240 
[Assembly 
Visit to the Mountains of Essex, 
During the month of August last, I visited the mountains of Essex 
with a view of determining the position and height of some of the most 
conspicuous elevations at the source of the Hudson. 
This tour of exploration was made in company with a party devoted 
more or less to scientific pursuits, a part of whom were also personally 
interested in the survey. 
In the prosecution of our objects, it is but justice to notice in this 
place, the aid we received of the Hon. A. Mclntyre, of this city, and 
D. Henderson, Esq. of New- York, inasmuch as they liberally supplied 
every thing necessary to secure the success of our enterprize. Indeed, 
the party were but their guests, whether at the little village of Mcln- 
tyre.or on the mountain summit: an instance of liberality I take the li- 
berty thus publicly to acknowledge. 
It is not my object to write an account of this tour; this has already 
been given to the public by Mr. Redfield, of New- York, in the Journal 
of Science, and is a valuable document. Notes of a visit to this roman- 
tic region have also appeared in the New- York Mirror, in the beautiful 
style of the editor of that popular periodical. They contain a fund of 
pleasing anecdote. 
The points of greatest interest to us were, to determine the height of 
three or four peaks in the neighborhood of the source of the Hudson, 
and also the height of one of its sources at its extreme point or origin. 
To accomplish these objects, we ascended the east branch of the Hudson 
to its source, which we found to be in a small mountain meadow, 10 or 
12 miles N. E. from the iron works at Mclntyre, and at the base of the 
summit of what finally proved to be the highest point in the group of 
mountains. In the same meadow, one of the branches of the Ausable 
takes its rise; so that it constitutes the pass, and probably the highest, be- 
tween the waters which flow into the Atlantic on the south, and those 
which flow into the Gulph of St. Lawrence on the north. The height 
of this meadow is 4,747 feet. 
Our route up the east branch was one which furnished many interest- 
ing facts in a geological point of view, one in particular, the effect of 
attrition on the boulders which are in their course down to the lower le- 
vels. It seems that although at the commencement of their journey 
they are huge and unweildy, yet before they reach their final resting 
place, they are reduced to the size of what we call stones, and even in 
