1 6 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



GEOGRAPHY OF 1 ''^ ADIRf^^NDACKS 

 General Features 



The Adirondack mountain region of northern New York is a 

 very distinct topographic province comprising nearly one-fourth of 

 the area of the State, or about ii,ooo square miles. It is an 

 irregular, broad, oval-shaped region with longest axis running 120 

 miles north-northeast by south-southwest, and short axis 100 miles 

 east and west. The name " Adirondack,'" meaning " Tree-eater," 

 was a .term of contempt applied by the Indians of the south 

 (Iroquois) to the Indians who lived on the northern slope of the 

 mountain region and in the St Lawrence valley. Professor 

 Emmons, in his geological survey of northern New 'York about 

 1840, is said to have first applied the name " Adirondack " to a 

 northeast-southwest mountain belt including the highest peaks of 

 the present Adirondack area. Later the term came to be applied 

 to the whole of the mountain region sometimes called the " Great 

 North Woods '' or the " Great Wilderness of Northern New York." 



The Adirondacks consist almost wdiolly of a mass of igneous and 

 metamorphosed sedimentary rocks of very great age, that is, pre- 

 Paleozoic. This very ancient rock mass is surrounded by practically 

 unaltered strata of early Paleozoic age. 



The Avhole region is typically mountainous and rugged, with alti- 

 tudes ranging from 1000 to over 5000 feet, except around the 

 borders. Most of the Adirondacks are heavily wooded, often being 

 truly wilderness in character with very few roads, trails or settle- 

 ments except scattering camps or summer resorts. In southern 

 Hamilton county, for example, there is an area of 125 square miles 

 without a traveled road or permanent settlement, and with very few 

 trails. Again, most of the Santanoni quadrangle (over 200 square 

 miles) of the east-central Adirondacks has only a few miles of 

 traveled road and very few trails. The writer has had much 

 experience in both the Sierra Nevada mountains of California and in 

 the Adirondacks, and he can testify to the fact that it is decidedly 

 easier to keep one's bearings in the higher, grander mountains of 

 the West. Reasons for this are that in the Adirondacks few moun- 

 tain peaks rise notably and characteristically above the general 

 mountain summits ; the country is so densely and monotonously 

 wooded, usually with thick underbrush, that one might travel for 

 miles without finding a good outlook point ; and most of the 

 stream courses are exceedingly irregular and difficult to follow 



