History of North America

The coast is sandy, the northern parts rough and mountainous, but the soil of the interior is generally rich, composed of black mould, reddish loam, or friable clays, which yield grain and fruit of an excellent quality, and in great abundance. The low lands, along the Genessee river, embracing a surface of 60,000 acres, are remarkably fertile. The drowned, or marshy lands in Orange county, contain about 50,000 acres, which are overflowed after heavy rains in the spring season. In 1808, a company was incorporated for the purpose of draining them. The soil of this county is a moist clay, with small stones intermixed, or a gravelly loam.

Temperature. In a country, which extends from the ocean, over a space of five degrees of latitude, the climate is naturally colder near the northern extremity, but this effect is found to be modified by the influence of the great waters of the interior. The temperature, near the borders of Lake Erie, is found to be milder than in the same latitude on the Atlantic Ocean, as appears from the growth of the peach, and other fruit trees, which thrive so well, that they are cultivated by all the farmers. The winter usually begins about the 1st of December, and continues till the 10th or 12th of March, though subject to sudden changes; and the cold has sometimes been known to prevail beyond that period. On the 19th of May 1816, snow fell at Plattsburgh six inches in depth, and the inhabitants were seen to travel in sledges; but this is considered an uncommon event.

The temperature of the coldest springs near New York is 54° at the depth of thirty feet, and nearly on a level with the ocean.

Lakes-The great lakes of this state have been already described in our general description of American waters. Long Island Sound, 140 miles in length, and from three to twentyfive in breadth, communicates with the ocean at each extremity, affording a fine navigation for the largest vessels. New York Bay is nine miles in length, and four in breadth, and opens into the Hudson river on the north. The tide rises about six feet at the city of New York. The smaller lakes will be described in connexion with the rivers which flow through them.

Rivers. The chief rivers are the Hudson or North river, and the Mohawk, its great western branch. The Mohawk rises near Oneida lake, eight miles from Black river, and runs a south-east course of about 130 miles, to its junction with the Hudson,

eight miles above Albany. The navigation of this river is obstructed near its mouth by rocks, called the Cohoes Falls, which extend from bank to bank, 100 yards in width, forming a perpendicular descent of thirty feet. At the distance of seventy miles from this outlet, the channel is obstructed by other rocks, called the Little Falls, of which the perpendicular descent, in their length of three-quarters of a mile, is forty-two feet. Along this runs a canal, with locks, for boat navigation. The produce of the western country, which passes through the channel of this river, is disembarked at Schenectady, and transported sixteen miles by waggons to Albany, where it is shipped for its destination on board the vessels of the Hudson. The Hudson river issues from an elevated country between Lakes Ontario and Champlain, and intersects the state from north to south for a distance of 250 miles. It is navigable for sloops of eighty tons to Albany, 160 miles from its mouth, and ships ascend as high as the town of Hudson. The tide flows some miles above Albany, where it is twelve hours later than at New York. The salt water is carried to the distance of fifty miles above that city, where its usual rise is about a foot; at Pellepels Island, it is about four feet; at Kinderhook, five and a half. The western parts of the state are watered by the Oswego river, a communication through the Oneida lake, between the Mohawk branch of the Hudson river and Lake Ontario, by its eastern branch, called Wood creek, which, at Rome, twenty miles north from its source, runs in a western direction to the lake twenty-three miles, with a gradual descent of sixty feet, and the navigation is continued by means of thirteen canals, which shorten the distance by nine miles. After its passage through the Oneida lake, nearly thirty miles in length, it has the name of Onondago in its meandering course of eighteen miles to the junction of the western branch, where it takes the name of Oswego, and runs north-west forty-five miles to Lake Ontario. The whole descent between the two lakes is 130 feet. The western branch, called the Seneca river, rises to the south of Lake Ontario, and has the name of Wood creek to its junction with the waters of the Canandaqua lake, and afterwards that of the Seneca river, which it preserves to its junction with the Oswego. In this easterly course, it receives the waters of several lakes which extend in a south-south-eastern direction--the Seneca, Cayuga,

which forms

Owasco, Sheneateless, Olisco, Salina, and Cross lakes. The first is forty-four miles in length, and from four to six in breadth; the Cayuga is nearly of the same length, and one mile in breadth; the Owasco is eleven miles long, and one broad; the Sheneateless is fourteen miles long, and one wide; the Olisco, Cross, and Salina lakes, each between three and four miles in length. Crooked lake, which empties itself into Seneca lake, and so called from its irregular shape, is seventeen miles in length. The southern extremity of these lakes is near to the two great northern branches of the Susquehannah river, the Tioga and Chenango, which water the southern parts of the state. The sources of this river are the Otsego and Caniederago lakes, which are but twelve or thirteen miles south of the Mohawk river. The first is nine miles long, and more than one in width; the other is nearly as large. The north-eastern parts of the state are watered by a number of streams running in various directions: the Sable, Saranack, and Little Chazy rivers, into Lake Champlain; the Salmon, St. Regis, Racket, Grass, and Oswegatchie rivers, into the St. Lawrence; the Black and Salmon rivers into Lake Ontario. Some of these have their sources in lakes, which are several miles in length. The western parts of the state are watered by the Genessee river, of Lake Ontario, and several streams which run into Lake Erie, and the channel which unites their waters. The Genessee river rises near the southern line of boundary, from which it proceeds in a northwest course of fifty miles, and then runs seventy in a north-eastern direction to Lake Ontario. It receives the waters of two small lakes, Canirus and Silver lakes. The Tonnewanto, Buffalo, and Cattaragus creeks fall into the waters of Lake Erie. The Chataque lake, which reaches within six or seven miles of Lake Erie, is eighteen miles long, and three broad, and its waters flow into the Connewango branch of the Alleghany river.

This state is wonderfully favored by its water communication. On the east, Lake Champlain extends from near the head of the Hudson river to the northern limits. The north-western borders are washed, in their whole extent, by the river St. Law

* So called from Samuel Champlain, who after founding the city of Quebec in 1608, the capital of New France, penetrated to this lake in 1611, then known by the name of Coslear.

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History of North America, Volume 2