Togographical Sketch of the State of New- York. 8ST 



row valley which contains the Hudson river and Lake Champlain. 

 The two last are connected with each other by a valley occupied 

 by the Mohawk ri ver and the Oneida lake ; and with it, may be 



into three principal divisions. The first of these, and the largest 

 of the whole, occupies the space situated south of the Mohawk 

 river and the Ontario valley, and between the Hudson river and 

 Lake Erie. The second is the mountain district north of the Mo- 

 hawk, and between Lake Champlain and the east end of Lake 

 Ontario. The third division comprises that part of the mountain 

 range on the east side of the Hudson river included within this- 

 state. The first division is separated into two parts, by the basins 

 of Seneca and Cayuga lakes, and by an elevated valley extending 

 from the head of the former to the valley of the Chemung or Tio- 

 ga river, at Newtown. 



The western subdivision, or the part of the state between- 

 Seneca lake and Lake Erie, is occupied by that portion of the 

 mountain system which we have called the water shed. This, 

 in its course from the south, in Pennsylvania and New-York, 

 forms a high table land of about two thousand feet in mean eleva- 

 tion. The highest part of it comprises the surface of the coun- 

 ties of Steuben, Allegany, Cattaraugus and Chautauque ; and a 

 little to the north of these, it begins to decline, and finally de- 

 scends, by three principal steps, to its terminations on the south 

 shore of Lake Ontario. The great elevation and geographical im- 

 portance of this table, may be inferred from the fact, that it gives 

 rise to several streams of water, which find the level of the ocean 

 at points almost as distant as the extremities of the continent. 

 The head branches of the Allegany, of the Genesee, and of the 

 Susquehanna, are all found inosculating with each other in the 

 county of Allegany ; while their waters separately mingle with the 

 ocean in the gulf of St. Lawrence, the Chesapeake bay, and the 

 gulf of Mexico. But the following heights, from actual survey, 

 will serve to give a more definite idea of its general elevation. 



Chautauque lake, the largest* sheet of water on this table, and 

 the most elevated of its size in the United States, is 1291 feet above 

 the level of the ocean, and 723 feet higher than Lake Ene, al- 

 though only eight miles distant : its discharged waters descend to 

 the ocean, along the western declivity of the water shed, through 



