Chapter 2 
PIED SUOWGIRZMIPIGUKC, IPIRO)WAUNICISS), SANRIOG IOUS, ZUIN(ID) 
DRAINAGE 
GENERAL STATEMENT 
The area of this State is 49,170 square miles, including 1550 
square miles of water. The range in altitude is from sea level to 
over 5000 feet, while the average elevation is about 900 feet. Mt 
Marcy (altitude 5344 feet) in Essex county is the highest mountain 
in the State. 
For the sake of convenience in discussing the general physiog- 
raphy and structure, the writer has divided the State into certain 
well-defined physiographic provinces as shown on the accompany- 
ing map. Lest the sharp boundary lines convey a wrong impres- 
sion, it should be stated that the provinces are, in reality, seldom 
sharply separated from each other (see figure 2). 
ADIRONDACK MOUNTAIN PROVINCE 
The Adirondack mountain province comprises fully one-fourth 
the area of the State and consists of a great, nearly circular mass 
of metamorphic and igneous rocks of very great age, that is, 
Prepaleozoic. This large mass of crystalline rocks is completely 
surrounded by the practically unaltered Cambric and Ordovicic 
rocks. The whole province is typically mountainous and heavily 
wooded, often being truly wilderness in character with very few 
roads or settlements other than summer resorts. Except along the 
immediate borders, the elevations range from 1000 to over 5000 
feet. The greatest axis of elevation extends from southern Hamil- 
ton county (2000 feet) northeasterly well into Essex county where 
the highest mountains are grouped around Mt Marcy, and where 
the mountains commonly attain altitudes of from 3000 to 5000 feet 
(see plate 1). In the eastern and southeastern portions there is a 
well-defined tendency in the mountain masses to be arranged in long, 
nearly parallel ridges or “ ranges” whose general trend is north- 
northeast to south-southwest. This structural feature is due to 
numerous faults or fractures in the earth’s crust and will be 
explained on a later page. In the northern and western por- 
tions the mountains are very irregularly arranged. Viewed as a 
whole there are no high, sharp-topped peaks which stand out prom- 
inently above the general mountain level, and the flowing or 
rounded outline of topography is by far the most common (see plates 
2 and 3). The very ancient Grenville rocks occur throughout the 
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