Rivers. a. Connecticut creek. b. Nissiquogue River. c. Sampawan's creek. d. Conesqua River. v. Peconic.

Bays, &c. E. Atlantic Ocean. D. Long Island Sound. f. Great South Bay. e. Great Peconic. g. Gardiner's. j. Smithtown. m. Huntington's. n. Shinecock. 0. Great West.

Ponds. h. Ronkonkama.

Islands, &c. q. Fisher's. r. Gardiner's. s. Robbins'. t. Plumb. u. Shelter. p. Montauk point.

Villages. RIVERHEAD. Sag Harbor. Greenport.

BOUNDARIES. North by Long Island Sound; East and South by the Atlantic Ocean; and West by Queens county.

SURFACE. Toward the northern shore, the surface is hilly and broken. The southern portion is level and sandy. There are no hills of considerable altitude in the county. The Great Peconic bay, extending nearly into the centre of the county, divides it into two peninsulas.

RIVERS. The county is not well watered. The Peconic, Connecticut, Nissiquogue, Sampawan's and Conesqua rivers are the principal.

P

BAYS, &c. The Atlantic Ocean washes its southern and eastern shores, and Long Island sound its northern. Its most considerable bays are Huntington, Smithtown, Gardiner's, Great Peconic, Shinecock, Great West, and Great South bays. PONDS. Ronkonkama pond lies at the junction of the towns of Islip, Smithtown and Brookhaven.

ISLANDS. Shelter, Gardiner's, Fisher's, Robbins', Plumb, and the Gull islands on the coast belong to this county.

CLIMATE. Similar to that of the Island generally. The prevailing winds are from the southwest. The atmosphere is at all times moist, and the cold of winter is accompanied by a degree of chilliness, which renders it unpleasant. The longevity of its inhabitants is greater, however, than that of any other portion of the state.

GEOLOGY AND MINERALS. The geological formation of this county does not differ from that of the other counties of the island.

It is a disputed point, whether the formation of the whole county is alluvial or not. That of the southern portion is undoubtedly so, and the immense granite and gneiss boulders imbedded in the soil, would indicate that the northern part might be also.

It is the opinion of many eminent geologists, that the northern portion of the island once formed a part of the coast of Connecticut, and that it was rent from the main, either by the force of the waves, or by some convulsion of nature.

Hematite, iron pyrites, lignite, clay, suitable for making porcelain ware, magnetic iron sand, and garnet, are the principal minerals.

SOIL AND VEGETABLE PRODUCTIONS. Portions of the soil of this county are barren wastes of sand, producing little except pitch pine timber. Other portions on the southern shore are composed of sand dunes, or small hillocks of sand, affording no sustenance to any vegetable, except an occasional tuft of coarse grass. There are large tracts, however, of highly fertile land, which, manured with ashes, seaweed, and the fertilizing mossbonker, or whitefish, yield ample crops, to repay the husbandman for his toil.

The timber of the county is chiefly pitch pine, oak, hickory, chestnut and locust. The bay berry, or wax myrtle, abounds in Riverhead.

PURSUITS. Agriculture is the pursuit of a majority of the inhabitants. The preparation of lumber and wood, for market, occupies considerable attention, though less now than formerly. Corn and oats are raised to some extent, and in some parts of the county, there are extensive dairies.

The fisheries also afford employment to many of the inhabitants. The whale fishery is extensively prosecuted from Sag Harbor and Greenport. A considerable number of vessels are employed in the codfisheries, and numerous smacks, &c., in the coast fisheries. The entire amount of shipping, enrolled in this district, in 1845, was 28,348 tons.

The manufactures of this county are not extensive. Flour, woollen and cotton goods, and leather, are the most important. STAPLE PRODUCTIONS. Oil, fish, corn and oats.

SCHOOLS. There are in the county 142 district school-houses. The schools were maintained, in 1846, nine months; 9117 children received instruction, at a cost of $17,953. The district libraries contained 19,728 volumes.

There were, in addition, forty-six select schools, with 634 pupils, seven academies and one female seminary, attended by 119 scholars.

RELIGIOUS DENOMINATIONS. Methodists, Presbyterians, Congregationalists, Baptists, Episcopalians, Universalists and Ro.man Catholics. There are seventy-nine churches, and eightytwo clergymen.

HISTORY. This county was peopled mostly by emigrants from New England, and the inhabitants have retained, in a great degree, to this day, their primitive simplicity of manners and habits.

Southold was the first town settled in the county, and the first to adopt a municipal organization, on the island. Its settlers removed here from New Haven, and remained under the jurisdiction of that colony, until it was included in the charter of Connecticut, in 1662, after which, it became a dependency of that colony, till 1676, when Sir Edmund Andross insisting on his right to jurisdiction over it, the people submitted, somewhat unwillingly.

Southampton and East Hampton were also included under the government of New Haven and Connecticut, until this period.

Smithtown was purchased by Richard Smythe, of Narragansett, Rhode Island, who obtained a patent from Governor Andross, in 1677, and removed here and founded a settlement. Gardiner's Island was settled by Lyon Gardiner, in 1635;* Shelter Island in 1652, by James Farrett and others; and Brookhaven in 1655, by emigrants, mostly from Boston.

