5IO REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONERS OF 



Upper Hudson area may be placed under present conditions at about 21 or 22 inches 

 per year. In regard to the forestation of this area it may be stated that the portion 

 in the State of New York has an average of about 80 per cent, in forest. Different 

 parts of this vary considerably. The area of the Schroon River, amounting to 560 

 square miles, is about 75 per cent, forest; the area of the Upper Hudson, of main 

 North River, including 1,200 square miles, is about 85 per cent, forest, some of it 

 being nearly unbroken primeval forest ; the area of the Sacandaga River, which is 

 about 1,100 square miles, and which is still largely primeval forest, is fully 90 

 per cent, forest, the clearings here being probably scant 10 per cent, of the whole. 

 The balance of the Upper Hudson area in the State of New York is from 60 to 70 

 per cent, forest. That portion of the area included in Western Massachusetts and 

 Southern Vermont is stated at about 50 to 60 per cent, forest, giving as a mean 

 something like 80 per cent, forest for the whole. Of the several subdivisions of the 

 Upper Hudson drainage area, the Sacandaga River is distinctly the best water 

 yielder. As regards evaporation we may say, therefore, with the limitations already 

 made as to final definite conclusions, that a drainage area of 4,500 square miles, 

 averaging 80 per cent, forest, may be expected in the latitude of Northern New 

 York to give an evaporation loss of from 21 to 22 inches per year. 

 The following are the complete Hudson River figures for 1894-6: 



1894 



1895 



1896, 



Let us now consider the data of the Genesee River, also in the State of New York. 

 Surveys of the headwaters of this stream, with reference to constructing storage 

 reservoirs thereon, were first made by the State Engineer and Surveyor's Department 

 in 1890. In the absence of appropriations nothing further was done oh these surveys 

 until 1893. In that year other appropriations became available and the work was 

 placed in my charge, and has so remained from that time to the present. A large 

 amount of data has been gathered, which may be found (i) in the annual report of 

 the State Engineer and Surveyor of the State of New York for the fiscal year ending 

 Sept. 30, 1893; (2) in the annual report for 1894; (3) in the annual report for the year 

 1896, to be published in a few weeks. Gaugings of this stream and one of its 

 tributaries known as the Oatka Creek are available for the years I 890-91— 92-94— 95— 

 96, the record for 1890 to 1892, inclusive, being that of the Oatka Creek, and the 

 record for 1894 to 1896, inclusive, being that of the main Genesee River. The total 



This figure is erroneously given in the Genesee Storage Report at 22.88. 



