THE EOGRA.PHY INDUSTRIES AND RESOURCES OF THE eberal Etiiteb ^tatjts anb Cerritories FORMING PART OF A SERIFS OF SUPPLEMENTARY READERS, With Maps and Illustrations. ^% . ^ i:y MARCIUS WILLSON AND ROBERT PIERPONT WILLSON. Vol. I. The Six-New England States, the Five Middle States, and the Five Southern Atlantic States. Class I f Book_^ :__ GopyrightN COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT. THE GEOGRAPHY INDUSTRIES AND RESOURCES OF THE Several United States and Territories, FORMING PART OF A SERIES OF SUPPLEMENTARY READERS, WITH MAPS AND ILLUSTRATIONS. BY MARCIUS WILLSOX A X D ROBERT PIERPOXT WILLSOX VOL. I. THE SIX NEW ENGLAND STATES, THE FIVE MIDDLE STATES, AND THE EI IE SOUTHERN ATLANTIC STATES. Explanatory, The following pages are specimen selections from an uncompleted and unpublished educational work, the general character of which is briefly indicated by the title-page. These selections are put in type that they may be the more conveniently examined by a few leading educators in advance of the completion of the work ; and we earnestly solicit, from those to whom we may send them, their views of the character and plan of the work, and of its adaptation to the purposes for which it is intended, together with any sugges- tions for its improvement, which they may be disposed to make. After pupils have read over, in the class, the "Introductory" portions, as far as Chapter I., and studied the few questions on the maps of North America and the United States, they then enter upon the main features of the work. After the map and the map questions at the beginning of each chapter shall have been properly studied, it is designed that the remainder of the chapter shall be used for class reading, the same as an ordinary School Reader, and that the entire work, after the map questions, shall thus form a series of Supplementary Readers, — to be read, and not studied for the purposes of recitation. In fine, the work is designed to perform the double office of a Complete School Geography and a Popular Series of Readers, — the latter so supplementing the former as to carry the subject much further, and to make its treatment more practical and more interesting, than is possible on the plan now pursued in our schools. As the plan of adopting two series of Readers for the schools is becoming quite gen- eral, we suggest the query,— might not one of the series be, most appropriately, of the character herein indicated? We ask teachers to reflect upon the educational value of such a work, although it should embrace the United States only, — and then upon the practicability of extending it so as to embrace the whole subject of geographical study. It is thought that two volumes, on the plan here indicated, will be sufficient for the United States' portion of the work. If the rest of the world — and Europe especially— is to be treated as fully as the United States, three more volumes would be 'required, — five in all. In considering the expense to the schools, the two offices of the work should not be forgotten. The Authors. Vine laud, N. 7., September, 1886. Entered according to Act of Congress in the year 1886, by Marcius Willson, in the office of the Librarian of Congress at Washington. Astronomical View of the Earth. \Jllust ration^ "And Earth, self-balanced, on her centre hung." — Milton. To man's limited comprehension, not only does the earth on which he dwells ap- pear to be a flat surface, and at rest, while the sun and stars revolve around it, but it seems to be the greatest of the heavenly bodies, and to occupy the very centre of the universe. In opposition to all this, science informs us that the earth is a round body — a globe or ball; and that instead of being greater than the sun or the stars, and at rest, it is one of the smallest of many millions of heavenly bodies that are moving in har- monious orbits through the realms of in- finite space. But science has for us greater surprises than this. The stars which are visible in a clear, moonless night, appear to be very numerous — so numerous, indeed, that about 5,000 of these twinkling orbs can be seen by the naked eye ; and yet the total number of stars visible by means of the best telescopes is estimated at five hundred thousand millions ! which is a hun- dred million times as many as can be seen by the naked eye ; a number far beyond the power of the imagination to grasp. Our sun is an immense body; but figures can give us no adequate idea of its magnitude, even when we know that it is nearly a million and a half times larger than our earth. Perhaps we can better realize its vastness if we will imagine it placed in the earth's position; for we know that it would then fill the heavens in every direction, to a distance of more than 190,000 miles beyond the moon's orbit. It would seem, indeed, that there could be scarcely sufficient room in the universe for another orb of such dimensions ; yet Sirius, the " Dog Star," if it may be measured by the volume of light which it emits, is more than a hundred times larger than our sun. Astronomers tell us that our sun is one of the stars in the Milky Way, and that it is probably much smaller than many of the eighteen millions of its neighboring stars which the telescope reveals to us in that cluster alone. It is, therefore, but a spark among them ; and although the Milky Way itself, which appears like a broad streak of light across the heavens, is an immense concourse of suns, it is merely a nebula or cloud mist of stars, beyond which other nebulae, with their countless systems of worlds upon worlds, stretch away into infinity. Infinitely small, then — - a mere globule in