110 Topographical Sketch of the State of New- York. 



tide, along the slightly inclined plane of the bed of the river. The 

 crest of this wave passes through the whole distance of 151 miles, 

 between New-York and Troy, in from seven to nine hours. 



The comparative importance of the Hudson, as a great com- 

 mercial inlet to the western territory of the union, may be inferred 

 from the fact, that it is the only Atlantic river, with the exception 

 of the St. Lawrence, that has not its navigation soon interrupted 

 by a precipitate descent from the mountain chain. At the High- 

 lands the Hudson penetrates the primitive rock, and admits the 

 ocean tide one hundred miles to the interior of the ridge, at whose 

 foot, in every other Atlantic river, it is stopped.* Its tributary, the 

 Mohawk, as we have seen, occupies the bottom of a depression 

 which deeply indents the remaining ridges of the Appalachian 

 mountains, and thus connects by an easy pass the valley of the 

 Hudson with the basin of the St. Lawrence. Nature has 

 thus done more by the vallies of the Hudson and the Mohawk, 

 and that to the south of Lake Michigan, towards uniting the wa- 

 ters of the Atlantic with those of the Missisippi, than the utmost 

 efforts of art can ever hope to accomplish in any other part of the 



The importance of these peculiar topographical features, was 

 duly appreciated by the projectors of our canal policy, and the 

 Erie and Champlain canal, with those in contemplation for unit- 

 ing the former with the waters of the Susquehanna and Lake On- 

 tario, fully develope the natural facilities for internal navigation 

 possessed by this state. 



In a physical point of view, these works produce changes which 

 it could scarcely have been believed that the power of man could 

 have accomplished. The waters of the Tioga river, which now 

 entirely contribute to swell the volume of the Susquehanna, by 

 the construction of the artificial channel of the Chemung canal, 

 will in part be conducted to Seneca lake, and thence with the dis- 

 charged waters of this reservoir, to the gulf of St. Lawrence. On 

 the summit level of the Champlain canal, the waters of the upper 

 Hudson are turned back to the north, and instead of mingling, as 

 formerly, with the Atlantic ocean in the bay of New-York, now 

 mix with the sea in the straits of Bellisle. 



