274 Scientific Intelligence. ' 
‘western waters. But arrested by the rising mass of the western pla- 
teau, the Susquehanna and the Delaware turn suddenly back, enter the 
chains of the Apalachian system, cut them through at several places, 
and find their winding way to the Atlantic ocean. The: exposure of 
the plateau toward the southwest opens it to the moist southwest winds, 
and gives it, perhaps, a larger supply of rain. 
The western table-tand is characterized by a remarkable swell of 
land, the mean height of which ranges from 2,000 to 2,500 feet... It 
attains its greatest elevation in the southwestern part of the state, and 
beyond the state line im, Pennsylvania, and continues, though rapidly 
declining, along the southern shores of Lake Erie. This is the region 
of the watershed. From these heights the waters flow down their 
slopes in every direction, and reach the Atlantic ocean by three dif- 
ferent basins, that of the St. Lawrence, by the Genesee river and Lake 
Erie ; that of the Susquehanna by the Chemung river, and that of the 
Ohio and Mississippi, by the Alleghany river, Unlike the ‘middle 
table-land, the portion of this western plateau belonging to the state of 
ew York, inclines towards the north, as the course of the Genesee 
river already indicates. In the south part of it, in Chautauque, Catia 
tance of seven 
The stations in the middle plateau are distributed as follows: on the 
d, al 
valley of the Mohawk and Erie canal, Cherry Valley, in Otsego county, 
d of the Susquehanna ; Hamilton College, at Clinton, Oneida 
county ; Pompey, on the summit of the ridges, above Syracuse. 10 the 
valley of the Mohawk, Canajoharie and Utica. In the interior, Oxford, 
in the Chenango valley ; Cortland Academy at Homer; Newark valley, 
furnished by the Smithsonian Institution, and Ithaca in the deep valley 
of Cayuga lake. 9 + 
Most of these places, though in elevated situations, are nevertheless 
placed in valleys, and surrounded by heights, which situation may have 
a marked influence, especially on the course of winds. This was ¥9 
consider it very fortunate that a good and reliable observer, 
Law, Esgq., is ready to undertake the observations, if furnished ¥ 