the immensity of space — is our earth in the eyes of the astronomer, when compared with even the little that we know of the vast universe of God. It is less than a grain of sand by the side of a mass of mountains. But the distances that separate even the visible fixed stars from one another are no less wonderful than the magnitudes of these bodies. Our minds cannot grasp these dis- tances, and the really inconceivable swift- ness of light is their onlv fitting measure. ASTRONOMICAL. Traveling at the immense rate of 192,000 miles in a second of time, light would pass nearly eight times around our earth in that brief interval : it is nearly eight minutes and a quarter in coming from the sun to us, while sound would require fifteen years to traverse the same distance. The nearest to us of the fixed stars, which is believed to be Alpha Centauri — a bright star in the Southern Hemisphere — is not less than twenty millions of millions of miles distant, and a ray of light from it would require three and a half years to reach us. The star Sirius alone, also one of our near neighbors, and the brightest star in the heavens, is believed to be three and a half times the distance of Alpha Centauri — or seventy millions of millions of miles distant. Hence its light is more than twelve years in reaching us. Yet the dis- tances of these two stars from us is small, compared with the distances that separate some of the visible fixed stars ; for it is believed that, even on the little verge of creation which we can scan, the telescope brings to our vision stars that are so distant from one another that light would require centuries upon centuries to cross the abyss between them ; and if all the fixed stars should be blotted out of existence to-day ; they would continue to shine upon our planet — some of the nearest of them for a few years, but myriads of them probably for thousands of years to come. Of the wonderful and rapid motions of our earth we have yet to speak. Its equa- torial movement, caused by its daily rota- tion on its axis, is about eighteen miles per minute, which is equal to the flight of a 25- pound cannon ball impelled by thirteen pounds of powder. At the same time the earth is moving, in its orbit around the sun, at the immense rate of more than eleven hundred miles per minute, — more than sixty times the rapidity of a cannon-ball. Nor is this all : it has another motion. Together with all the other planets of our solar system, and accompanied by its and their satellites, the earth is borne along by the sun at the rate of not less than 150 millions of miles in a year, toward a distant point in the heav- ens in the constellation Hercules, — perhaps around some great central sun of the uni- verse. Thus, in process of time, after many thousands of years — if there should then be inhabitants on our earth — new heavens will be revealed to them, while the starry host that we now look upon will have faded away in the distance, along the course which our little planetary system has been traveling. But even at the rapid rate at which we are moving it would take more than a hundred and thirty thousand years to reach our nearest neighbor among the fixed stars — that Alpha Centauri, of which we have spoken — even if we were moving directly toward it. The various movements of the earth — on its axis, in its orbit around the sun, and in its rapid flight through unknown space — form a continuous system of interwoven elliptical spirals, whose bewildering maze of complicated curves astronomers have not been able to calculate, and which a French philosopher has called " a manifestation of the Infinite." To conclude this astronomical view of the earth, we may well exclaim with the Psalmist: "When I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers ; the moon and the stars which thou hast ordained ; what is man that thou art mindful of him ? and the son of man that thou visitest him ? " And no wonder that the prophet Isaiah, when speaking of the omnipotence of the Creator, should declare that in His presence " the inhabitants of the earth are as grasshop- pers," and " the nations as a drop of a bucket, that are counted as the small dust of the balance." GEOGRAPHY. INTRODUCTORY. As the word Geography means " a descrip- tion of the earth," a definition which includes the countries of the earth with their divi- sions of land and water, their produc- tions and their inhabitants, it is apparent that many of the materials for the prose- cution of this branch of knowledge may be found everywhere around us. Let us sup- pose, then, that we are just entering upon this study ; and let us see to what extent those portions of the earth's surface with which we are already familiar, will afford us an application of its principles. I. Land and Water Divisions. As we look out upon the fields and gar- dens, we observe their boundaries; we dis- tinguish the growing crops, one from another ; we learn to name the different kinds of trees in the woodlands around, in the orchards, and by the road-side, — the flowers and the grasses also, together with the birds and the quadrupeds that meet our view. We notice the directions from our home, and are told the distances, of the dwellings of the neighbors ; and from the familiar occupations of the farmer, the mer- chant, and the mechanic, we derive our first lessons in the three great industries — Agri- culture, Commerce and Manufactures. In all this we are studying geography. But we may suppose that natural scenery has, for us, charms of absorbing interest. If so, in our pleasant rambles we are still further pursuing this delightful study. Per- haps a little Brook