The early European settlement is along one of our well-known rivers—which (36)______into the Atlantic to form New York bay. The Hudson river has a (37)______of interesting physical features that made it very attractive for settlement by the Europeans. The first is that the river (38)______inland from the Atlantic Ocean for more than 150 mile with no watells or (39)______. Its suce is (40)______flat for that entire distance, with no tides. Second, the whole 150-mile stretch is influenced by tides from the Atlantic Ocean. (41)______every six hours, the river (42)______direction, flowing north when the tide is (43)______and south toward the ocean when the tide is going down. (44)____________, and this explains why the Dutch penetrated so far inland. There were the first Europeans to settle in the Hudson valley. Of course, to go upstream, the Dutch settlers needed the right kind of boat, and so to navigate the river, they design a sloop with only one mast but with two sails, one rigged in front of the mast and one behind. (45)____________. Hudson river sloops carried passengers and cargo. The cargo ranging form coal, lumber and hay to fruit, vegetables and livestock. Traveling only ten miles an hour in a good wind, the sloop was not too speedy by modern standards, but it was ideally suited to the Dutch settlement, (46)____________.