322 Exploring Visits to the Sources of the Hudson. 
Mountains of. New Hampshire. 
The only point east of the Mississippi which is known to exceed 
this group of mountains in elevation, is the highest summit of the 
White Mountains in New Hampshire; the elevation of which is 
given by Prof. Bigelow from barometrical observations, reduced by 
Prof. Farrar, at six thousand two hundred and twenty-five feet.* 
Prof. Bigelow adduces the observations of Capt. Partridge, made 
several years since, as giving an elevation of only six thousand one 
hundred and three feet. But the writer is indebted to Dr. Barratt 
for a memorandum of observations made by Capt. Partridge in Au- 
gust, 1821, which gives the height of the principal peaks of the 
New Hameahice group, as follows : 
Mount Washington, above the sea, 6.234 feet. 
sé Adams, oG co  poeo 
‘¢ (Jefferson, ef “ ©§.058 
‘¢ — Madison, ec “4.866 
“Franklin, ce ATI 
‘Monroe, ee “4.356 
From this it appears most probable that there are a greater number 
of peaks in the Essex group that exceed five thousand feet, than in 
New Hampshire ; although the honor of the highest peak is justly 
claimed by the latter. 
Imperfect State of Geographical knowledge—Resources of the 
Mountain District. 
It appears unaccountable, that the elevation of this region at the 
sources of the Hudson should have been, hitherto, so greatly under- 
rated. Even Darby, in his admirable work on American geography, 
estimates the fall of the rivers which enter Lake Champlain from the 
west, as similar to those on the east, which he states to be from five 
hundred to one thousand feet.+ The same writer also estimates the 
height of the table land from which the Hudson flows, at something 
more than one thousand feet!{ ‘The mountains of this region, ap- 
pear to have almost escaped the notice of geographical wtiters, and in 
~ one of our best Gazetteers, that of Darby and Dwight, published in 
1833, the elevation of the mountains in Essex county, is stated at 
one thousand two hundred feet. In Macauley’s History of New 
York, published in Albany in 1829, there is, however, an attempt 
to describe the mountains of the Northern district of the State, by 
* New England Journal of Medicine and Surgery, Vol. V., p. 330. 
t Darby’s View of the U.S. p. 242. t Ib. p. 140. 
