No. 125.] 
39 
sive, that to this date I have not been able to visit some of the 
towns. Indeed, I may say, that in none of them have my investi¬ 
gations been so complete as I would like to render them. When it 
is remembered that the county embraces seventeen towns, occupying 
a territory over sixty miles in length, and for the chief part of that 
distance nearly twenty in breadth, it will be perceived that a tho¬ 
rough exploration of it could not be made within the time which I 
have as yet had to devote to it. Business of this kind, moreover, 
is far more laborious and slow of accomplishment, than any one not 
experienced in it would suppose. I have frequently deemed myself 
fortunate, if on a second or third call at the end of a ride of several 
miles, I have found the desired person at home, and so far disen¬ 
gaged from his own secular employments, that I could make free to 
detain him two, four or six hours, in responding to my numerous 
interrogatories. 
To some of the branches of this work I would here briefly allude, 
that the nature and extent of these investigations, and the time 
requisite for completing them, may be more distinctly perceived. 
It was very desirable that the exact elevation and height of diffe¬ 
rent sections of the county should be ascertained, in order to show 
definitely the slope of its surface, the fall of its streams, its facilities 
for drainage, irrigation, &c. Instruments for this purpose were 
kindly furnished me by Prof. C. B. Adams, late of Middlebury, now 
of Amherst college; and assisted by my friend T. B. Culbertson, of 
Princeton seminary, observations were taken in the month of June, 
upon the summit of Black mountain on the east shore of lake 
George, the highest point in the county; Willard mountain in Eas¬ 
ton, the highest point in the southern section of the county; Bald 
mountain, in Greenwich; the Pinnacle, in Granville; the dividing 
ridge in Hebron, whence the waters flow north into lake Champlain 
and south into the Hudson, and some other localities within the 
county, and also upon the summit of the Green mountain ridge in 
Vermont, east of the county. Mr. P. C. Ten Eyck, of the Albany 
academy, has favored me with a copy of the observations registered 
by him at the same dates for that institution, and I am hence enabled 
to determine, in a very satisfactory manner, the height of these 
points above tide water at Albany. These, in conjunction with the 
well known levels of the Champlain canal, and levels that have 
been taken in two or three instances in some parts of the county for 
proposed canals and railways, furnish ample data for presenting a 
definite ard valuable account of its surface and features. 