crosses the road near our home, and runs through the meadow below. As it glides over the pebbly bottom, it sings a song so full of the sweetest melody as to delight every listening ear. How charmingly does it tell its story, in the lan- guage of the poet Tennyson : I chatter over stony ways, In little sharps and trebles, I bubble into eddying bays, I babble on the pebbles. And out again I curve and flow, To join the brimming river, For men may come, and men may go, But I go on forever. We follow the stream upward as it winds around in the open fields and in the wood- lands, until we reach its source, which, we are surprised to find, is the well-known Spring on the hill-side, which we had often visited. We are told that larger brooks rise in the greater hill — the Mountain be- yond, that seems to lift its summit to the very clouds, and that, as they rush down the mountain, when the snows melt in early spring, or after powerful rains, they some- times pour, in torrents of foam, over ledges of rocks, and are then called Waterfalls, Cas- cades, or Cataracts. A very rapid flow of a stream of water, as we afterwards learn, is called the Rapids : a sudden fall over rocks is usually called a cascade ; but a cataract, as the word implies, is a mighty rushing fall of water, as of a great river. Such is the great cataract of Niagara. We also follow the familiar road-side brook "down stream," through the valley, and at length find its waters arrested in their course by a dam, and gathered into a Pond, when they are used to turn the wheels of a mill or a factory. Perhaps the stream has now grown so large that we can pursue our GEOGRAPHY. voyage in a boat ; and when, in descending the stream, we would describe the objects that meet our view on either hand, we dis- tinguish those on our right as on the right bank of the stream, and those on our left as on the left bank. As we continue our course down the valley, and as the stream flows on- ward, other streams, called its feeders, tribu- taries, or affluents join it, until at length the brook becomes so large that it is called a River. Mills, factories, and villages, the scenes of busy industries, now line its banks; boats, sloops, and schooners, and perhaps small steamers, laden with the products of the country around, or carrying merchandise upward in return, enliven the scene, and show how the advantages of a navigable river add to the wealth of the country through which it flows. Perhaps the river empties into what seems to us to be an immense Pond ; but this body of water, as it is too large for a pond, is called a Lake. We are told that the river flows onward, through the lake, growing deeper and broader, while more vessels, and larger ones, are borne on its surface, until, at the river's mouth, as it is called, its fresh waters mingle with that great body of salt water that covers more than three-fifths of the surface of the globe, and is called the Sea, or the Ocean. Thousands of brooks, ponds, lakes, and rivers thus pour their waters into the ocean. Some of the small rivers are often called Creeks : the streams that flow out of small lakes are called Outlets : some rivers are rapid in their course ; some are deep and sluggish, and one great river, the Amazon, is nearly four thousand miles in length, and one hundred and fifty miles wide at its mouth. The waters that thus flow into the ocean, from sources almost innumerable, do not permanently remain there, but in the form of vapor they are gradually taken up into the atmosphere, and being wafted away over the land they descend in mist, and dew, and rain, and after again filling the springs, the brooks, and the rivers, they again flow to the ocean. Thus the rivers run on forever and return again, in one un- ceasing round, and ocean is never filled to overflowing. A body of land entirely surrounded by water, whether in a brook, river, lake, 'or ocean, is called an Island ; and a group or cluster of islands is called an Archipelago} Rocks surrounded by water are sometimes said to be islanded, that is, formed into islands, as in the following description: A thousand streamlets strayed, And in their endless course Had intersected deep the stony soil, With labyrinthine channels islanding A thousand rocks. — Soathey. A body of land that is nearly surrounded by water is called a Peninsula? and the nar- row neck of land that connects two larger bodies of land is called an Isthmus? A point of land that extends out into the water is called a Cape} or headland ; and a lofty, rocky cape, is sometimes called a Promontory ; 5 that is, a mountain-like head- land, from which one may see objects at a great distance — ■ Like one who stands upon a promontory And spies a far off shore. — Shak. A deep and narrow passage between hills, or down a mountain slope, is usually called a Gorge ; if worn by a stream or tor- rent of water, it is a Ravine ; but in our Western States a deep gorge in the rocks, between high and steep banks, worn by a 1 Archipel'ago, from the Greek archi chief, and pelagos sea. Because tne .lige'an, the "chief sea " known to the Greeks was full of islands, any large group of islands is now called an Archi- pelago. '-' Penin'sula. Lat. pa'ne almost, and insula an island. :i hth'mus. Gr. isth'ntos, a neck of land. 4 Cape. Lat. cap'ut, the head : that is, a headland. '■> Prom'ontory. Lat. pro for, and mon'tis a mountain. INTRODUCTORY. water course, is called a Can' on (can'yon). If the tract of land between hills is wider than an ordinary ravine, with a stream run- ning through it, and embracing land suita- ble for cultivation, it is called a Valley : a more open and more level tract