several branches; one to Morristown, and another to Patterson, New Jersey.

Besides these, there are three others, connecting, by steamboats, with the city, and at no great distance from it. These are the New York and Erie railroad, commencing at Piermont; the Camden and Amboy, commencing at Amboy, New Jersey, and the Housatonic, at Bridgeport, Conn.

Lines of steamboats, also, ply between this city and Albany, Troy, Newburgh, Poughkeepsie, Hudson, Catskill, and other places on the Hudson river: Norwalk, New Haven, Hartford, Norwich, Stonington and Providence, Newark, New Brunswick, Elizabethtown, &c. as well as to the several small villages on Long Island, and Staten Island.

Steamers also leave for England, every month, and lines of packets, for London, Liverpool, Havre, New Orleans, Mobile, and Havana, every week.

WATER WORKS. The Croton Water Works deserve to be considered as one of the most magnificent enterprises of modern times. The water is brought from the Croton river, a stream in Westchester county.

A dam 250 feet long, seventy feet wide at bottom, and seven at top, and forty feet high, has been constructed, creating a pond five miles long. From this dam, the aqueduct proceeds, through hills and over valleys, to the Harlaem river, which it crosses on a massive stone bridge, 1450 feet long, erected at a cost of $900,000; thence it crosses several streets, and follows the tenth Avenue down, from 151st street to 107th street; here crossing a square, it follows the 9th Avenue, to 88th street, where it curves and enters the receiving reservoir, in 85th street. The aqueduct is a hollow cylinder of brick, laid in hydraulic cement. The receiving reservoir is thirty-eight miles from the Croton dam, It covers thirty-five acres, and will contain 150 millions of gallons. From this reservoir the water is conducted in iron pipes, along the 5th Avenue, to the distributing reservoir, on Murray Hill, in Fortieth street.

This reservoir covers four acres, is constructed of stone and cement, is fortythree feet high from the street, and contains twenty millions of gallons. From it, the water is distributed over the city, in iron pipes, laid so deep under ground, as to be secure from the frost. The supply of water is ample, both for the use of the inhabitants, and for fires. There are 1400 fire hydrants, and 600 free hydrants. No city in the world is better supplied, with pure and wholesome water, than New York.

PUBLIC INSTITUTIONS OF THE CITY. The American Institute was incorporated in 1829, for the encouragement of agriculture, manufactures, commerce and the arts.

It has a suite of rooms in the second story of the New City Hall, where it has a library, models for machinery, &c. It holds an annual fair, every autumn, which is visited by not less than 20,000 persons.

The Mechanics' Institute has for its object, the instruction of mechanics and others, in science, and the arts.

The Institute has established annual courses of popular lectures, and has a library, reading room, museum, and collection of chemical and philosophical apparatus.

A male and a female school have been established, under the superintend

ence of its board, the former in 1838, the latter in 1839; both of which, have been eminently successful.

The American Art Union is an incorporated association, for the promotion of the fine arts. Its rooms are at 322 Broadway. The Chamber of Commerce was established for the regulation of trade, &c. in 1768.

SCIENTIFIC SOCIETIES. The most important of these are the Lyceum of Natural History, founded in 1818, for the advancement of knowledge in Zoology, Botany, Mineralogy, Geology, and Conchology ;

It has a large library, and extensive and valuable collections, in every department of natural history, which are all arranged for gratuitous exhibition, at its rooms No. 659, Broadway.

The New York Historical Society, occupying rooms in the University building; its library is a very valuable one, of over 12,000 volumes, besides a collection of coins and medals.

The Ethnological Society, founded in 1842, for investigations in history, languages, geography, &c.;

The New York Medical Society comprising the great body of the educated physicians of the city; its object is improvement in medical science.

The National Academy of Design, established for the benefit of living artists. They annually exhibit a large collection of paintings.

LIBRARIES. The New York Society Library was established in 1754. It has a fine building on Broadway, and a library of 40,000 volumes.

