On a hill covered with trees, and called Rockhill, I saw several pieces of stone or [[228]]rock, so big, that they would have required three men to roll them down. But besides these there were few great stories in the country; for most of those which we saw, could easily be lifted up by a single man. In another place we perceived a number of little round pebbles, but we did not meet with either mountains or rocks.
About noon we arrived at New Brunswick, a pretty little town in the province of New Jersey, in a valley on the west side of the river Rareton; on account of its low situation, it cannot be seen (coming from Pensylvania) before you get to the top of the hill, which is quite close up to it: the town extends north and south along the river. The German inhabitants have two churches, one of stone and the other of wood; the English church is of the latter kind, but the presbyterians were building one of stone: the town house makes likewise a pretty good appearance. Some of the other houses are built of bricks, but most of them are made either wholly of wood, or of bricks and wood; the wooden houses are not made of strong timber, but merely of boards or planks, which are within joined by laths: such houses as consist of both wood and bricks, have only the wall towards the street of bricks, all the other sides being merely of planks. This [[229]]peculiar kind of ostentation would easily lead a traveller, who passes through the town in haste, to believe that most of the houses are built of bricks. The houses were covered with shingles; before each door there was an elevation, to which you ascend by some steps from the street; it resembled a small balcony, and had some benches on both sides, on which the people sat in the evening, in order to enjoy the fresh air, and to have the pleasure of viewing those who passed by. The town has only one street lengthways, and at its northern extremity there is a street across; both of these are of a considerable length.
The river Rareton passes hard by the town, and is deep enough for great yachts to come up; its breadth near the town is within the reach of a common gun shot; the tide comes up several miles beyond the town, the yachts were placed lengthways along the bridge; the river has very high and pretty steep banks on both sides, but near the town there are no such banks, it being situated in a low valley. One of the streets is almost entirely inhabited by Dutchmen, who came hither from Albany, and for that reason they call it Albany street: these Dutch people only keep company among themselves, and seldom or never go amongst the other inhabitants, living as it were [[230]]quite separate from them. New Brunswick belongs to New Jersey; however the greatest part, or rather all its trade is to New York, which is about forty English miles distant; to that place they send corn, flour in great quantities, bread, several other necessaries, a great quantity of linseed, boards timber, wooden vessels, and all sorts of carpenters work. Several small yachts are every day going backwards and forwards between these two towns. The inhabitants likewise get a considerable profit from the travellers, who every hour pass through, on the high road.
The steep banks consist of the red limestone, which I have before described. It is here plainly visible that the strata are not horizontal, but considerably dipping, especially towards the south. The weather and the air has in a great measure dissolved the stone here: I enquired, whether it could not be made use of, but was assured, that in building houses it was entirely useless; for, though it is hard and permanent under ground, yet on being dug out, and exposed for some time to the air, it first crumbles into greater, then into lesser pieces, and at last is converted into dust. An inhabitant of this town, however tried to build a house with this sort of stone, but [[231]]its outsides being exposed to the air, soon began to change so much, that the owner was obliged to put boards all over the wall, to preserve it from falling to pieces. The people however pretend that this stone is a very good manure, if it is scattered upon the corn-fields in its rubbish state, for it is said to stifle the weeds: it is therefore made use of both on the fields and in gardens.[38]
Towards the evening we continued our journey, and were ferried over the river Rareton, together with our horses. In a very dry summer, and when the tide has ebbed, it is by no means dangerous to ride through this river. On the opposite shore the red juniper tree was pretty abundant. The country through which we now passed was pretty well inhabited, but in most places full of small pebbles.
We saw Guinea Hens in many places where we passed by. They sometimes run about the fields, at a good distance from the farm-houses.
About eight English miles from New Brunswick, the road divided. We took that on the left, for that on the right leads [[232]]to Amboy, the chief sea-town in New Jersey. The country now made a charming appearance; some parts being high, others forming vallies, and all of them well cultivated. From the hills you had a prospect of houses, farms, gardens, corn-fields, forests, lakes, islands, roads, and pastures.
In most of the places where we travelled this day the colour of the ground was reddish. I make no doubt, but there were strata of the before-mentioned red limestone under it. Sometimes the ground looked very like a cinnabar ore.
Wood-bridge is a small village in a plain, consisting of a few houses: we stopped here to rest our horses a little. The houses were most of them built of boards; the walls had a covering of shingles on the outside; these shingles were round at one end, and all of a length in each row: some of the houses had an Italian roof, but the greatest part had roofs with pediments; most of them were covered with shingles. In most places we met with wells and buckets to draw up the water.
Elizabeth-town is a small town, about twenty English miles distant from New Brunswick: we arrived there immediately after sun setting. Its houses are mostly scattered, but well built, and generally [[233]]of boards, with a roof of shingles, and walls covered with the same. There were likewise some stone buildings. A little rivulet passes through the town from west to east; it is almost reduced to nothing when the water ebbs away, but with the full tide they can bring up small yachts. Here were two fine churches, each of which made a much better appearance than any one in Philadelphia. That belonging to the people of the church of England was built of bricks, had a steeple with bells, and a balustrade round it, from which there was a prospect of the country. The meeting house of the presbyterians was built of wood, but had both a steeple and bells, and was, like the other houses covered with shingles. The town house made likewise a good appearance, and had a spire with a bell. The banks of the river were red, from the reddish limestone; both in and about the town were many gardens and orchards, and it might truly be said that Elizabeth-town was situated in a garden; the ground hereabouts being even and well cultivated.