New York Weather Bureau. 417 



II. PHYSICAL FEATURES OF NEW YORK. 



Thd following outline of tbe (orography of Niew York is isub- 

 stantiallj as given by Profesisor Arnold Gujot. Further details 

 are exhibited by the accompanjiiug relief map. 



The mass of the State is a trianguliar table-land, elevated 1,500 

 or 2,000 feet above the ocean, and may be considered the north- 

 eastenn extremity of the plateau which, in this latitude, forms 

 th : western half of the Appalachian system. The natural limit 

 of this belt toward the west and nort^h is the large depression of 

 Lakes Erie and Ontario, and which continues down the course of 

 the St. Lawrence river to the ocean. In the east the table-land 

 is terminated by the deep valley occupied by Lake Champlain 

 ^nd the Hudson river; while southward the highlands extend with- 

 out interruption into Pennsylvamia. The easterni e^dge along the 

 Hudson and Champlain valleys is formed by a series of mountain 

 vhainsi more or less isolated from each other, and bearing the 

 highesit summits in the iState. They are: The Highlands which 

 cross the Hudson at the limit of the coast region; the iShawangunk 

 and Catskill mountains on the western bank of the river; and the 

 system lof the Adirondacks covering the territory between the St. 

 Lawrence and 'Champlain valleys. Within this ealsitern wall the 

 true mountain chains cease; but the remainder of the plateau is 

 Indented by numerous valleys, the bottoms of which are generally 

 several hundred feet below the common level, a,nd which are sepa- 

 rated by high ridges. A remarkable feature lis the deep trans- 

 versal cut which formsi the valley of the Mohawk and Lake 

 Oneida, opening a channel from the low country of the Lake 

 Region to the Hudson valley, and thus dividing the main plateau 

 into the distinct masses of the Appalachian and Adirondack 

 systems. 



A subdivision of the central or Appalachian highlands is due 

 to the deep channel of Seneca lake, extending from the plains 

 bordering Lake Ontario southward to the valley of the Susque- 

 hanna. The two sections of the highlands thus separated are 

 here designated as the eastern and western plateaus; the former 

 extending from the central lakes to the Hudson valley, and the 

 latter westward from the central lakes to the depression of Lake 

 ■Erie. 



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