NEW YORK. 



!231 



12. Vegetable Productions. The mountainous region produces the greater proportion of the 

 evergreen trees of North America ; the western part is principally wooded with deciduous 

 trees of the loftiest growth ; in the eastern parts the trees are deciduous in general, but less 

 lofty. The most common forest trees are oak, maple, beech, walnut, butternut, chestnut, 

 biri^h, tiha, poplar, cherry, sycamore or buttonwood, ash, elm, sassafras, hornbeam, sumach, 

 alder, pine, spruce, larch, fir, hemlock, cedar, locust, laurel, mulberry, black walnut, cucumber 

 tree, crab-apple, and thorn ; of oak there are 20 varieties ; of pine and walnut 8. There are 

 many kinds of wild grapes. 



13. Mineral Springs. In excellence and variety, the mineral springs of this State are not 

 surpassed in any part of the world. No less than 148 have been analyzed, of which 63 are 

 sulphureous, almost all in the western counties ; 23, chiefly in the eastern counties, chalybeate 

 or saline chalybeate, 12 petrifying. The most noted go by the general names of the Saratoga and 

 Ballston Springs, and are embraced in an extent of about 12 miles in the county of Saratciga. 

 They are 20 in number ; their waters are saline and chalybeate, with many varieties ; soiv.e 

 are very cold and highly charged with oxide of iron and carbonic acid gas. 'J'heir medici- 

 nal qualities are of the cathartic and tonic kind ; the multitudes that resort hither from all 

 parts of the country during the summer, to drink their waters, are a sufficient proof of the 

 estimation in which they are held. These springs were first discovered by remarking the 

 track of the deer, who frequented them in such numbers as to wear a path to the spot. 

 The Jfeiv Lebanon Springs are near the Shaker village, not far from the Massachusetts line. 

 Their waters are tepid (72^) and efficacious in scrofulous complaints. The Clifton Springs 

 at Farmington, in the neighborhood of Geneva, are strongly sulphureous, and emit gas. 

 There are burning springs., or springs of water charged with inflammable gas, in many 



.places in the western part of the State, chiefly near Canandaigua lake. Their positions are 

 known by little hillocks of a dark bituminous mould, through which the gas finds its way 

 to the surface ; when set on fire, this gas burns with a steady flame. In winter, openings 

 are made in the snow, and the gas being lighted, continues to burn in contact with nothing 

 but the snow. There is a burning spring much resorted to by travelers at the distance of 

 about a mile from Niagara Falls. At Dunkirk and Fredonia, on Lake Erie, there are marshy 

 spots which emit gas (carburetted hydrogen), that has been used for lighting some houses. The 

 salt springs are too numerous to particularize. The most important are those of Onondaga, 

 which rise in a marsh at the head of Onondaga lake ; 50 gallons of the water yield a bushel 

 of salt. In the southeast part of Lake Erie, about 20 rods from the shore, is a spring which 

 rises from the bottom of the lake ; the water is thrown to the surface whh some force, and the 

 gas or oil which it contains may be set on fire ; when drank it is a powerful emetic. Petroleum 

 springs are numerous in Cattaraugus, Erie, and Alleghany counties ; this substance is collected 

 and sold under the name of Seneca oil, and has much repute for its supposed medicinal 

 powers. 



14. Caves. In the county of Ulster is a cave three quarters of a mile in length, caused by 

 a stream running under ground. The rock which constitutes the roof and sides of the cave is 

 a dark-colored limestone, containing impressions of shells, calcareous spar, and beautiful white 

 and yellow stalactites. At one end is a fall of water, the depth of which has not been fathomed. 

 At Rhinebeck, near the Hudson, is a cave in which a narrow entrance leads to several spacious 

 rooms abounding with columns of stalactites. At Chester, in Warren county, there is a 

 stream which passes under a natural bridge, and among many deep caverns ; the waters enter 

 in two streams, unite in the subterranean passage, and issue in a single current under a precipice 

 60 feet in height. 



15. Cataracts. Although the Falls of JViagara are situated partly in Canada, yet, as they 

 are usually visited from the New York side, our descriptions here may properly commence 

 with this grandest and most magnificent object of its kind in the world. Of all the wonders 

 of nature, perhaps the most difficult to represent by a written description, is a great cataract. 

 Let the reader imagine the waters of the great inland seas of America discharging their immense 

 volume through a single river three quarters of a mile wide, and rushing in one great mass over 

 a precipice 160 feet perpendicular descent, and he may form some conception of the grandeur 

 of the spectacle here exhibited. A small island stands perched upon the edge of the cataract, 

 breaking the wide sheet of water as it pours over the dam. The whole cataract forms an 

 irregular semicircle ; the Canada side presents the deepest hollow, which is called the Horse- 

 shoe Fall. Visiters sometimes pass under the fall between the sheet of witer and the rock. 



