WARREN COUNTY. 171 



the plains of Warrensburgh. In the northeastern corner, a fourth range completely breaks 

 up the surface, and throws it into numerous peaks and sharp ridges ; it rises north of Jolms- 

 town, and runs northeast, and terminates at Willsborough falls on Lake Champlain. These 

 four ranges are more or less connected intimately by lateral spurs, which, on a superficial 

 view, become one connected mass of mountain ridges and peaks. The French mountain is an 

 unimportant ridge five or six miles long, lying along the southern extremity of Lake George. 

 A feature common to the whole mountainous region of Warren and the Second district, is, 

 that though as a whole, a range is formed, yet there are no long ridges which are continuous, 

 but they are all broken up into short abrupt hills, with heights varying from five to fifteen 

 hundred feet ; in addition to which, we have the first class of mountains rising to four and five 

 thousand feet. 



Notwithstanding the great amount of broken and mountainous land in Warren county, there 

 is still remaining much productive soil. Except in the highest parts of the mountains, one 

 side or slope forms excellent pasturage for sheep and young cattle, and the plains and intervals 

 a warm rich soil for any of the productions which are cultivated in the State, as corn, oats, 

 wheat, rye, etc. 



Lakes, water courses, valleys, drainage, etc. 



There are three beautiful sheets of water, situated partly within the limits of this county : 

 Lake George, thirty-six miles long ; Scliroon, nine ; and Brant, six. The first is interesting 

 in its location ; it is at the extreme of the valley of Champlain, which opens into the wide 

 and extensive valley of the St. Lawrence ; it is one of the most soutliern points to which this 

 last named valley reaches, and forms a part of the drainage which flows north to the gulf of 

 the St. Lawrence, being within about two hundred miles of the mouth of the Hudson river : 

 but it extends about fifty miles south of the sources of the Hudson. The first range of moun- 

 tains west of Lake Champlain forms the barrier for this distance, which separates the waters 

 of this lake and Lake George from those of the Hudson river. 



The principal drainage of the county is to the south, through the two branches of the 

 North river ; the Schroon branch, and the Hudson river proper. The former flows through 

 Schroon lake, has a south direction through the whole county, to near the corner of Caldwell 

 and Warrensburgh, where it turns west, and in the course of a few miles unites itself with 

 the main branch of the Hudson river, near the southwest corner of Warrensburgh. These 

 two rivers receive the smaller streams, forming themselves the main channels by which the 

 county is drained. The declination of this surface of the county is south. It is situated in 

 part upon an inconsiderable anticlinal axis. 



The valley of Lake George extends four or five miles south of Caldwell, in the direction of 

 Corinth ; and to pass the dividing ridge between the waters of the lake and the Hudson, 

 requires but a slight elevation. By this valley, that of the St. Lawrence opens into the 

 Hudson, which soon becomes a broad open sandy country in the county of Saratoga. These 

 broad sandy plains appear to liave received the loose materials from the north, tlirough the 

 same courses and valleys in which the Hudson and its tributaries flow. 



