84 Mountains in Neio 'York. 



But in order not to occupy too much of your space, I will 

 merely here remark, that Professor Bischof appears (at least in 

 the portion of his memoir yet published) to pass over without 

 any attempt at explanation, certain chemical phenomena of con- 

 stant occurrence, which follow directly from the principles of the 

 theory to which he has objected. 



These are, 1st, The evolution of sulphuretted hydrogen, in 

 quantities far exceeding what are to be explained by the reac- 

 tion of carbonaceous matter upon sulphates, or any of those 

 other processes which sometimes produce it on the surface of 

 the earth. 



2dly, The disengagement of sal-ammoniac, for although one 

 of the constituents of this compound, the muriatic acid, might 

 arise from the decomposition of sea-salt by aqueous vapor, the 

 other one, the ammonia, implies the presence of free hydrogen as 

 well as of nitrogen gas, near the focus of the volcanic action. 



3dly, The circumstance, which I have substantiated in so 

 many cases, that I begin to believe it almost universally true, 

 that the atmospheric air exhaled from volcanos, and indeed gene- 

 rally from the interior of the earth, is deprived in a greater or less 

 degree of its proper proportion of oxygen. That processes, there- 

 fore, by which this principle is abstracted, are going on exten- 

 sively within the globe cannot be denied, and hence I conceive 

 that any theory, which attempts to account for volcanic action, 

 without taking notice of so essential a phenomenon, ought to be 

 regarded as imperfect and unsatisfactory. 



Art. VI. — Mountains in New York ; by E. F. Johnson, Civil 



Engineer. 



In a report recently made, by the author of this article, of a 

 survey of a route for the proposed Ogdensburgh and Champlain 

 railway, the elevations above tide of the highest of each of the 

 three distinct groups of mountains divided by the valleys of the 

 Saranac and An Sable rivers, are given as follows : 



Lyon Mountain, ------- 3,864 feet. 



Whiteface do. ------- 4,666 " 



Mt. Marcy, 4,907 " 



To this statement of elevations, the following note was appended : 



