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GEOLOGY OF NEW YORK CITY
such as plums, wild cherries, and pears, grew wild in the woods; birds also were plentiful, particularly pigeons, which were chased by the foxes like fowls.
New York streets in 1748 were pleasantly shaded by water, beech and locust trees, lime trees, and elms, which were pop­ulous with birds, and, amusingly enough, were criticised by strangers as affording homes for tree toads, whose " clamor­ous voices " aroused protest.
The elevations of rock at Fort George (196th Street), Fort Washington (176th Street), the Inwood Ridge (207th Street), and the Kingsbridge hills (222nd Street) are familiar and yet undisturbed. Their enduring nature precludes any serious alteration. But the hills which covered the present business section of the city were made of loose material and have generally disappeared. Near 8th Street and Broadway (Sandy Hill Lane) was a hill of sand, a yellow variety, very generally found on the surface and probably representing stream agencies; this merged into a neighboring mound west of Broadway at 10th Street. At Provost and Varick Streets was a ridge, formerly surmounted by a fort, standing in 1797, which witnessed the retreat of Washington to White Plains.
A lateral ridge, probably kame-like in character, viz., a heaped, elongated mound formed under or within glaciers, ex­tended from Warren Street to near Canal Street, where the Lispenard farm lay. Richmond Hill, called by the youngsters of half a century ago " The General's Woods," and where " Tivoli Garden " stood, a place of romantic loveliness, with huge oaks and chestnuts, was north of Canal Street, a genial retreat for "those on pleasure bent."
A hill, whose substratum forms the down grade to Broad­way toward Canal Street, rose at Franklin Street and de­clined towards the still obvious hollow of Centre Street, com­manding the Collect Pond and the inconspicuous city to the south. Bunker's Hill stood at the junction of Grand, Orange and Elm Streets, a steep accumulation of earth, boulder and sand, one hundred feet higher than the level of Grand Street.