But, beyond the vast facilities these immense lakes and rivers afford to a maritime commerce capable of development to an extent far beyond the conception of the most sanguine enthusiast, there is the extensive seaboard of that great continent, studded with harbours, and containing some of the most magnificent bays and the largest and safest roadsteads to be found in any part of the world. Take, for instance, the line of coast extending northwards from Chesapeake Bay to the Gulf of St. Lawrence: that bay, itself, has safe anchorage for an untold number of vessels; and, to the northward, there are numerous other bays and sheltered sounds, affording natural facilities for the formation of harbours more commodious than any which works of art alone, however costly, could possibly supply. From among these the Americans have been able to select many admirable sites for their trade emporiums,—in themselves also natural harbours of refuge of the finest description, completely sheltered from the surge of the ocean, and, therefore, not requiring for their protection the expensive breakwaters of Plymouth, Portland, or Cherbourg; where, along the margin of projecting tongues of land or within out-lying islands, vessels of the largest description can anchor in safety, or be moored alongside jetties erected at a trifling expense, where, too, they can discharge their cargoes into warehouses with almost as much ease as they could do in the London or Liverpool docks. These natural advantages, amply illustrated as they are in the case of New York, a city evidently destined to rival, if not to surpass, any city of either ancient or modern times, London not excepted, struck the writer with surprise and wonder. Situated on the southern portion of the island of Manhattan, New York is washed on the east by the sound separating it from Long Island,[151] and on the west by the estuary of the River Hudson, while the bay itself, which is nine miles in length and five miles in breadth, has a communication with the Atlantic through a strait two miles in width, between Staten Island and Long Island, completely sheltered from the ocean and forming a magnificent deep-water basin, with abundant quays and jetties on its eastern, western, and southern margins: here vessels of any size can deliver their cargoes into the heart of the city at all times and in perfect safety.