28 



WRITINGS OP JOSEPH HENRY. 



[1824- 



across the St. Lawrence river above Quebec, and another at 

 the Little Falls on the Mohawk, Lake Ontario would be 

 on the level of Lake Superior; the falls of Niagara would 

 disappear, and these two lakes would be merged in one im- 

 mense inland sea. That this has actually been the state of 

 things at some remote period in the history of our globe, is 

 a favorite opinion of many ; and indeed the appearance of 

 the two outlets, particularly that at the Little Falls, and the 

 nature of the surface of the different slopes of the lower 

 basin, are not unfavorable to this hypothesis.* 



No. XII. — Table of Ascents and Distances on the line of the Erie Canal, 

 through the Mohawk valley, frotn the mouth of the river to Little Falls, 

 and thence along the St. Lawrence basin to Lake Erie. 



Eoute. 



Miles. 



Feet. 



Mouth of the Mohawk to Schenectady 



Head of Little Falls 



Beginning of the long level of Utica 



Along that level to its end, near Syracuse 



Montezuma, at the Seneca river 



Beginning of Rochester level 



Along that level to Lockport and Lake Erie 



level 



Along that level to Lake Erie 



58 

 12 

 69; 

 36; 

 64 



63 

 30 



The whole length of the canal, from Albany 

 to Lake Erie, is 363 miles. The junction of 

 the Hudson and Mohawk is nine miles above 

 Albany. 



21 

 79 

 91 



160 J 

 197 

 261 



324 



354 



rises 226 



rises 142 



rises 57 

 level 



falls 45 



rises 126 



rises 59 

 level 



226 

 368 

 425 

 425 

 380 

 506 



565 

 565 



That part of the above section between Utica and Lake 

 Erie, presents a remarkable uniformity of elevation, with 

 only one intervening depression of 45 feet at the Seneca 

 river. The great length of its levels is also a striking feature 

 of the Erie canal : the Utica level is 69 J miles long, and the 

 Rochester level extends a distance of 63 miles. These facts, 

 however, are both readily explained from a consideration of 

 the circumstance that the canal passes from the Little Falls 

 to Lake Erie along the slope of the St. Lawrence basin, the 

 gradual descent of which to the north is highly favorable to 

 the graduation of a line to the most uniform elevation. 



*Appendix to Cuvier's Theory of the Earth, American edit., page 332. 



