skin. The balloon fish, puffer, and globe fish are examples of this order. Sub-class II. CARTILAGINOUS FISHES. These are divided into three orders, viz. 1st. Eleutheropomi, those having free gills. This order is represented in the state only by the sturgeon. 2d, Plagiostoma, those having the gills attached. This includes the shark and ray tribes. 3d, Cyclostomi, those having circular openings on each side of the neck for respiration. This includes the lamprey, frequently called lamper eel. FOSSIL FISHES. Twenty-five species of these have been enumerated by the Messrs. Redfield. A number of them are extinct species. The following catalogue contains the names of all the fishes as yet discovered in the waters of this state: Sub-class I. Bony Fishes. Order I. PECTINIBRANCHI. Four spined stickleback, Many spined Family 3. Scienida. Sheepshead family. Lafayette, Weakfish, Rough Silvery Corvina, Slender Black Huron or black bass, Speckled redmouth, Champlain pickering, Yellow pike perch, Grey Banded pristipoma, Black triple tail. Family 4. Sparida. Sheepshead, Sand porgee, {Big porgee, or Scup. Moon fish, Family 6. Scombrida. Mackerel tribe. Spring Mackerel, Order I. ELEUTHEROPOMA. Mackerel porbeagle, Family Sturionide. Lake sturgeon, Short nosed Sharp Order. IL PLAGIOSTOMA. Family 1. Squalide. Shark Family. Threshing shark, Small blue Dusky Ground Long tailed American houridfish, Basking shark, Spinous dog fish, Hammer head shark, American angel fish, or {Sea devil, Common saw fish. Family 2. Raiada. Ray family. Clear nosed ray, Unspotted Common puffer, Lineated " Small globe fish, Short head fish, Family 2. Balistide. File fish family. Orange Long finned file fish, Massachusetts " " Thread Long tailed unicorn fish, Family 3. Ostraceonide Dromedary, Yale's trunk fish. Fishes. Class VII. Crustacea. The class Crustacea embraces those animals having a covering of a dense calcareous substance, adapted to their form, which they usually shed every year, and which is replaced by an exudation from the surface of the animal's body. Ten orders of this class of animals are supposed to exist in the state, though the existence of two of the ten is not determined with certainty. Order 1st, Decapoda, those having ten feet, is the most numerous and best known. It embraces the various species of crab, lobster, fresh-water lobster, and most of the prawns or shrimps. There are in all twenty-seven species of this order. Order 2d, Stomapoda, those having the feet converging towards the jaws, is less numerous, containing but three species. It embra ces the opossum shrimp and the squill. Order 3d, Amphipoda, those having feet connected with both divisions of the body, comprising the sand flea, beach flea, and fresh-water shrimp. It has but four species. Order 4th, Læmipoda, has but two species, the whale louse and the sea measuring worm. Order 5th, Isopoda, is considerably numerous, containing fourteen species. Seven of these are parasitic animals which obtain a subsistence by attachment to other animals. Among them are the salt and fresh-water barnacle; two species of sow bug; the pill bug; and a genus resembling the trilobite. Order 6th, Pæcilopoda, contains five species, and embraces the horsefoot, or king crab, so abundant on the sea coast; and parasites peculiar to the shark, the rock bass, and the alewife. Orders 7th and 8th, Phyllopoda and Lophyropa, are not certainly known to exist in the state. Orders 9th and 10th, Branchiopoda and Ostrapoda, have but one species each, and those not known, except to the zoologist. Class VIII. Mollusca. Mollusca is the name given to the class of animals whose bodies are encased in shells. Many of these are known by the name of shell fish. There are six orders, embracing a large number of genera and spe cies, in the state. The 1st order is Cephalopoda, those having the head surrounded by feet. The cuttle fish, or squid, and the syphon formed spirula, belong to this order. The 2d order is Pteropoda, having fins on each side of the mouth, and without feet. To this order belongs the clio, the food of the whale. The 3d order is Gasteropoda, having the feet under the body. The mollusca, belonging to this order, are very numerous in the state, and are arranged into eight sections or subdivisions, according to the structure of their gills or breathing apparatus. It comprises, in addition to many species known only to the natu ralist, the family of slugs or snails, the animals inhabiting the turbi nated shells, and those which yield the famous Tyrian purple dye. The 4th order, Acephala, those having no distinct head, is divided into three sections, and comprises by far the greater number of shell fish with which