PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY OF THE REGION. 85 



At present, this i)rocess is in the same stage of shjw advance that has 

 been described for river terraces, for the outlets ha\'e now cut doAvn their 

 channels to a rocky barrier or close to the local base-level, and in either 

 case further deepening of the channel is very deliberate. In their pres- 

 ent stage, the larger lakes still retain the ragged sliore-line characteristic 

 of an overflow upon an uneven country : all the large lakes, from Winni- 

 piseogee past Moosetocmaguntic to Pomgocquomoc, and to ^Nleinphrama- 

 gog on the other side of the mountains, are as irregular in outline as in 

 name. The lateral outlet of Winnepiseogee and the great volume of drift 

 over the country to the southeast, give strong suggestion that its basin is 

 caused by the obstruction of old valleys. Cliamplain doubtless belonfj-s to 

 the same class of lakes ; for though some of its depth is likely due to o-la- 

 cial excavation, its present outline is essentially determined by the heio-ht 

 to which the preglacial valley is flooded back in consequence of drift- 

 barriers in the former lines of drainage : its present outlet is a new stream. 

 The smaller lakes are generally oval or elongated in the direction of the 

 valley whose obstruction has determined them, as Quinsigamond, east of 

 Worcester, and many others in Maine. The terminal moraines on Caijc 

 Cod and on the southern islands contain many small ponds in their de- 

 pressions, and the southern sides of Cape Cod, ^Martha's Vinevard and Xan- 

 tucket possess curious elongated or branching lakes, apparently occupyino- 

 submerged valleys, enclosed by sand-bars from the sea. Numerous 

 swamps, with characteristic flora, mark the sites of small or shallow lakes 

 recently extinct in all parts of New England. 



In a geographical sense. New England is on the whole a Avell defined 

 province, clearly separated from its neighbors. It has some continuity 

 into the British provinces on the northeast by a prolongation of the high- 

 lands and lowlands of Maine beyond our border, and some extension to the 

 southwest by a persistence of the Green Mountain system into the hio-h- 

 lands of southern New York and northern New Jersey ; this being simply 

 an expression of the prevailing trend of structural and topographic features 

 in the Appalachian system. To the north, there are the wide, low plain 

 and the estuary of the St. Lawrence, cutting us off from the Canadian 

 highlands, a rocky and forest-cohered wilderness, Avith disordered rivers 

 and many lakes, much like northern Elaine. To the west, there is the 

 deep Hudson-Champlain valley, a line of long maintained geoloo-ical 

 depression and disturbance, beyond which lie the rugged Adirondacks, the 

 broad ]\Iohawk valley, and the Catskill plateau : the Adirondacks, unlike 

 our New England mountains in the presence of numerous lakes even to 

 their center ; the Mohawk valley, eroded at right angles to all the lar^-er 

 New England river c(mrses : the Catskill plateau, with its benched front 

 and deep cut cloves, the beginning of the great })lateau that carries the 

 coal beds of Pennsylvania, Virginia and Kentucky. On the south there 



