THE ST. LAWRENCE RESERVATION 7g 



boats while their parties are at dinner, being much more convenient for that purpose 

 than the rocky shore or gravelly beach. Many small buoys have been placed on 

 shoals in waters navigated by yachts and launches. The constantly increasing 

 population, and the desire for better transportation facilities by cottage owners, 

 have caused the use of steam yachts and launches, with which all parts of the river 

 and bays are navigated. The National Government does not place buoys on any of 

 the shoals that are not near the main routes of travel, and therefore it was thought 

 best to place small buoys on some of the shoals in parts of the river frequented 

 by launches, but which were out of the main steamboat channel. One of the 

 regular game protectors, as required b\- the law creating the park, was detailed as 

 superintendent, and much of the work of building and maintaining the .ireplaces 

 and buoys is done b\- him. 



In a codification of the New York Forest, Fish and Game Law, in 1900, the 

 act creating this Reservation or International Park was repealed and in place 

 thereof, in that part of the codification relating to pubUc parks in charge of the 

 Forest, Fish and Game Commission, was placed a section, as follows: 



Section 218. Saint Lazvrcncc Reservation. — All that part of the river Saint 

 Lawrence lying and being within the state, with the islands therein, and such 

 lands along the shore thereof as are now owned by , or shall hereafter be acquired 

 by the state, is hereby constituted an international park which shall be known as the 

 " Saint Lawrence reservation." 



The elevation of this Thousand Island region at some prehistoric time was 

 mucli higher than now. It is probable that, instead of being an island and water 

 region, it was a valley or rather a low but rocky depression in the mountain system 

 extending from the present Adirondack plateau to a similar ui^land wilderness in 

 Canada. The line of ridges even now extends across a comparatively level and 

 fertile stretch of country in the counties of St. Lawrence and Jefferson. The land 

 on each side of this rough territory is of entirely different character from the island 

 and rocky region, as even a casual examination plainly shows. A surprisingly simi- 

 lar formation in the land on the Canadian side of the river adjacent to the Thousand 

 Islands is observable. 



When this ridge of rock}', mountainous formation was at its ma.ximum height, 

 many thousand years ago perhaps, it was a part of the shore line of Lake Ontario, 

 which then emptied into the ocean by way of the Mohawk and Hudson River 

 Valleys. Interesting evidences of a great prehistoric waterfall are noticeable at 

 Little I'"alls, in the Mohawk Valley. In the progress of the earth's changes this 

 eastern shore of the then Lake Ontario sank gradually until the waters of that great 



