No. 161.] 
99 
tains is about sixteen miles south from Whiteface,* and so far as we 
know, has neither been ascended nor measured. Whiieface is ge- 
nerally supposed to be the highest, but erroneously, as is proved 
by levelling from its summit in range with those southern eleva- 
tions. In this manner it has been ascertained that three of them, 
at least, are higher than it. These heights, together with the ta- 
ble land on which they stand, are the true water-shed of the dis- 
trict. This is known from the fact that all the large rivers flowing 
in the northern counties have their origin here. Their sources are 
either in marshes or lakes at the foot of these mountains, or they 
rise from springs which gush from their sides, and dash in slender 
cataracts over the cliffs and rocks, as they commence their journey 
to the distant ocean. 
These lakes, twenty or thirty of which may be seen from 
Whiteface, appear clustering at the feet of the elevated peaks and 
on those higher levels, and forming a beautiful contrast, by their 
silvery expansions, to the dark forests which stretch to the horizon 
on every side. These lakes will be of some importance to this 
region, if it is settled by manufacturers and mining companies, by 
furnishing water communication between distant neighborhoods; 
as through them coal, ores, wood and manufactured articles might 
be transported at a less expense than on the best of roads. Of 
these, Long lake is the largest: it is eighteen miles long and six 
broad. Its waters pass into the Racket river, instead of the Hud- 
son, as is represented on some of the State maps, though there is 
so little difference of level at its extremities, that it might be made 
to flow southward into the Hudson. 
In this region are the sources of the Hudson, Racket, Au Sable, 
and Black rivers. The first, as is well known, flows south, to find 
the Atlantic; the others pursue a northwesterly course, first ming- 
ling their waters with the St. Lawrence, through whose channel 
they find their way to the Atlantic of the north. 
Agjafn, barometrical measurement makes it highly probable that 
this portion of the Apalachian system attains its greatest eleva- 
tion in this immediate neighborhood, and even higher than in an*Jr 
other part of the State, as will appear in the sequel. 
* Whiteface is a high mountain in the north part of Essex county, which receives its 
name from the circumstance of a slide having, on one side, laid bare the rock, which has 
a grayish white appearance. The rock is granite, a large proportion of which is whits 
feldspar. 