In 1673, Colve, the Dutch governor of New Netherlands, attempted to reduce these towns to subjection to the Dutch authority at New Orange [New York]. This effort called forth a sharp remonstrance from John Winthrop, the then governor of Connecticut, and a spirited correspondence ensued, which resulted in a partial compromise, on the part of the Dutch gov

ernor.

In 1674, however, the English sway was resumed, and in 1676 the county came under the government of the colony of New York. In 1699, the pirate Kidd secreted a portion of his

Mr. Gardiner was a man of fine education, and exerted a powerful influence over the Indians, and the white settlers on the island. Wyandanch, the powerful sachem of the Montauks, regarded him with the utmost reverence and affection.

ill-gotten treasures on Gardiner's Island, in this county. These were seized by order of the Earl of Bellomont, the same year. During the revolution, the people of Suffolk county were decidedly patriotic in their sentiments, and though under the domination of the British, they maintained their affection for their country, and consequently suffered severely from her enemies.

It deserves to be recorded, to the honor of East Hampton, that every man in the town, capable of bearing arms, signed a solemn pledge, on the 6th July, 1775, not to submit to British taxation. The other towns were nearly unanimous in their resistance to oppression.

On the 21st of May, 1777, the British having collected a considerable quantity of provisions and military stores at Sag Harbor, General Parsons formed the design of destroying them, and committed the enterprise to Lieutenant Colonel Meigs.

That officer proceeded directly to Guilford, but on account of the roughness of the weather, could not embark till the 23d, when he left Guilford, at one o'clock, P. M., with 170 men, in thirteen whale boats. They arrived at Southold about six o'clock, P. M., transported their boats over land to the bay, and arrived, at twelve o'clock at night, within four miles of Sag Harbor. Securing their boats under a guard, they marched directly for the village, and attacking the outposts with fixed bayonets, they proceeded immediately to the shipping.

An armed schooner, with twelve guns and seventy-nine men, lying here, fired upon them for three-fourths of an hour, but without effect. Twelve brigs and sloops, (one of which was the vessel above referred to), 120 tons of hay, corn and oats, ten hogsheads of rum, and a large quantity of merchandise, were completely destroyed; six of the enemy were killed, and ninety taken prisoners. Not one of Colonel Meigs' force was either killed or wounded.

At two o'clock in the afternoon, he returned to Guilford, having been absent only twenty-five hours. Congress voted a sword to Colonel Meigs, and Washington addressed him a letter of thanks, through General Parsons.

In retaliation for the capture of Major General Silliman, by the British, in May, 1779, a party of twenty-five volunteers set off from Bridgeport, Conn., on the 4th of November of the same year, to capture Hon. Thomas Jones, then judge of the supreme court, who was noted for his attachment to Great Britain. They succeeded in their object, and captured three other prisThese were exchanged, in May, 1780, for Major General Silliman, and other prisoners.

oners.

On the 21st November, 1780, Major Benjamin Tallmadge attempted an enterprise against Fort St. George, a British stockade post near Mastic, on the southern shore of the island, in the town of Brookhaven. Embarking at Fairfield, Conn., with

eighty men, he crossed the sound to Old Man's harbor, where he remained concealed through the day, and at night marched for the fort, which he reached about two o'clock in the morning, and carried immediately, at the point of the bayonet, taking fifty-four prisoners, and destroying several vessels laden with stores. On his return he stopped at Corum, and burned three hundred tons of hay, which had been collected by the British. He arrived at Fairfield, on the evening of the 22d, with his prisoners and booty, without the loss of a single man.

In October, 1781, Major Tallmadge attacked Fort Slongo, a British post at Tredwell's bank, in Smithtown, and destroyed it, taking a number of prisoners.

During the late war with Great Britain, the enemy repeatedly seized vessels in Long Island sound, and on the coast, and either wantonly destroyed them, or demanded an exorbitant price for their ransom. In one of their incursions 'for this purpose, at Riverhead, in May, 1814, they were repulsed by the militia, with severe loss.

VILLAGES. RIVERHEAD, the seat of justice for the county, is a small village on Peconic rlver.

Sag Harbor, the largest whaling port in the state, and the most populous village in the county, is situated on the boundary line between Southampton and East Hampton, the larger portion of it being in the former town. Its site is sandy and sterile, but its harbor is excellent. It was first settled in 1730.

In 1845 there were sixty-one ships and barks belonging to this port, engaged in the whaling business, employing a capital of more than $2,000,000, and a number of smaller vessels in the home fisheries and coasting trade. It suffered severely, from a disastrous fire in 1845, but was soon rebuilt, in a better manner than before. Population 3621.

Greenport, the terminus of the Long Island railroad, has sprung up since 1827, and has had a more rapid growth, than any other village in the county. It had twelve ships, engaged in the whaling business, in 1845. Population about 1200.

Huntington, in the town of the same name, is a small but ancient village, with an incorporated academy. It has a fine harbor.

Oyster Ponds, or Orient, and Southold, are growing settle

ments.