is called a Plain, and an elevated plain, although it may have hills within it, is called a Table- land, or Plateau (pla-to'). A plain, or table- land, that is a sandy or gravelly waste, nearly or wholly barren, is called a Desert. A fertile spot in a desert is called an o'a-sis. In the great valley of the Mississippi are extensive tracts of meadow-like lands, bar- ren of trees but covered with tall coarse grasses. Some of these are quite level lands, and some are rolling. Our American poet Bryant describes them as resplendent — With flowers whose glory and whose multitude Rival the constellations. These are the gardens of the desert, these The unshorn fields, boundless and beautiful, For which the speech of England has no name — The Prairies} But there are five divisions of land larger than any we have yet mentioned, and these great divisions are called Continents. As the name implies, a continent contains all the other natural divisions of land, and whatever pertains to them ; for within a continent are mountains, lakes, rivers, plains, towns, and cities, and many of those political divisions called States, or Countries. The great Sea, or Ocean, has its divisions also, many of which are similar in form to those of the land. Thus the ocean has its great Gulfs or Bays; and these large divis- ions of water are sometimes quite open to the sea, but are often nearly surrounded by land, as peninsulas are nearly surrounded by water. There are smaller gulfs or bays in large lakes and rivers. A narrow and deep passage that connects two large bodies of water is called a Channel, or Strait ; and 1 From the L.a.tin pratu/u a meadow. French pratrie. we have seen that the narrow strip of land that connects two large bodies of land is called an Isthmus. A channel or strait that is so shallow that it can be sounded, (that is, measured by a plummet and line,) is called a Sound. The ocean has its harbors, or seaports, — smaller bodies of water than gulfs or bays, and so sheltered by the land that ships may anchor there in safety. Adjacent to the harbors are the seaport towns, whose principal merchants are engaged in the commerce of the seas, — that is, in carrying merchandise over the sea, from one country to another, or from one port to another. One of the most singular features to be noticed on the surface of our globe, is what is popularly called "a burning mountain;" but it is more correctly named a Volcano, a word that is derived from Vulcanus, or Vul- can, whom the ancients regarded as the god of fire. Volcanoes are generally mountain peaks that send forth clouds of smoke and steam that have the appearance of flames, and molten rocks called lava, from an open- ing at their summits, called a crater, but they sometimes burst out beneath the waters of the ocean. By some they are considered the chimneys — the escape valves of those internal fires which produce earth- quakes ; and hence, when the volcano is in action, an earthquake seldom occurs in that region. II. Mathematical Geography. 1. Form, Size and Motions of the Earth. Besides the foregoing general divisions of land and water that are found on the surface of the earth, there is another impor- tant branch of the subject, called Mathemat- ical Geography, that treats of the form, size, and motions of the earth as a whole, and of the relations that grow out of them. It is known that the shape of the earth is nearly that of a globe or ball ; that its Diameter — the distance through its centre GEOGRAPHY. from surface to surface — is nearly eight thousand miles ; and that its Circumference — the greatest distance around it — is nearly twenty-five thousand miles. Moreover, as the earth rotates} that is, turns entirely around, from west to east, on one of its diameters, called its Axis, once in about 24^4 hours, we have thus the succession of day and night ; for when that part of the earth where we are is turned toward the sun, it is day to us; but when it is turned away from the sun, and we are in the earth's shadow, it is night. What are called the Poles of the earth are the points at the ends of the axis on which the earth turns, one of which is called the North Pole, and the other the South Pole. 2. Great Circles. — The Equator and Meridians. In describing the relative location and direction of places and countries on the earth, and in the measurement of distances, geographers use terms that are derived from certain imaginary lines or circles that are supposed to be drawn on the earth's surface. Thus there are what are called Great Circles and Small Circles. [Illustration.] parts. 1 Midway between the poles is the circumference of the great circle called the Equator, a term which means " to make equal ; " and this imaginary circle divides the earth into two equal parts, one of which is called the Northern Hemisphere (half sphere) and the other, the Southern Hemisphere'} When the sun is directly over the equator, we have the Equinox} that is, equal nights, — nights of equal length all over the world. This occurs twice every year. The sun crosses the equator, coming north, about the 2 1st of March, which time is called the vernaP equinox, and it crosses the equator going south about the 22d of September, and this period is called the autumnal equi- nox. It must be understood, however, that these are only apparent motions of the sun, caused by real motions of the earth. As the earth passes entirely around the sun once in a year, and in such a manner as to cause the sun to shine more upon the Northern Hemisphere than upon the South- ern, during our summer, and more upon the Southern Hemisphere than upon the Northern, during our winter, we have, thereby, the cliange of seasons. Besides the equator, any circle that passes through both poles is a great circle. Such circles, of which there may be an in- definite number, are called meridian circles, 1 that is, midday or noon circles ; because, when it is noon at any place on the earth, the sun is directly over the meridian line that passes through that place. A meridian is half of a meridian circle, and extends from pole to pole. On maps, the equator is represented A Great Circle is an imaginary circle, so drawn as to divide the earth into two equal 1 From the Latin ro'ta a wheel, because it turns like a wheel. 