we are familiar. In the 2d section, Lamellibranchia, those having leaf-like gills, of a semicircular form, we find the oyster, scallop, bloody clam, mussel, and the fresh-water clam and mussel. In the third section, Conchifera, those having single and distinct shells, we find the quahog, or common round clam, and the long clam. The 5th and 6th orders, Cirrhopoda, those having filamentous or thread-like feet, and Tunicata, those covered with a leathery or membranous tunic instead of a shell, contain no species of general interest. The researches of the state geologists have brought to light numerous genera and species of fossil mollusca, imbedded in the lime and sand stones of the state. The most remarkable and common of these are the various species of trilobite, the encrinite, the pentamerus, &c. Class IX. Insects. No full account of the insects of this state has yet appeared. The naturalists of the adjacent states, of Massachusetts and Pennsylvania, have described most of those, which are inhabitants of the state-and relying upon their descriptions, we shall mention some of those best known. The order Coleoptera, beetles, is very numerous. In Pennsylvania more than 1500 species have been discovered. The boring beetle, hammering beetle, tumble bug, ground beetle, horn bug, goldsmith beetle, and some others of brilliant colors, are the most common. The order Orthoptera, includes the cockroaches, crickets and grasshoppers, of which there are many species. The katydid, so well known by the peculiar sound produced by its wing covers, belongs to the latter family. The order Homoptera comprises the locusts; one species of these is remarkable for remaining seventeen years in the grub state. The order Hemiptera, bugs, comprises many of those insects injurious to vegetation, particularly the May bug, the lady bug, the apple tree blight, &c. The order Lepidoptera, butterflies, are very numerous, probably numbering not less than 1000 species. Among those that fly during the day, those best known are, the small yellow winged butterfly, and the large yellow and black butter-fly. The variety, and beauty of their colors, attract universal attention. Some of the nocturnal species are very large. The order Arachnide, spiders, though now usually considered as a separate class, may come in here with propriety. There are probably between one and two hundred species of these in the state. Some of them are very large, and possessed of great beauty. The long legs, the clawed spider, the tick, mite, louse, &c, also belong to this order. The worms of the state, and its animalcules, have not yet been made subjects of general investigation. CIVIL HISTORY OF NEW YORK. DUTCH COLONIAL ADMINISTRATION. DISCOVERY AND SETTLEMENT. THE bay of New York was first discovered in 1524, by Jean de Verrazano, a Florentine in the service of France. It does not appear, however, that Francis I. the monarch under whom this discovery was made, ever took advantage of it, or laid claim to the territory adjacent, in consequence of Verrazano's exploration. On the 4th of Sept. 1609, Henry Hudson, an Englishman, in the service of the States General of Holland, again discovered it, and ascended the river, which now bears his name, to a point a little below the present city of Albany. His ship, or yacht, was of about eighty tons burthen, and was called the Half Moon. Landing in England on his return, he despatched an account of his adventures to the Dutch East India Company, with the request, that they would furnish him with the means of making another voyage. The English Government, however, determining to secure his services, forbade his sailing again in the service of Holland. Shortly after, he received the command of a ship, with directions to explore the Northern coast of America, in the hope of finding a North West passage. Having discovered and entered the bay which now bears his name, his crew mutinied, and putting him with some of his men into a small boat, abandoned them to their fate. Whether they perished by the waves, by hunger, or by the inclemency of the climate, is unknown. The country thus discovered by Hudson, was inhabited by numerous roving tribes of Indians, of whom the Maquaas or Mohawks were the most formidable and warlike. The Manhattans, who inhabited the island on which New York is situated, were also a fierce and warlike nation. Between thirty and forty of these tribes occupied Long Island and the country watered by the Hudson and Delaware rivers and their branches. In 1610, a ship was sent by some merchants in Amsterdam, to trade with the Indians of Hudson river, for furs, &c. Other voyages were made during the succeeding years. In 1613, one |