newtown town, 9798; North Hempstead town, 7562; and Oyster Bay town, 11,923. In Suffolk there are no cities, and none of the villages have 500 inhabitants. The “towns” are Babylon, Brookhaven, East Hampton, Huntington, Islip, Riverhead, Shelter Island, Smithtown, Southampton, and Southhold. Garden City was built by A. T. Stewart as a model suburban settlement, and contains a fine cathedral. Hicksville is associated with the memory of Elias Hicks the Quaker missionary. Sag Harbour was formerly a great whaling station, and still maintains a good coasting trade. Five miles from Flushing is Creedmore rifle range, the finest in the United States. On Gardiner’s Island the pirate Kidd concealed the treasures partly recovered by the governor of Massachusetts in 1699.

Long Island was so called by its Dutch discoverers in 1609, and the name Nassau, bestowed in 1693 by the colonial legislature, never found popular acceptance. Breucklen (Brooklyn), Amersfoort (Flatlands), Vlissingen (Flushing), Busdorf (Jamaica), and New Utrecht were founded by the Dutch between 1630 and 1654; and between 1640 and 1665 the English from the New England colonies established Southold, Southampton, Easthampton, Hempstead, Huntington, Oyster Bay, Smithtown, Islip, &c. Though the charter granted by James I. in 1620 expressly excluded territory actually possessed or inhabited by any other Christian prince or state, the grantees in 1635 conveyed to the earl of Stirling among other lands the island of Matowacks or Long Island. A treaty concluded between Dutch and English at Hartford (Connecticut) in 1650 suιτendered to England all the land south of Oyster Bay; but, though it was ratified by the states-general of Holland in 1656, no action was taken by the English Government. Long Island was included in the territory assigned to the duke of York in 1663-64, and in 1654 an English squadron conquered the Dutch in time of peace, and set up a government in the duke’s name. When the Dutch governor, who had recovered New York in 1673, issued a proclamation requiring the submission of the Long Island towns, they all obeyed except the three most eastern; but the treaty of Westminster in 1674 left Long Island to the English, and it became a regular colony of the crown. In the beginning of the war of American independence, Long Island naturally played a prominent part. The efforts made by Washington to defend it were frustrated by the British under Cornwallis in 1776, and it remained in their hands till the close of the contest.