1 In Geometry a circle is the plane figure bounded by the cir- cumference, but in Geography it means the circumference only. - Although, in Geometry, a sphere is a solid body, in Oeog- raphy the term is used to denote tlie surface of the earth, that is» the shell of the sphere proper. :; Equinox. Lat ASguus equal, and nox night. 4 Vernal. Lat. ver spring, or vernalis belonging to spring. 1 Meridian . Lat. Me-r id'i-cs noon, from medius middle, and dies day. INTRODUCTORY. by an east and west line, and the meridians by north and south lines. As even - circle, great or small, is divided into 360 equal parts, called degrees, and as the circumference of the earth is nearly 25,000 miles, it will be seen that the length of a degree of this " great circle " is nearly 691^ statute miles of the United States. It will be seen, also, that the distance from the equator to either pole is one-fourth of the circumference, that is, 90 degrees, or about 6,250 miles. 3. Small Circles. — Tropics, Polar Circles a fid Parallels of Latitude. Tropics. What is called a Geographical Small Circle, is a circle that divides the earth into two unequal parts. Portions of many such circles are represented on maps, and all of them are east and west lines par- allel to the equator. Of these there are two important circles, the one 231^ degrees north of the equator, called the Tropic of Cancer ; the other at the same distance south of the equator, and called the Tropic of Capricorn. These circles are thus drawn on maps to designate the greatest distance, north and south of the equator, to which the sun appears to travel annually, giving us mid-summer when the sun is at its ex- treme limit north of the equator, and mid- winter when it is at its extreme limit south of the equator. The two tropics are thus named because, at these limits the sun, after appearing to stand still for several days, seems to turn back on its course, the word tropic being derived from the Greek word that means "a turning about." 1 At the northern limit of its course the sun is said to be in the summer solstice, about the 21st of June; and when at its southern limit, about the 2 1 st of September, it is said to be in the 1 Tropic. Greek, trop'e, a turning, from trcp'o to turn. zvinler solstice. The appropriateness of the term solstice is apparent when it is known that it is derived from two Latin words, sol the sun, and sis'te-re to stand. There is a like appropriateness in the use of the terms Cancer and Capricorn to designate the two tropics, or turning points, inasmuch as the constellation of stars known to the ancients as " Cancer, the Crab," marks the northern limit of the sun's apparent course in the heavens, and " Capricorn, the Goat," the southern limit. Nearly all our geographical terms are of Greek or Latin origin. Polar Circles. At the distance of 23^ degrees from each pole are two other im- portant small circles parallel to the equator. The northern is called the Arctic Circle, from the Greek word arktos a bear, because the Arctic Circle is apparently situated directly under that constellation of stars known to the ancients as the Great Bear. To all places on the Arctic Circle the sun comes exactly to the Horizon, without descending below it, at midnight of the day of the summer solstice ; and the day at those places is at that period 24 hours long, and has no night. The southern circle, corresponding to the Arctic Circle, is called the Antarctic Circle, because it is opposite to the other, (anti arctic.) At the time of our summer solstice the night is 24 hours long on the Antarctic Circle, and has no day, except merely a brief interval of twilight. From the polar circles to the poles the days lengthen into weeks and months during one half of the year, and the nights lengthen in like manner during the other half of the year. At Upernavik (oo'per-naVik), the most northern settlement in Greenland, the longest day is a little more than two months, and at the poles the year consists of one day and one night, each six months long. When it is day at the North Pole it is night at the South Pole. GEOGRAPHY. Parallels of Latitude. In addition to the two Polar circles and the two tropics, nu- merous other small circles, called Parallels of Lai i tilde, 1 may be supposed to be drawn around the earth parallel to the equator, and on both sides of it. On maps they are east and west lines, and where a large ex- tent of country is mapped, they are made to curve away from the line of the equator, when the latter is a straight line, to repre- sent the globe-like form of the earth. They mark off the number of degrees, called " degrees of latitude," from the equator to the poles. Places north of the equator are said to be in north latitude, and those south of it in south latitude. Thus the principal northern line of Pennsylvania is in north latitude, 40 degrees north of the equator, and each degree of latitude measures about 69^ miles. The farther a place is north or south from the equator, the higher is said to be its latitude. 