:

PRESENT SITUATION

OF THE

United States of America.

GRAND DIVISIONS OF THE UNITED STATES.

T

HE AMERICAN REPUBLIC, of which we have in the preceding volume given a general account, confifts of three grand divisions, denominated the NORTHERN, or more properly EASTERN, MIDDLE, and SOUTHERN States.

The first divifion, the Northern or Eastern States, comprehends

VERMONT,

NEW-HAMPSHIRE,

DISTRICT OF MAINE, belonging

to Maffachusetts.

MASSACHUSETTS,

RHODE ISLAND,

CONNECTICUT.

These are called the New-England States, and comprehend that part of America, which, fince the year 1614, has been known by the name of NEW-ENGLAND.

The second divifion, the Middle States, comprehends

NEW-YORK,

NEW-JERSEY,

PENNSYLVANIA,

DELAWARE,

TERRITORY, N. W. of OHIO.

Of each of these we shall now treat particularly in their order.

VOL. II.

B

NEW

1

NEW-ENGLAND;

Or NORTHERN or EASTERN STATES.

SITUATION, BOUNDARIES, &c.

NEW-ENGLAND lies between 41 and 46 degrees N. Lat. and

between 1 degree 30 minutes, and 8 degrees E. Lon. from Philadel phia; and is bounded north by Lower-Canada; east, by the province of New-Brunswick, and the Atlantic Ocean; fouth, by the same ocean, and Long-Island found; west, by the State of New-York. It lies in the form of a quarter of a circle. Its west line, beginning at the mouth of Byram river, which empties into Long-liland found at the fouth-weft corner of Connecticut, lat. 41 degrees, runs a little east of north, until it strikes the 45th degree of latitude, and then curves to the eastward almost to the Gulf of St. Lawrence. Its climate is very healthful, as is evinced by the longevity of the inhabitants; for it is estimated that about one in seven of them live to the age of feventy years; and about one in thirteen or fourteen to eighty years and upwards.

North-west, west, and south-west winds, are the most prevalent. Eaft and north-east winds, which are unelastic and difagreeable, are frequent at certain seasons of the year, particularly in April and May, on the fea coafts. The weather is less variable than in the Middle and especially the Southern States, and more fo than in Canada. The extremes of heat and cold, according to Fahrenheit's thermometer, are from 20° below, to 100o above o. The medium is from 48° to 50°. The inhabitants of New-England, on account of the dryness of their atmosphere, can endure, without inconvenience, a greater degree of heat than the inhabitants of a moister climate. It is fuppofed by fome philosophers, that the difference of moisture in the atmosphere in Pennsylvania and New-England is such, as that a person might bear at least ten degrees of heat more in the latter than in the former.

The quantity of rain which falls in England annually, is computed to be twenty-four inches; in France eighteen inches, and in NewEngland from forty-eight to fifty inches; and yet in New-England they fuffer more from drought than in either of the forementioned countries, although they have more than double the quantity of rain. These fasts evince the remarkable dryness of the atmosphere in this eaftern

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