5 4 



The Albany Institute. 



York, designed to show the elevations of its surface and of its moun- 

 tains. It was illustrated with an engraved map attached to the vol- 

 ume, in the construction of which he was greatly aided by D. H. 

 Burr. But of mountains whose height is over three thousand feet, 

 only two are recognized as existing through the whole State, and these 

 two were in the Catskills, High Peak, 3,718 feet, and Round Top, 

 3,804 feet high. In contrast with that statement, our geographers 

 now report that there are in the Catskills alone thirteen peaks over 

 three thousand feet high, and at least three of these are known to be 

 4,000 feet high. And our knowledge has so extended since then that, 

 whereas, in 1820, the height of only a single mountain of the Adiron- 

 dack group was given in Prof. Henry's tables, the height as given was 

 exceedingly erroneous. It was that of Whiteface, which was stated to 

 be 2,686 feet high; and not a single peak higher than that was recog- 

 nized as existing in all the ranges of those mountains. Whereas, 

 now, not only is Whiteface found to be even 4,918 feet high, but there 

 have been measured thirty-four peaks over three thousand feet high, 

 of which twenty-one are over four thousand feet high, and three of 

 these latter are more than five thousand feet high. 



But this ignorance may sufficiently be accounted for by a statement 

 like this from Dr. Todd's Letters frow Long Lake, as late as 1845 : 

 " In the upper part of New York * * * * is an almost unbroken 

 wilderness of perhaps one hundred and fifty miles long and one hun- 

 dred wide." 



It is a fact of still greater interest in illustration of the increase of 

 knowledge in the State, and the discoveries of science since the period 

 of this first Report of the Institute, that this same first volume of our 

 Transactions contains the first paper which Prof. Joseph Henry ever 

 put in print relating to his electrical researches, through which he 

 ultimately gained so much renown. It was dated October 10, 1827, 

 and was entitled On some Modifications of the Electro-magnetic Ap- 

 paratus. And from the principles which he was then beginning to 

 develop, discoveries made by him and by others have been gradually 

 accumulated, until now, after half a century, the world is participat- 

 ing in the enjoyment of the perpetual daily miracles wrought by the 

 telegraph, the telephone and the electric light. 