4. Longitude. The word Longitude 2 is used to de- note distance east and west from any selected meridian, and is measured on the equator, or on any parallel of latitude ; but as degrees of longitude are reckoned in both directions from the selected meridian, they cannot exceed 180 degrees, the semi- circumference of the earth. Moreover, while a degree of longitude measures about 69^ miles at the equator, the same as a degree of latitude, the degrees of longitude diminish in length toward the poles, and at those imaginary points they are of no length whatever. The meridian line from which longitude is generally reckoned is the meridian of the Royal Observatory at Greenwich, on the east bank of the Thames, near London; but on American maps the meridian of Washington is frequently used. 1 Latin, latus broad, or latititdo, breadth. - Latin, longus long, or longitudo length. The earth is not a complete globe, but is somewhat flattened at the poles and bulged out at the equator, whereby the polar di- ameter is 26 miles less than the equatorial ; therefore the equatorial circle, on which longitude is primarily measured, is longer than a meridian circle on which latitude is measured. Hence, also, the additional reason why the term longitude, or length, is applied to the longer measure of the earth's circumference, and the term latitude, or breadth, to the shorter measures. A knowledge of the principles of latitude and longitude is of great importance to the navigator. The sailor in mid ocean must know the latitude and longitude of his ship before he can tell in what direction to sail in order to reach any desired port. If he can see the sun at noonday he can tell, by the aid of an instrument called the sextant, how high the sun is above the horizon, and then, from his Nautical Almanac he can find the latitude ; or, if he can see the Pole Star at night, he knows that his latitude is the same as the elevation of that star above the horizon. He carries with him a time piece (a chronometer) that keeps the time of the place from which he sailed, or the time of Washington, or Greenwich ; and he finds his longitude by noting the difference between this time and the ship's time ; for every hour's difference in time makes a difference of fifteen degrees in longitude. Thus, knowing his latitude and longitude, he looks on his map and sees the exact place of his ship on the ocean. 5. The Torrid, the Two Temperate and the Two Frigid Zones. The two tropics and the two polar circles divide the earth's surface into five broad spaces, or belts, called zones. One of these, that between the tropics, and having the INTRODUCTORY. equator for its central circle, is called the Torrid Zone, from the excessive heat that prevails there. Beyond this on the north is the North Temperate Zone, extending from the Tropic of Cancer to the Arctic Circle; and on the south is the South Temperate Zone, extending from the Tropic of Capri- corn to the Antarctic Circle. Beyond these circles, and extending from them to the poles is the North Frigid Zone on the one hand and the South Frigid Zone on the other. Continent globe. Hill. [p. 5 Mountain. [p III. DEFINITIONS. [With references to the preceding pages in which the terms are used.] /. Divisions of the La mi. 7.] — One of the great divisions of land on the -An elevation of land less than a mountain. [P- 5-] — A very large hill : a vast eminence. Volcano, [p. 7.]— A burning mountain. Plain, [p. 7.]— A nearly level tract of land. Desert, [p. 7.] — A barren plain. Oasis, [p. 7.] — A fertile spot in a desert. Prairie, [p. 7.] — An extensive tract of country, bare of trees and covered with grass. Plateau (plii-to'), or Table-Land. [p. 7.] — An elevated plain. Valley, [p. 7.] — A tract of land between hills. Gorge, [p. 6. J — A deep and narrow passage between hills. Ravine, [p. 6.] — A deep and narrow hollow worn by a torrent from the hills or mountains. Can'on (can'yon). [p. 7.] — A term applied in our Western States to a very deep gorge, or ravine. Island, [p. 6] — A body of land surrounded by water. Archipel'ago. [p. 6 ] — A group or cluster of islands. Peninsula, [p. 6.] — A body of land nearly surrounded by water. Cape. [p. 6 ]— A point ofjand that extends out into the water. Promontory, [p. 6.] — A lofty, rocky cape. Isthmus, [p. 6 ] — A narrow neck of land that connects two larger bodies of land. Water-shed, or Divide. The elevation of land that separates one water system from another. //. Divisions of the Water River, [p. 6 ] — A large stream of fresh water. Rills and Brooks, [p. 5 ] — Streams smaller than a river. Spring, [p. 5.] — A fountain that springs up out of the earth. The source of brooks, rivers, &c. Feeders, Tributaries, Affluents, [p. 6.] — Streams smaller than the river into which they flow. Creek, [p. 6.] —A small river ; or a bay or recess in the shore of river, lake, or sea. Waterfall, [p. 5] — A nearly perpendicular descent of any natural stream of water. Cascade, [p. 5.] — A small flowing of water over a precipice. Cataract, [p. 5 ] — A great fall of water over a precipice. Kapids. [p. 5.] — A part of a river where the current is very swift. ///. Mathema Embracing foririj size, motion; Geography, [p. 5.] — A description of the earth. Diameter of the earth, [p. 7.] —Distance through the centre from surface to surface. Axis. [p. 8.] — The line through the centre from pole to pole. Poles, [p. 8.] — The ends of the axis. Great Circle, [p. 8 ] — A circle that divides the earth into two equal parts. Circumference, [p. 8.] — A great circle : the greatest distance around the earth. Equator, [p. 8.] — A great circle midway between the poles. Equinox, [p. 8 ] — The time when nights are of equal length throughout the world. Hemispheres, [p. 8.] — One of any two equal parts into which the earth may be divided. Meridian, [p. 8.] — Any great circle that passes through both poles. Lake. [p. 6.]