UNITED STATES. 



GENERAL CONFIGURATION. 



To conceive, properly, the general construction 

 of this vast country, we must acquire a more parti- 

 cular knowledge of the chain of mountains, that 

 forms its predominant feature. This chain begins 

 iu Lower Canada, at the mouth of the river St. 

 Lawrence, on its southern bank, v/here its Capes 

 are called, by seamen. Mounts Notrc-Dame and 

 Magdalen, As it proceeds up the river it gradu- 

 ally diverges from it, and separating the waters of 



^ its basin toward the north-west from those of New 

 Brunswick, Nova Scotia, and the district of Maine, 

 to the south-east, it traces the frontier of the United 

 States on this side as far as New Hampshire. There 

 it takes a nearly southern direction, penetrating into 

 the interior of Vermont under the name of the Green 

 Mountains, dividing the basin of the river Connecti- 

 cut from that of lakes Champlain and George ; and 

 after having sent off branches on that side, which 

 repel the sources of Hudson's river on the west and 

 north-west, it crosses this river at West Point by a 

 very rugged chain, which has acquired the name of 



. ' the Highlands. At this place the chain maybe said 

 to experience a double interruption : in the first place 

 being intersected by the waters; in the next because- 

 it has hitherto consisted of granite, while its conti- 

 nuation is of sandstone. The head of this conxinua- 

 tion proceeds higher up the western bank of HiMson's. 

 river to the group of the Kaats Kill mountains, and 

 a mass which furnishes the sources of the Delaware. 

 From this place branches off a band of mountainous 



