The seacoast of New York is nearly all comprised within the shores of Long Island, which contain a few harbors and inlets, but none that are much frequented by shipping. The bay or harbor of New York is very safe and capacious; its boundaries towards the sea are Long Island and Staten Island; it extends nine miles below the city, and is from a mile and a half to five miles broad; inclosing several small islands, on which are fortifications. The Hudson enters this bay from the north. The East river, or channel between New York Island and Long Island, communicates with Long Island Sound on the east. The Kills, a strait between Staten Island and the Jersey shore, communicates with Newark Bay and the river Raritan on the west; and the Narrows open into the Atlantic towards the south. At low water, the entrance by the Narrows is somewhat difficult for large ships, and the entrance from the Sound is obstructed by the rocky strait of Hell Gate. There are several harbors on Lake Ontario, the most noted of which is Sacket’s Harbor, toward the east end of the lake; it is deep and safe, and was an important naval station during the war of 1812. New Jersey has a long line of seacoast, but it is quite deficient in good harbors. _Newark Bay_ is rather a small lake, communicating by long outlets with the sea. The Bay of _Amboy_, between Staten Island and Sandy Hook, affords little shelter for vessels. There is a long bay, formed by a beach four or five miles from the shore, extending along the coast from Manasquan river, in Monmouth county, almost to Cape May. Through this beach are a number of inlets, by which the bay communicates with the ocean. _Delaware Bay_ lies between the states of Delaware and New Jersey, formed by the mouth of Delaware river and several other smaller ones. It is sixty-five miles long, and in the centre about thirty miles across, and about eighteen at its mouth, from Cape May to Cape Henlopen. This bay has many shoal places, but is in general deep and favorable to navigation. A breakwater and dike are now constructing by the United States’ government at the entrance of the bay. The anchorage ground is formed by a cove in the southern shore, directly west of the pitch of Cape Henlopen and the seaward, and of an extensive shoal called the _Shears_: the tail of which makes out from the shore about five miles up the bay, near the mouth of Broadkill Creek, from whence it extends eastward, and terminates at a point about two miles to the northward of the shore at the cape. The breakwater consists of an insulated dike or wall of stone, formed in a straight line from east south-east to west north-west, and twelve hundred yards in length. At the distance of three hundred and fifty yards from the western end of the breakwater, a similar dike of five hundred yards in length is projected in a direct line, west by south, one half south, forming an angle of one hundred and forty-six degrees fifteen minutes with the breakwater.