TOPOGRAPHY. j f 



altitude of five thousand three hundred and forty-four feet (1,628.- 

 85 1 metres).* 



The entire region is studded with hundreds of beautiful lakes of va- 

 rious sizes and depths, and two of them are upwards of four thousand 

 feet above tide level. The altitude of the western border of this area 

 is nowhere less than one thousand feet (304.80 metres), and in most 

 places is considerably more than this. From the valley of the Black 

 River the slope is gradual, and the flattened summits of the first 

 range of foot-hills form a terrace of great extent. The dense forests 

 that formerly covered this terrace have mostly been destroyed, and 

 it is now a sandy, barren region, overrun with blackberries and 

 other rank undergrowth. Beyond, to the eastward, lie the ranges 

 of low hills and irregularly distributed mountains, with their many 

 lakes and rivers, that indicate the confines of the Adirondacks. 



On the eastward the case is very different. Lake Champlain is not 

 an hundred feet f (30.48 metres) above tide-level, and Lake George is 

 but three hundred and forty-three feet (104.546 metres). From the 

 head (south end) of Lake George to Glen's Falls, a distance of but 

 nine miles (14,484 metres), there is a fall of sixty-one feet (18.69 

 metres). Glen's Falls, it will be remembered, is directly on the 

 Hudson, just east of Luzerne. Hence it is clear that one can travel 

 from New York city to Montreal on the St. Lawrence River, and 

 by a very direct roacl, too, without passing over any elevation greater 

 than the shore of Lake George. The route would be : up the Hud- 

 son to Glen's Falls, thence overland nine miles to Fort William 

 Henry on Lake George, or down the valley to Whitehall, and 

 thence, skirting the Adirondacks, down Lake Champlain and its 

 outlet, the river Richelieu, to Sorel on the St. Lawrence, at the 

 head of Lake St. Peter about forty miles below Montreal. This 

 is, indeed, the exact pathway traversed, but little more than two 



* Report of Adirondack Survey, Verplanck Colvin, Superintendent, iSSo. 

 f Exactly 99 feet. 