— A large inland collection of water in a hollow of the earth. Pond. [p. 5.] — An inland body of water less than a lake. Outlet, [p. 6.] — A water passage out of a pond, lake, &c. Ocean, [p. 6. J— The vast body of salt water that covers three- fifths of the surface of the globe. Sea. [p. 6.] — A large body of salt water less than the ocean. An inland salt water lake. The ocean. Gulf. [p. 7.] — A large body of water more or less open to the sea. Bay. [p 7.] — Generally a smaller body of water opening into a sea, lake, or large river. Channel or Strait, [p. 7.] — A narrow passage between two larger bodies of water. Sound, [p. 7.] — A channel that may be sounded. tical Geography. , circles and zones of the earth. Small Circle, [p. 9.] — A circle that does not divide the earth into two equal parts. Such are the tropical and polar circles, and parallels of latitude. Tropics, [p. 9.]— The two small circles that limit the sun's course north and south of the equator. The sun's turning points. Sol'stice. [p. 9.] — A point, north or south of the equator, at which the sun appears to stand still. Arctic Circle, [p. 9.] — The north polar circle. Antarctic Circle, [p. 9.] — The south polar circle. Ho-ri'zon. [p. 9.] — That circle upon which the earth and the sky appear to meet. Latitude, [p. 10.] — Distance, north or south, from the equator. Longitude, [p. 10.] — Distance, e..st or west, from any assumed meridian. Zones, [p. 11.] — Five broad climatic belts around the earth. 12 M A P OF NORTH AMERICA. NORTH AMERICA QUESTIONS ON THE MAP. Nor tli America. How bounded ? What isthmus on the south? What continents does it connect ? What sea is north of the isthmus? What islands north of the Car- ribbean Sea ? What country joins the isth- mus on the N. W. ? What country N. W. of Central America ? What gulf E. of Mexico ? What two peninsulas partly en- close this gulf? What gulf W. of Mexico ? What peninsula? What cape at the south- ern extremity of this peninsula ? What cape at the southern extremity of Florida ? What country N. of Mexico and the gulf? What division of North America N. of the United States? What great bay in this division? What strait leads into it ? What bay N. E. of Hudson Bay? What strait leads into it ? What extensive region, or island E. of Baffin Bay ? What terri- tory in the extreme western part of the con- tinent ? What ocean at the north ? What Archipelago in the Arctic Ocean ? What strait between North America and Asia? What chain of mountains in Mexico ? Their general course? (N. W. and S. E.) The name of the N. W. continuation of this chain ? What mountain ranges nearer the Pacific coast ? What chain of Mountains near the Atlantic coast ? What great lakes N. of the United States ? What river flows from them? What gulf at the mouth of the St. Lawrence ? What island E. of the gulf? What peninsula south of the gulf? What cape at the S. extremity of the pen- insula ? What great river enters the Gulf of Mexico from the north ? From the west ? What one enters the Gulf of California from the north ? What one enters the Pacific near the N. W. corner of the United States ? What great river in Alaska ? What great river falls into the Arctic Ocean ? PROMINENT PHYSICAL FEATURES OF NORTH AMERICA. [Physical Geography, (from the Greek p/ia'sis, Nature,) describes the principal features of the earth's surface, as consisting of land and water, atmosphere, climate, etc., and whatever are the natural productions of the earth, whether animal, vegetable or mineral.] The Western Hemisphere, called the Nezv World when it was first brought to the notice of Europeans by the genius of Chris- topher Columbus, is very irregularly shaped, being divided into the two great peninsulas of North and South America, united by the narrow isthmus of Panama or Darien. These two divisions are sometimes called the con- tinent of America, but most geographers have regarded each division as a continent by itself. North America is bounded N. by the Arctic Ocean ; E. by the Atlantic ; S. by the Atlantic, the Gulf of Mexico, and the Pacific Ocean, and W. by the Pacific. Its width in the broadest part, not in- cluding Greenland, is not less than 3,500 miles, and its length about 4,500, while its eastern coast line, by reason of its numerous gulfs, bays and inlets, measures not less than 13,000 miles, and its western coast about [ 1 ,000. The total area of North America is about eight million square miles, which is twice the area of the continent of Europe. I. The Western Highlands. In considering the physical features of this continent, our attention is first drawn to its mountain system, which is remarkable for presenting, in connection with the Andes Mountains of South America, of which the Cordilleras of Mexico, and the Rocky Moun - tains of the United States and British America are a northern continuation, — the longest mountain chain in the world, which has been characterized as the backbone of the 14 GEOGRAPHY, INDUSTRIES AND RESOURCES. Western Hemisphere The North Ameri- can portion of this chain, starting with low and broken ridges on the Isthmus of Pan- ama, rises to the height of from 3,000 to 1 1,000 feet in Central America, with numer- ous volcanic peaks from 4,000 to 14,000 feet high. On entering Mexico the chain widens out into an extensive table-land, having a mean elevation of 8,000 feet above the sea, with a succession of terraces on either side leading down