70 Th> Flora of tin Aavrondaeks. 



We shall find little difficulty in drawing our geological 



chart. If a map of this whole Adirondack region were 

 colored to correspond with its geological character, we 

 should find an almost unbroken gray surface, representing 

 the primary rocks. Only a narrow strip along the borders 

 of Lake Champlain breaks the monotony of the gray. 

 A blue line, extending from near Tieonderoga to Wills- 

 borough, tells of the calciferous and ('hazy limestone ; a 

 little belt by the lake side, more then thirty miles long 

 and averaging a mile wide ; then the belt changes to red, 

 indicating the Potsdam sandstone, which creeps behind the 

 limestone a little to the southward, and from Willsborough 

 northward forms the whole of the belt to the north boundary 

 of the county. It is in this sandstone, at Keeseville, that 

 nature has played the curious freak of riving the rocks 

 asunder for a great distance, forming a wonderful gorge 

 with high precipitous walls on either side through which 

 flows the Ausable river. 



We shall find the profile chart of our territory far more 

 complicated. Yet we may, perhaps, draw a rude outline 

 which will impart some idea of its characteristic features. 

 The slopes rising from the lake are not, like those of the 

 Vermont side, gentle, rising in monotonous undulations 

 toward the great mountain range. These are bold and 

 broken by sharp spurs and crags. In places, as at Port Henry, 

 the mountain thrusts its precipitous sides fairly into the lake. 

 Yet along these slopes are found grassy plains, pleasant 

 valleys traversed by streams of clear water, and gently 

 undulating hills. Thriving and beautiful villages are 

 situated at short intervals by the lake where the smoke of 

 the furnace stack and the steam from the factory tell of the 

 industry of the people. 



The land rises rapidly, and range after range of hills 

 mount higher and higher, until we reach the principal 

 cluster in the extreme western part of Esses county. 



