22 TACONTC PHYSIOGRAPHY. 
Geol. Survey, pt. 2, figs. 18, 19; Fourteenth Ann. Rept. U. S. Geol. 
Survey, pt. 2, pi. lxvi. 
Some of the characteristics of the Taconic landscape may be seen 
in accompanying illustrations, viz : PI. II, taken from Mount Her- 
rick, in the northern part of the area represented on the map and look- 
ing toward the southern horizon, shows the bold western face of the 
Green Mountain Range, the somewhat uniform outline of its surfac 
and the contrasting variety of the Taconic Range with its longitu 
dinal and transverse hollows, and the conspicuous east-west ridge o 
Dorset Mountain. PI. Ill, taken from a point in the Taconic Range ii 
about the center of the area and also looking southward, shows another 
part of the Green Mountain Range, a broad stretch of the Taconic 
Range, and the nearly level surface of the Rensselaer Plateau. PI. 
IV, taken from a point southeast of Mount Equinox on the edge of 
the Green Mountain Range and looking northward, shows both 
ranges separated by the narrower part of the Vermont Valley. PI. 
XIV, p. 48, taken from Mount Moosalamoo, looking southward, shows 
the western flank of the Green Mountain Range and the northern 
part of the Taconic Range. 
The hill forms of the Taconic region, as thus seen, consist generally 
of long, narrow ridges with crests either gently sagging toward the 
center or else made up of short undulations with occasional roundish 
shoulders or dome-like masses and obtuse-angled summits, sometimes 
with saddles or lateral benches, and ending either in somewhat 
sleep concave or convex slopes or in very gentle declivities. These 
ridges are sometimes short or roughly pyramidal in outline or send 
out irregular spurs with amphitheater-like hollows between them. 
There are also plateau-like masses with a few prominences having 
long, gentle slopes. The steeper slopes throughout are inclined 
from 30° to 40°, exceptionally attaining 50°. But few cliffs occur, 
and these do not exceed 1,000 feet, and usually are not 500 feet in 
height. They face roughly either east or west or else north or south. 
The lakes. — There are 78 natural lakes or ponds within the area 
represented on the map, not including a few small ones on the Green 
Mountain Range. Twenty -five of these are on the plateau of Rens- 
selaer County and range from 1 T V miles down to one-fourth of a mile 
in length. Twenty-one are in the Taconic Range and the Berkshire 
and Vermont valleys. The largest of these, Lake Dunmore, at the 
foot of the Green Mountain Range in Addison County, is 3^ miles 
long. Lake Onota, near Pittsfield, Mass., is about 2 miles long. The 
remaining 31 are in the Hudson- Champlain valley, and include 
Lake Bomoseen, 5J miles long, and Lake St. Catharine, \\ miles long, 
both at the western foot of the Taconic Range. Three-fourths of a 
mile east of Lake Dunmore and on the Green Mountain Range lies 
I- 
