504 



Repokt ok the State Geologist. 



Professor Seely. In addition to what they have published, President Brainard 

 writes me that they have mapped the lake shore southward from Plattsburgh. 

 It is hoped that this map will soon be published.* 



ToPO&RAPHY. 



Clinton is the extreme northeast county of the state of New York, lake 

 Champlain forming the eastern, and the Dominion of Canada the northern 

 boundary. Its area is approximately 1,093 square miles. It lies entirely 

 within the St. Lawrence drainage basin, sloping for the most part to the 

 northeast. Close to the Franklin county line, and nearly parallel with it, 

 ranging northward from Upper Chateaugay lake is a pronounced watershed, 

 w est of which the drainage is into the Chateaugay river and thence north- 

 ward, while east of it the streams flow to the northeast and east. Of the 

 larger streams emerging from the northern Adirondacks, the Saranac and 

 Great Chazy rivers flow clear across the county, while the Ausable forms part 

 of its southern boundary. 



Topographically the county is separable into three well marked 

 divisions : 



1. A hilly or somewhat mountainous southwestern portion, occupying 

 something over one-third of the county, constituting a part of the north- 

 eastern Adirondacks and characterized by their conformation; in other words 

 composed of massive ridges trending northeast and southwest, with inter- 

 vening steep-sided valleys of very variable width. Occasionally the ridges 

 trend east and west. They commonly have a rather gentle slope on the north 

 side, which is deeply drift-covered and heavily timbered, the rocks seldom 

 protruding above the surface ; w hile on the south the slopes are steeper and 

 often precipitous, exhibiting frequent vertical cliffs of considerable height. 

 The highest elevations in the county are Lyon mountain, ^,809 feet, and 

 Catamount mountain, 3,168 feet. The valleys are for the most part heavily 

 drift-filled, with rock exposures only along the larger streams. They some- 

 times expand into quite wide parks and are not infrequently occupied by 

 lakes, of w hich Chazy and Upper Chateaugay hikes in Dannemora, and Silver 

 lake in Black Brook, are the most noteworthy. 



2. A high-level plain, beneath which the knobs of the older rocks are 

 submerged, and which extends into embayments between their outlying 

 ridges. It has a maximum elevation of about 1,500 feet along its boundary 



• since the above was written the map and description have appeared. Sec Bulletin American Museum Natural History, 

 Vol. VIII., 1886, pp. 80S :iio. The results agree with those obtained by the writer. 



