No. 112.1 737 



The two principal branches of the Au Sable, nearly equal in 

 size and importance, rise principally in the western part of Essex 

 county, and by their wide spread and multifarious confluents, 

 drain a territory of about eight hundred square miles. They 

 unite at the Au Sable Forks, and roll along the Au Sable Valley, 

 a motive power that impels more varied and extensive industrial 

 pursuits, than almost any other stream upon the continent of 

 equal capacity and extent. The river Saranac penetrates this 

 county, from Franklin, near the line of North Elba and St. Ar- 

 mand, and crossing the latter diagonally, enters Clinton county. 

 Gliding along high level banks, with scarcely a perceptible cur- 

 rent, it exhibits the form and aspect of an artificial canal. It is 

 navigable in Essex county, a distance of about fifteen miles, by 

 • small boats ; and probably by slight improvements, may be 

 adapted to the passage of the smaller class of screw-steamers. 



Natural Curiosities. 



Indian Pass. — The mighty convulsions which have upheaved 

 the vast mountains of this region, or rent asunder the barriers 

 that enclosed the seas, which w^ashed their clifis, have left im- 

 pressive vestiges of their power, in the striking natural phenome- 

 na spread over the country. None of them afford more wonder- 

 ful exhibitions of those terrific agencies, or more imposing beauty 

 and magnificence, than a remarkable gorge, known as the ^' Indian 

 Pqss^'' in the impressive aboriginal ^'Otneyarh," the " Stouish 

 Giants." It occupies a narrow ravine, f )rmed by a rapid acclivity 

 of Mount McMartin on one side, rising at an angle of 45*^. and on 

 the opposite, by the dark naked wall of a vertical precipice, tow- 

 ering to an altitude of 800 to 1,2U0 feet from its base, and ex- 

 tending nearly a mile in length. The base itself is elevated 

 about 2,500 i'taX. The deep and appalling gorge is strewn and 

 probably occupied for several hundred feet, wilh gigantic frag- 

 ments hurlod into it frOln the impending clifls, jiv some potent 

 agency. The elements still advance the process. So exact and 

 wonderful is the stupendous masonry of this bulwark, that it 

 seems, could liuman nerve allow the effort, a stone dropped from 

 the summit, might reach the base \vilhout striking an impedi- 

 ment. The pencil cannot portray, nor language describe, the full 

 grandeur and sublimity of this spectacle. The deep seclusion, 



[ Ajj. Tr. '53] W W 