The Mercantile Library Association has a fine suite of rooms in Clinton Hall, a library of more than 21,000 volumes, and an elegant reading room.

The Apprentices Library at 32 Crosby street, contains 12,000 well selected volumes.

The New York Law Institute Library was established in 1828, and has a valuable library of about 3500 volumes of select law books.

BENEVOLENT INSTITUTIONS. Hospitals. There are two hospitals in the city. The New York Hospital, founded by subscription, in 1769, is a noble institution. It has extensive buildings and grounds, and good accommodations for 250 patients. It has ten visiting, and as many consulting physicians.

The City Hospital, at Bellevue, is supported by the Municipal government of the city. It has accommodations for between 200 and 300 inmates, and is under the management of a physician, and several assistants.

The City Dispensary affords aid to about 20,000 indigent patients annually. The Northern and Eastern Dispensaries ad

minister relief to from 5000 to 10,000 each. The New York Eye Infirmary treats over 1000 indigent patients, for diseases of the eye. The Bloomingdale Lunatic Asylum, located at Bloomingdale, has about 200 patients. It is connected with the New York Hospital.

The City Lunatic Asylum, on Blackwell's Island, has from 300 to 400 indigent patients. There is also a Lunatic Asylum on Murray's Hill, Fortieth street. The Institution for the Blind, on the ninth Avenue, has about sixty pupils.

The Deaf and Dumb Asylum, on Fiftieth street, has a principal, eight professors, and not far from 150 pupils. Its buildings are large and commodious.

There are also six Orphan Asylums in the city, and several institutions for aged and indigent females.

Societies are also founded, for the protection and benefit of emigrants, who throng, in such vast numbers, to the city.

From its central position, and intimate connexion with other sections of the country, New York city has been made the head quarters, of numerous benevolent institutions, whose measures are intended to benefit the whole country. The most prominent of these are the American Bible Society, the American and Foreign Bible Society, the Methodist Book concern, the American Tract Society, the Home and Domestic Mission Societies, the Seaman's Friend Society, the Society for ameliorating the condition of the Jews, the American Temperance Union, the Moral Reform Society, the American, and the American and Foreign Anti-Slavery Societies, the American, and the American Baptist Home Mission Societies, &c. &c.

PLACES OF AMUSEMENT. These are numerous. Beside two museums, each containing extensive collections of curiosities, there are several public gardens, where there are frequent exhibitions, picture galleries, four large, and two or three lesser theatres, &c. &c.

GOVERNMENT AND POLITICAL DIVISIONS OF THE CITY. For the purposes of government and police, the city is divided into eighteen wards, each of which elects, annually, an alderman and assistant alderman, who, together, form the Common Council, and with the Mayor, administer the government of the city.

The police of the city, whose duty it is to preserve order, arrest criminals, prevent riots, felonies, and other misdemeanors, give alarm of fires, &c., are 800 in number, and are distributed through the wards, according to their population.

In each ward is a station house, and the police force of the ward, are under the control of a captain of police, and two assistants. There are six police justices, who hold courts, in three different sections of the city. The whole police force, is under the direction of a chief of police, whose rooms are in the new City Hall in the Park.

BUSINESS OF PARTICULAR STREETS. Wall street has become the great rendezvous of bankers and brokers. Pearl street, of wholesale dry goods dealers. South street, of wholesale flour and produce dealers. Chatham street, of dealers in clothing. Broadway is a fashionable promenade; and the Bowery, Grand, and Canal streets, contain most of the retail stores.

STORES, &c. There are in the city, 1981 wholesale, and about 4000 retail, dry goods stores, employing a capital of more than sixty millions of dollars. There are twenty-seven banks, with an aggregate capital of $25,563,600, besides four saving banks.

There are sixty-seven fire and marine insurance companies, of which twenty-two are on the mutual principle. The remainder have a capital of about fourteen millions of dollars. There are twelve life insurance companies, four of them on the mutual principle, the remainder have a capital of $19,000,000. There were, in 1846, 106 hotels and coffee houses.

