SOIL AND CLIMATE.
The soil of this town appears to be mostly alluvial, though some few primitive rocks are to be met with. Several years since, in digging a well on some of the highest ground in Brooklyn, a hemlock board was found at the depth of 30 feet, and again at the depth of 73 feet, oyster and clam shells were met with, which crumbled on being exposed to the air.
The shores of Brooklyn, where they are not defended by wharves, are undergoing continual and rapid changes, in consequence of the velocity of the current in the East River. The tide rises here about 5 feet.
There is very little doubt, but that Governor’s Island was formerly connected with Red Hook point in this town. It is an established fact, that previous to the Revolutionary contest, cattle were driven from Red Hook to Governor’s Island, which places at that time were only separated by a very narrow channel, which is called Buttermilk channel, and is now wide and deep enough to admit of the largest size of merchant vessels passing through.
The climate is very changeable, but cannot be called unhealthy. People in this town live to as great age, as in almost any other part of the United States; as instances of which, April, 1823, Mr. Tiebout died in this town, aged 100 years and 10 months. The same year, Mr. Schoonmaker died, aged 84 years; and in 1824, Mary Peterson, a colored woman died, aged 103 years. It is not an uncommon thing for the inhabitants to live beyond the “three score years and ten.”
This town has at different periods been visited by the yellow fever. Between July 10th and September 10th, 1809, 28 persons died of that disease.—During the prevalence of the yellow fever in the city of New-York, in the summer of 1822, seven persons died of that disease in Brooklyn. In the summer of 1823, the yellow fever made its appearance in the village of Brooklyn, and nine persons fell victims to that dreadful pestilence, in the space of one month, during which time its ravages continued. Every year that this disease made its appearance amongst us, it could be distinctly traced to some foreign cause; as, in 1809, it was brought in the ship Concordia, Captain Coffin, on board of which vessel the first case and death happened. In 1822, it was introduced from the city of New-York—and in 1823, it was traced to two or three vessels which had arrived a short time previous from southern latitudes. Indeed the high and airy situation of Brooklyn almost precludes the idea of its being engendered among us.