with a small expense might be reduced to sixty yards, and with one or two locks it might be made navigable through. It is a most clear, beautiful collection of water, thirty-six miles long, and from one to seven wide; it embosoms between 2 and 300 islands, which are in general little more than barren rocks, covered with heath, and a few trees and shrubs, with abundance of rattle-snakes. This fine lake is skirted by prodigious mountains, and is celebrated for the quantity and variety of its fish. The famous fort of Ticonderoga, which stood at the north side of the outlet of the lake, is now in ruins. The other principal lakes are Oneida, Onondago, Skaneateless, Owasca, Cayuga, Seneca, Canandagua, and Chataughque.

Oneida lake, in Onondago county, is between twenty and thirty miles long and about five wide; it is connected with Jake Ontario on the west by Oswego river, and with fort Stanwix, on Mohawk river, by Wood creek. Onondago lake, in the county of the same name, is about six miles long and a mile broad, and sends its waters to Seneca river. It is strongly impregnated with saline particles, occasioned by salt springs a few yards from its banks. These springs are capable of producing immense quantities of salt, and are a great benefit to the country. Skaneateless lake, in the same county, is fourteen miles long and one broad; it waters the military townships of Marcellus and Sempronius, and sends its waters northerly into Seneca river.

Owasco lake, partly in the townships of Aurelius and Scipio, in Onondago county, is about eleven miles long and one broad, and communicates with Seneca river on the north by a stream which runs through the town of Brutus. Cayuga is a beautiful lake in Cayuga county, from thirtyfive to forty miles long, and from two to three miles wide; abounding with salmon, bass, cat-fish, eels, &c. During the spring of 1818 not less than 8,000 tons of gypsum, or plaster of Paris, were brought from the eastern side of this lake to the village of Ithaca, in Seneca county, and thence carried in waggons to Oswego, on Susquehanna river, a distance of twenty-nine miles; in this conveyance more than 300 teams were at one time employed. From Oswego it was conveyed in arks and on rafts down the river, and sold to the farmers of Pennsylvania. At Ithaca the gypsum is worth four dollars a ton, at Oswego ten dollars, and in the Pennsylvania market eighteen dollars. A small quantity of it having been conveyed to the head of the Allegany, and down that river 260 miles to Pittsburgh, was there sold at fifty dollars a ton.

Seneca lake, in Ontario county, is a handsome piece of water nearly forty miles long and about two wide. At the north-west corner of the lake stands the town of Geneva, and on the east side, between it and Cayuga, are the towns of Romulus, Ovid, Hector, and Ulysses, in Onondago county. A quarry of very elegant marble, beautifully variegated, of an excellent quality, and proof against fire, has lately been discovered on the banks of this lake. Its outlet is Scayace river, which also receives the waters of Cayuga lake, eighteen miles below Geneva, Canandaigua lake and creek are also in Ontario county; the lake is about twenty miles long and three broad, and sends its waters in a north-east direction thirty-five miles, to Seneca river. Chautaughque lake, in Genessee county, is twenty-two miles long and from two to six wide, at the head of which stands the pleasant village of Fredonia, possessing a good boat and raft navigation to Pittsburgh and New Orleans; the portage from Fredonia to lake Erie is only nine miles over a good road. Six or eight miles east of Chautaughque lake are the three Casdaga lakes, from one to five miles in circumference, and discharging their waters into the east branch of the river Conuewango.

There are many fiue rivers in this state; the principal of which are the Hudson, or North river, the Mohawk, the Oneida, and the Genessee; together with above twenty others navigable by boats and rafts. The Hudson passes its whole course in the state of New York, and is one of the largest and finest rivers in the United States. It rises in a mountainous country between lakes Ontario and Champlain, and from thence to its entrance into York bay is about 250 miles in length; the tide flows a few miles above Albany, which is 170 miles from New York. The river is navigable for sea vessels to Albany, and to Troy, five miles distant; but smaller vessels may proceed a considerable way further. The bed of this river, which is deep and smooth to an amazing distance, through a hilly, rocky country, and even through ridges of some of the highest mountains in the United States, must undoubtedly have been produced by some mighty convulsion in nature; its passage through the highlands, which is about seventeen miles, affords a wild romantic scene.

The two celebrated canals which are to connect the Hudson with lakes Erie and Champlain are carrying on with great activity, and, in all probability, will be completed within the time appointed. The first of these, or Grand Western Canal, commenced in July, 1816; many

portions of which have been contracted for, and in October, 1818, were in a considerable state of forwardness. Upon an allotment, which extends from Utica to within seven miles of Seneca river, a distance of eighty-five miles, above 2,000 men have been constantly employed; and the work has been prosecuted with such spirited exertion, that in December, 1818, the excavation was completed, and much done towards the construction of the necessary embankments, culverts, locks, &c. This stupendous undertaking, compared with which the largest canal in Europe would appear a mere Lilliputian performance, is 3534 miles in length, from Albany to Buffalo, on lake Erie; the water of which is fifty-six feet higher than tide water at the city of Albany, and 145 feet higher than the summit level at Rome, 111 miles from Albany, on the route of the canal. The number of locks will be seventy-seven, the aggregate rise and fall in the whole distance 661 feet, and the total expense, according to the report of the commissioners, 4,881,738 dollars, or £1,098,391 sterling.*

The Northern Canal, which is to unite the Hudson with lake Champlain and the river St. Lawrence, commences at Fort Edward, in Washington county, forty-nine miles north of Albany, and terminates at Whitehall, in the same county, a distance of twenty-two miles. The water in this canal is not to be less than thirty feet wide at the surface, twenty feet at the bottom, and three feet deep. Nine locks will be required, each of which must be seventyfive feet long, and ten feet wide in the clear; the estimated expense amounts to 871,000 dollars, or £195,975 sterling. In January, 1819, the digging and excavating of the canal, in its whole extent, had been completed, and a great part of the materials for constructing the locks collected and prepared; so that there is little doubt that a water communication between lake Champlain and New York will be opened before the close of another season.