Such is an imperfect view of the great commercial metropolis of our country. Her growth, thus far, has outstripped the expectations, and predictions of the most sanguine; and judging of the future by the past, we are compelled to believe, that ere the close of the present century, she will be, in population and commercial importance, what London now is.

Her resources are unequalled, and her capacity for accommodating and supporting an immense population, unsurpassed; and when the cities of the old world have sunk to decay, New York, fulfilling the promise of her youth, will flourish, queen of cities, and mart of the world.

Long Island forms so distinct a portion of the state, that it merits a distinct description. It extends from 40° 34′ to 41° 10′ north latitude, and from 2° 58′ to 5° 3' east longitude. It is 140 miles long, with an average breadth of 12 or 15 miles.

SURFACE. A chain of low hills divides it centrally, north of which, the country is rough and broken, but south of it, is almost a perfect plain, apparently produced by the washing up of the sand from the ocean. This surface is somewhat sterile, but produces heavy pine timber.

RIVERS, BAYS, &c. There are few streams worthy of note, on the island, although as a whole, it is well watered. The Peconic, Connecticut, and Nissiquogue, are the only ones of importance.

Its bays are numerous. On the southern coast, the Great South bay extends from Hempstead to Brookhaven, a distance of more than 70 miles. It is from two to five miles wide, and is

separated from the ocean, by a beach of sand, varying in width from a few rods to half a mile, broken only by a few narrow inlets, which are constantly changing in depth, with the action of the waves.

At the eastern extremity of the island, the Great Peconic bay has divided it into two peninsulas, of unequal length. Gardiner's bay, between Shelter and Gardiner's island, furnishes a fine and commodious harbor.

Smithtown bay, on the northern shore, is an open roadstead, of no great depth of water, and unprotected from the winds, by projecting headlands. Huntington bay is smaller, but affords a fine harbor. Hempstead harbor, New York harbor, and Jamaica bay, are the only other bays worthy of notice.

LAKES. There are numerous small lakes, or ponds, scattered over the surface of the island, some of them at short distances from the shore. They are very uniform in their height and temperature, being seldom frozen in winter, and maintaining a most delicious coolness in summer. Ronkonkama, Great Pond, Fort Pond, and Success or Sacut Pond, are the principal.

ISLANDS. A number of islands adjacent to Long Island, are included in its territories. Of these, Shelter, Gardiner's, Plum, Robbin's and Fisher's islands, toward the eastern extremity, and Riker's, Coney, Barren, &c., at the southwestern, are the principal. A part of these are inhabited.

RAILROAD. The Long Island railroad traverses the whole length of the island, and furnishes to its inhabitants easy and speedy access to New York city.

HISTORY. Previous to its discovery and settlement by the whites, Long Island seems to have been densely populated by Indians.

Historians have enumerated the names of fourteen or fifteen tribes, of which the principal were the Canarsee, Rockaway, Merikoke, Marsapeague, Secatogue, and Patchogue tribes on the south side; the Matinecock, Nissaquogue, Setauket, and Corchaug, on the north side; and the Shinecock, Manhasset, and Montauk, from the Canoe Place to Montauk Point. Of these tribes, the Canarsee were subject to the Iroquois; the others were tributaries to the Montauks, whose sachem, Wyandanch, was regarded as the grand sachem of the island. The Pequots, however, had crossed over from the northern shore of the sound, and levied a heavy tribute on these tribes; and after that warlike people were subdued by the English, the Long Island Indians paid tribute to the English, and sought their alliance and protection.

The division of the Island, between the Dutch and English, was long a bone of contention. At length, by the treaty of Hartford, made in 1650, it was settled that the English should hold all of the island east of Oyster bay, and that the remainder should belong to the Dutch. After this date, the eastern part of the island was under the government of Connecticut. till 1664, when the Duke of York claimed it as a part of his patent.