PRESENT SITUATION

OF THE

United States of America.

GRAND DIVISIONS OF THE UNITED STATES.

THE AMERICAN REPUBLIC, of which we have in the preceding

volume given a general account, confifts of three grand divifions, denominated the NORTHERN, or more properly EASTERN, MIDDLE, and SOUTHERN States.

The first divifion, the Northern or Eaftern States, comprehends

VERMONT,

NEW-HAMPSHIRE,

DISTRICT of MAINE, belonging

to Maffachufetts.

MASSACHUSETTS,

RHODE ISLAND,

CONNECTICUT.

Thefe 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 fecond divifion, the Middle States, comprehends

NEW-YORK,

NEW-JERSEY,

PENNSYLVANIA,

DELAWARE,

TERRITORY, N. W. of OHIO.

NORTH-CAROLINA,

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

VOL. II.

B

NEW.

NEW-ENGLAND;

Or NORTHERN or EASTERN STATES.

NEW-ENGL

SITUATION, BOUNDARIES, &c.

EW-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; eaft, by the province of New-Brunswick, and the Atlantic Ocean; fouth, by the fame ocean, and Long-Island found; weft, by the State of New-York. It lies in the form of a quarter of a circle. Its weft line, beginning at the mouth of Byram river, which empties into Long-Iland found at the fouth-weft corner of Connecticut, lat. 41 degrees, runs a little east of north, until it ftrikes the 45th degree of latitude, and then curves to the eastward almoft 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 feven of them live to the age of feventy years; and about one in thirteen or fourteen to eighty years and upwards.

North-west, weft, and fouth-west winds, are the most prevalent. Eaft and north-east winds, which are unelaftic and difagreeable, are frequent at certain feafons of the year, particularly in April and May, on the fea coafts. The weather is lefs 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 100° above o. The medium is from 48° to 50°. The inhabitants of New-England, on account of the drynefs of their atmosphere, can endure, without inconvenience, a greater degree of heat than the inhabitants of a moifter climate. It is fuppofed by fome philofophers, that the difference of moisture in the atmosphere in Pennsylvania and New-England is such, as that a perfon might bear at leaft 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 New. England 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. Thefe facts evince the remarkable drynefs of the atmosphere in this

eaftern

1