Topographical Sketch of the State of New- York. *9& 



ether subordinate ridges of the mountain system, and crossing the 

 Hudson in the vicinity of West-Point, forming the Highlands of 

 the river, and afterwards the dividing ridge between the Hudson 

 and the Connecticut. The crest of this ridge passes to the north, 

 on the east side of the boundary of New- York, in New-England, 

 and has a mean elevation of more than 2000 feet. One of the lowest 

 notches yet explored, is at Washington summit, in Massachusetts, 

 on the route of the contemplated rail-way from Boston to Albany, 

 and is elevated 1480 feet above the level of tide water in Boston 

 harbor. This mountain range is known by various names in dif- 

 ferent parts of its course : before it crosses the Hudson, it is call- 

 ed the Blue Kidge ; in Massachusetts and Connecticut, the Tag- 

 honnuc Range ; and in Vermont, the Green Mountains. But as 

 it lies principally without this state, a more particular description 

 would be foreign to our purpose. 



From the foregoing sketch, the truth of our remark must be evi- 

 dent, that the whole surface of the state of New- York is a moun- 

 tain tract of country, indented in several places below its general 

 level, by the great depressions, in which are situated the waters 

 of its principal lakes and rivers. The most important depressions, 

 as we have already observed, are the basins of Lake Erie and 

 Ontario, the valley in which is situated the Oneida lake and the 

 Mohawk river, and that which contains the Hudson river and 

 Lake Champlain. The basins of Lake Erie and Ontario are only 

 parts of the immense St. Lawrence basin, which contains the five 

 great western lakes, and bounds a principal part of the northern 

 frontier of the Union. As this interesting depression of country is 

 intimately connected with the topography of this state, we will 

 dwell a few moments on some of its general features. Commenc- 

 ing at the Gulf of St. Lawrence it extends almost to the head 

 waters of the Missisippi, a distance of nearly 1800 miles. In its 

 whole depression it is computed to contain 511,930 square miles 

 of surface, 72,930 of which is covered with water. It may be 

 described as consisting of three great but unequal divisions ; the 

 upper, the middle, and the lower sub-basins. The first of these 

 is in the form of a rhomb, and has an area of about 90,000 square 

 miles, more than one-fourth of which is occupied by the waters of 

 Lake Superior. The next, or middle sub-basin, occupies a quad- 

 rangular area of at least 160,000 square miles, and contains the 

 three central lakes, viz : Huron, Michigan and Erie, in its low- 

 est depressions. The surface of the lower sub-basin has an area 