The Mohawk river rises near Oneida lake, and running a south-east course about 130 miles, falls into the Hudson eight miles above Albany. The navigation of this river is obstructed by the Cohoes falls, about two miles above its entrance into the Hudson; but goods are carried by land between Albany and Skenectady, fifteen miles; and, except a portage of about a mile, sixty miles further up, the river is passable for boats from Skenectady to its source, where it communicates by another canal with Wood creek, and from thence to lake Ontario. Oneida

Upon the map of the United States, prefixed to this volume, the range of the canal is marked, with the intermediate distances.

river rises near Rome, by a stream called Wood creek, which, after a western course of ten or twelve miles, joins Fish creek; the united stream then dilates into Oneida lake, from the western extremity of which the river again issues, and runs about forty miles to lake Ontario. It is navigable by boats to the falls, which occasion a portage of twenty yards only, from whence it is again navigable to the lake, and thence, through Wood creek, almost to fort Stanwix, whence there is a portage of a mile to Mohawk river. Oneida river is of great importance, as it forms part of the chain of communication between the Hudson and the lakes; and, through the medium of the Seneca river, which falls into the Oneida a little above the falls, it may, in process of time, form an important route between lake Ontario and the smaller lakes in the interior of the country. Genessee river rises in Pennsylvania, and running a northerly course of about 100 miles through the Genessee country, falls into lake Ontaria eighty miles to the eastward of Niagara falls. Fifty miles from its source there are falls of forty feet, and five miles from its mouth, of seventy-five feet, and a little higher up of ninetysix feet; these falls furnish capital mill-seats, of which the inhabitants have availed themselves. This river waters a fine tract of country, remarkable for its natural advantages, its fertile soil, and mild climate.

The head waters of the Delaware, Susquehannah, and Allegany rivers are in the southern parts of the state.

Climate, face of the country, soil, and produce.—The climate of this state is very various. In that part which lies to the southward of the highlands, about fifty miles above New York, it is remarkably changeable; experiencing all the extremities of heat and cold, and sometimes a change of thirty degrees in the course of twenty-four hours. Among the mountains, and along lake Champlain, towards Canada, the winters are long and severe, and the summers are often sultry and hot. In the western district, the climate is more temperate, and the winters are subject to a good deal of rain; but the whole country is healthy, the neighbourhood of pops and undrained marshes excepted. The winter commences about Christmas and ends in February; but March and April are frequently cold months.

There is a great variety in the aspect of the country; particularly to the east of the Allegany mountains, where the land is broken into hills, with many rich intervening

valleys. These mountains and others intersect the state in ridges, in a north-east and south-west direction from the northern extremity of the state to Utica westward. From thence to its western boundary, nearly 300 miles, there is an elegant country, rich and well watered, and for the most part a dead level; having spurs of the Allegany mountains on the one side, and on the other the lakes Ontario and Erie, two of the finest sheets of water in the world: all the numerous creeks which flow into the latter have many falls, which afford a great number of excellent mill-seats.

The soil in such an extent of country must be various. The southern and eastern parts are dry and gravelly, intermixed with loam, and is not very r; the mountainous districts are pretty well adapted for grazing, and there are many rich valleys on the rivers. The whole of the northern and western parts are rich and fertile, except a small portion bordering on the state of Pennsylvania, which, however, is interspersed with good land. The hills are generally clothed thick with timber, and towards the west, a fine rich soil is covered, in its natural state, with maple, beech, birch, cherry, black walnut, locust, hickory, and some mulberry-trees. Of the commodities produced by culture, wheat is the principal, which in grain and in flour is exported in prodigious quantities; the other agricultural products are Indian corn, barley, oats, rye, peas, beans, hemp, flax, &c.

The best lands in this state are those upon the Mohawk river, north of it, and west of the Alleganies; all of which are rapidly settling. The counties of Genessee, Allegany, Niagara, Cattaraugus, and Chautaughque, except the eastern parts of the two first, constitute what is called the "Holland Purchase," which contains about 4,000,000 of acres. This extensive and fertile tract is bounded by a transit line running north from the Pennsylvania state line to lake Ontario, being 97 miles in length; north, by lake Ontario; west, by the river Niagara and lake Erie; and south, by Pennsylvania. The southern parts of this purchase are watered by the Allegany and Connewango rivers, and eight tributary creeks; the Genessee river and Allen's creek flow into lake Ontario; four considerable creeks empty into the river Niagara; and seven into lake Erie ; all these rivers and creeks have their course through this fine country. In 1797, the above lands were purchased from the Seneca Indians and the state of Massachusetts for about three-pence an acre; and in 1799 they were surveyed and laid out into townships of six miles square.

NO. XVI.

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