PROCEEDINGS OF THE POLYTECHNIC ASSOCIATION. 835 



passes eastwards between CaMada and Labrador, it terminates at 

 the Greenland sea. This low divide gives the Arctic and Hudson's 

 Bay basins on the north, and St. Lawrence basin on the south. 



Rising up from under the great plain first spoken of, the Appa- 

 lachian range commences in the northeast corner of Georgia, 

 and pursues a northeasterly course, parallel with the Atlantic coast 

 into the State of New York, where it turns rapidly north through 

 Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont into Canada ; here it 

 turns again eastwards around by the sources of the Connecticut, 

 Androscoggin, Kennebec, Penobscot and St. John's river, and north 

 of Chaleur bay, where it dips under the Gulf of New Foundland, 

 to rise again in the islands of Anticosti and New Foundland, then 

 sinks, and is continued as a sub-marine jjlateau to the coast of 

 Ireland. 



Thus we have the Atlantic slope, long and narrow, on the east, 

 and the Mississippi valley on the west. Commencing at the head 

 of Lake Superior, a watershed trends away southeast by the south 

 end of Lake Michigan, thence eastwards to Fort Wayne, and 

 hugging closely the south shore of Lake Erie, enters New York 

 State, then turns southeast into Pennsylvania, where it changes its 

 course immediately to the northeast, re-enters New York, and is 

 continued to the Adirondac mountains. Hitherto, it has been the 

 northern and broken edge of a series of plateaus, but here it rises 

 into the most sublime mountain heights of our State. From this, 

 its culminating point, it turns again rapidly southwards around 

 the head of Lake Champlain and its affluents, and at the head of 

 Otter creek, in Vermont, it unites Avith the Appalachian uplift. 



It is thus, by means of gently rising plateaus and swelling high- 

 lands, with rugged mountain crests, that we have the following 

 hydrograjiJdcal basins, viz: Hie Western, or Pacific; the Northern^ 

 or Arctic; the Eastern, or Atlantic; the Middle, or Mississippi, 

 and the St. Lawrence, which is composed of the three last. 



I shall not weary your patience with minutite and detail, but 

 rather give you the results of groupings, generalizations and deduc. 

 tions, while I proceed to give the more prominent features and 

 descriptions of each of these great basins, describe their agricul- 

 tural and mineral resources, and their respective capacities to sup- 

 port the future generations which may immigrate within their 

 bosoms, or be " to the manor born." 



