Mountains in New York. 89 
compared with Whiteface is attributable in some degree to this 
cause, it is most certainly not unreasonable to suppose. 
Again, a considerable discrepancy in barometric results may 
arise from the difference in the different formulas used in making 
the computations. Mr. Emmons makes the elevation of Mt. 
Marcy above tide 5,594 feet. Mr. Redfield, by another formula, 
makes it from the same observations 127 feet less, and by yet 
another formula which has been found by comparison with the 
known elevation of objects by levelling to give results quite near 
the truth, it is somewhat less than the elevation obtained by Mr. 
Redfield. In the case of the Whiteface Mt. the elevation by this 
latter formula, computing from Mr. Emmons’s observations, is less 
than that given by him by about 290 feet, or about 100 feet lower 
than the elevation as derived from trigonometrical measurement. 
If these causes of error exist, and the tendency of all combined 
is to affect the altitude in the same way, of which there is no ev- 
idence to the contrary, it is not difficult to-imagine. that Mr. Em- 
mons’s barometric measurement of Mt. Marcy may be farther from 
the truth than he is willing to admit. 
The propriety of this conclusion, independent of all other con- 
siderations, is I conceive most fully warranted in the great dis- 
crepancy of the relative barometric altitudes of the peaks in New 
York and Vermont already described, as shown by the trigonom- 
etrical measurement. 
The statement made by me in the report alluded to at the head 
of this article, was, I believe, clearly warranted by the circum- 
Stances of the case, and as such was entitled to a degree of con- 
sideration in no respect inferior to that which can be reasonably 
Claimed in behalf of Mr. Emmons’s measurement. It was most 
*ettainly no wish or intention of mine, in making that statement, 
* disparage, in the least, the labors of Mr. Emmons ; and it was 
not imagined that he could consider the statement as having that 
tendency ; but” since, from the tenor of his remarks, he has 
thought proper to construe it in that light and to pronounce so 
unequivocally (to use a very mild term) in respect to the superi- 
ty of his barometrical measurements, I am compelled, very re- 
luctantly, I confess, to state the facts in detail which influenced 
My judgment and which I believe fully justify me in all I have 
