PHYSICAL AND CLIMATIC SETTING 31 



through the St. Lawrence Kiver. From the St. 

 Lawrence Eiver, medium-sized boats may also have 

 access to Lake Champlain and by canal to the Hudson 

 Eiver. 



There are numerous interior lakes, mostly small 

 ones, the most important group being the Finger 

 Lakes in the deep north-south valleys in the western 

 part of the State. These are long and narrow and 

 usually of great depth, the bottom of Cayuga and 

 Seneca lakes reaching below sea level. Oneida 

 Lake a little to the northeast of the Finger Lakes 

 is the only other important interior body of water. 

 Most of these lakes have been useful as means of 

 travel and transport, having been connected up with 

 streams and canal systems to form lines of commu- 

 nication. Their place in this service is not now as 

 important as formerly, before railroads had been 

 extensively developed. In the Adirondack Mountain 

 region, there are hundreds of irregular lakes hid in 

 the hollows and forests and utilized only for fishing 

 and summer resorts. 



The drainage of Xew York State falls into three 

 main divisions: the Atlantic through the Hudson, 

 Delaware and Susquehanna rivers; the St. Lawrence 

 through the Great Lakes and the Champlain; and 

 the Mississippi which embraces only a small terri- 

 tory in the southwest part of the State, represented 

 by the Allegheny system. Of these streams the Hud- 

 son is the only one that is navigable to an impor- 

 tant extent and on this large boats may pass as iar 

 as Albany. 



