*Newport County, Rhode Island. It consists of several islands in Narraganset Bay, and a portion of the main land, and contains 136 sq. miles. The most important portion of the county is Rhode Island, 15 ms. long, and 2½ broad. The surface is gently uneven; soil, fertile, adapted to grain and to grass. Fossil coal is found. Canonicut, Prudence, and Block islands constitute the chief remaining insular portions of the county. The advantages for navigation are very great, and many of the inhabitants are engaged in the fisheries. Capital, Newport. There were in 1840, neat cattle 6,633, sheep 29,230, swine 5,679; wheat 408 bushels produced, rye 3,500, Indian corn 96,058, buckwheat 135, barley 33,005, oats 62,607, potatoes 142,218; 7 houses in foreign trade, capital $140,700; 133 stores, capital $397,990; 5 lumber yards, capital $30,300; capital invested in fisheries, $301,557; 2 fulling mills, 5 woolen factories, 10 cotton factories 21,890 spindles, 1 dyeing and printing establishment, 4 tanneries, 1 distillery, 1 brewery, 3 rope factories, 24 grist mills, 4 saw mills, 3 printing offices, 2 binderies, 3 weekly newspapers. Capital in manufactures $877,408. 3 academies 1O0 students, 62 schools 2,471 scholars. Population 16,874.

*Source: A Complete Descriptive And Statistical Gazetteer Of The United States Of America, By Daniel Haskel, A. M and J. Calvin Smith, Published By Sherman & Smith, 1843

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