Describing his next place of anchorage, Verrazzano says: “We found not far from this people another, whose mode of life we judged to be similar to that of the former. The whole shore is covered with fine sand about fifteen feet deep, rising in the form of little hills about fifty paces broad. Ascending farther, we found several arms of the sea which, entering through inlets, washed the shore on each side as the coast trends. An extensive country appears, rising somewhat above the level of the sandy beach in beautiful fields and broad plains, covered with immense forests, more or less dense, the foliage of the trees being of various colors, too attractive and charming to be described. I do not believe that these are like the Hercynian forest, or the rough solitudes of Scythia, or the northern regions full of vines and trees, but growing with palms,[381] laurels, cypresses, and other varieties of trees unknown in Europe, which exhale a very sweet fragrance a great distance. We could not examine them closely for the reasons already mentioned, and not on account of any difficulty in traversing the woods, which, on the contrary, are easily penetrated. “As the Orient stretches around to this country,[382] I do not think that it is devoid of the same kind of drugs and aromatic liquors, nor of other resources as gold and the like, which the color of the earth indicated.[383] The country abounds with many animals as deer, stags, hares, and the like. It is plentifully supplied with lakes and ponds of running water, and with a great variety of birds, fit and useful for every kind of pleasant and delightful sport. This land lies in 34°. The air is salubrious, pure, and of a temperature neither hot nor cold. There are no impetuous winds in these regions, the most prevalent being the northwest and west. “When we were there in summer-time the sky was clear with little rain, and if fogs and mists were at any time driven in by the south wind, they quickly disappeared, and the sky became again serene and bright. The sea is tranquil and not stormy. Although the whole coast is low and without harbors, it is not dangerous to navigate, being free from rocks and bold, so that within four or five fathoms from the shore there are twenty-four feet of water at all times of tide, and this depth uniformly increases as you go farther into the sea. The holding ground is so good that no ship can part her cable, however strong the wind may be, as we proved by experience, for while riding at anchor on the coast we were overtaken by a gale in the beginning of March, when the winds are high, as is usual in all countries, and we found our anchor broken before it started from its place or moved at all.”