History 3424x
Fall 2008

First individual/paired assignment:
Due, Monday, September 8, 2008
to be posted to course website by midnite, September 7^th

Provide an account/description of a direct observation of one of the local waters of New York from among waters within 15 miles of the Columbia campus:
:

The Hudson River
The Harlem River
The East River

Upper New York Bay
Lower New York Bay
Long Island Sound
The Atlantic Ocean

Your account should include as many of your watery site’s following features as can be ascertained in the course of a short visit:

Location of observation

Date, time and duration of observation
Weather/wind conditions

Water’s temperature
Taste

Viscosity
Salinity

Water depth
Character of bottom

Direction of flow
Speed of flow
Water surface conditions

Water traffic
Ongoing human uses
Incidence of fish and shorebirds
Shoreline characteristics

Other features of note

These direct observation may be supplemented by recourse to publicly available materials relating to your particular body of water. These include navigational charts and tide/current tables.