Topographical Sketch of the State of New- York. 109 



ticular attention, as contributing to supply the waters of our north* 



The Mohawk rises west of Oneida lake, flows south about twen- 

 ty miles, and then suddenly turns to the southeast at Rome, where 

 it falls on the bottom of what has been called the upper valley of 

 the Mohawk. At this place, in high floods, the waters of the riv- 

 er divide ; one part passing down the channel to the Hudson, and 

 the other through Wood creek into Oneida lake, and thence to 

 Lake Ontario. From Rome to the foot of Little Falls, a distance 

 of 37 miles, the river descends 97 feet. Here the river descends 

 through a narrow pass to the lower valley of the Mohawk, and 

 offers incontcstible evidence of having forcibly broken its way 

 through the primitive rocks : the ledges on each side bear strik- 

 ing marks of the action of water at a height of more than 40 feet 

 above the present level of the stream. The whole fall of the river, 

 from Rome to its mouth, as may be seen by table No. 5, is 425 

 feet, in a distance of 116 miles ; 78 feet of this descent is passed 

 by the cataract of the Cohoes, one mile above its junction wkh 

 the Hudson. 



The two most remote branches of the Hudson proper, have their 

 sources in the marshy regions of Hamilton and Essex counties. 

 These united with each other, and the Sacandaga river, form a 

 stream of considerable magnitude, which is first precipitated over 

 a ledge of rocks called the Great falls, and afterwards down Glen's 

 falls into the deep valley of the Hudson and Champlain basin. 

 The length of what may be called the upper Hudson, from its ex- 

 treme source to this place, is about 120 miles ; and from here 

 to its junction with the Mohawk is 40 miles, with a full of 117 

 feet. 



The Hudson, after its reception of the Mohawk, from its pecu- 

 liar character, has been defined by some geographers as a long 

 narrow bay. The periodical rising of the tides to the height of 

 two feet at Albany— the great volume of water, and the gentleness 

 of the current, which, under ordinary circumstances, is reversed 

 by the ascending tide, are indeed the several characters of a bay ; 

 but it nevertheless possesses all the distinctive properties of a 

 river, and when swelled by the spring floods, pours a rapid and 

 immense torrent to the ocean. The oscillation of the tide in this 

 river, is an interesting phenomenon. It is not caused, as in the 

 main ocean, by the direct action of the sun and moon, but is pro- 

 duced by a vast wave, propelled by the force of the Atlantic 