to the plains below. This table-land, or plateau, which extends from Southern Mexico to the shores of the Arctic Ocean, may be termed Tlie Western high- lands of the continent. It is diversified by several mountain ranges that have a general northwest direction parallel to the Pacific coast, with frequent interlocking spurs. The entire region between the several coast ranges and the Rocky mountain chain on the east, is a broad plateau belt, from 4,000 to 5,000 feet high in the middle por- tions, but falling off toward the north and the south, while the mountain ridges often rise from 4,000 to 6,000 feet above the plateau, and numerous peaks considerably higher. The principal rivers of this Western Highland division are the Rio Grande (ri'o grand), which flows into the Gulf of Mexico the Colora'do, which discharges its waters into the Gulf of California, the Columbia, which, rising in the Rocky Mountains of British Columbia, enters the Pacific Ocean in United States territory, and the Yukon, a great river of Alaska, which falls into the North Pacific near Behring's Strait. II. The Eastern Highlands and Atlantic Plain. Running nearly parallel to the Atlantic Coast is what is called the Eastern Highland Belt, comprising the Appalachian system of mountains, which, starting from the Gulf of St. Lawrence, pursues a southwesterly course for 1,300 miles, and extends nearly to the Gulf of Mexico. This mountain sys- tem also, like the Western, consists of sev- eral parallel ridges, but their average height is less than one-third the height of the Rocky Mountain system. Eastward of this belt is the Atlantic Coast Plain, sloping down to the sea, having an average width of about 100 miles. III. The Mississippi Basin. Lying between the Rocky Mountains on the west and the Appalachian ranges on the east, and extending from the head waters of the Mississippi and Missouri Rivers on the north, to the Gulf of Mexico on the south, is the Great Basin of the Mississippi River and its tributaries, form- ing a low central valley, gradually rising into broad elevated plains on the west, and plains of much less extent and less eleva- tion on the east. This section is wholly embraced within the United States. IV. The Great Northern Slope. Extending across the central part of the continent from the Rocky Mountains to the Atlantic, and above the head waters of the Missouri and Mississippi, and of the streams from the north that flow into the Great Lakes and the St. Lawrence, is a broad and low swell of land, but little above the com- mon level of the surrounding country. This is the water-shed that divides the rivers that flow northward to Hudson's Bay and the Arctic Ocean, from those that find their way to the Atlantic by the St. Law- rence and the Gulf of Mexico. The vast region north of this water-shed and east of the Rocky Mountains is mostly a bleak and barren waste, overspread with innumerable lakes, and nearly all of it in- capable of cultivation, with the exception of the Manitoba country lying adjacent to our northern boundary, north of the Missouri River. NORTH AMERICA. 15 The most important river in this north- branch, the Great Lake Basin of North ern slope of the continent is one that rises America. The St. Lawrence River, which in the Rocky Mountains, passes through may be said to have its source in the head Lake Athabasca, and Great Slave Lake, and waters of Lake Superior, and to embrace in discharges its waters into the Arctic Sea. its course the great chain of lakes or inland Under its several names, Athabasca near its seas, — Superior, Michigan, Huron, St. Clair, source, Slave River between the two lakes, Erie, and Ontario — is thus the grand out- and Mackenzie River at the north, it is let of the largest fresh-water lake system in about 2,300 miles long. It drains the great the world. Including the line of the border northern plain of the continent, as the Mis- lakes, and not taking into account Lake sissipi and its branches drain the great Michigan, its course has been estimated at southern plain. Numerous smaller rivers 2,000 miles, and the shore line of the five flow into the great inland sea cf British lakes at about 5,600 miles. America, called Hudson's Bay. Such are the prominent physical features of North America, briefly outlined in five V. The Great Lake Basin. great natural divisions. By keeping these A little north of the sources of the Mis- in mind as he proceeds through the follow- sissippi River, the swell of land that forms ing pages, the student will be the better the great east and west dividing ridge of enabled to appreciate the commanding the continent, sends off a low branch that position occupied, and the peculiar advan- passes south of the great chain of lakes, and tages enjoyed, by the great central nation eastward to the Atlantic, thus forming, of the continent, — the United States of between the main divide and its southern America i6 MAP. WESTERN HALF OF THE UNITED STATES. QUESTIONS ON THE MAP. I . How are the United States bounded ? 2. Through what four of the Western High- land States and Territories does the prin- cipal chain of the Rocky Mountains extend ? 3. Name the other seven Western Highland States and Territories. 4. What three are on the Pacific Coast ? 5. Name the 18 that are on the Atlantic Coast and Gulf of Mexico. 6. Eight that border on the Great Lakes. 7. Five east of the Mississippi that bor- der on that river. 8. Five west of the Mis- sissippi that border on that river. 9. Five west of these that border on the Rocky Mountain States. 10. What five States (and Territories) extend the farthest north ? II. Which one extends the farthest east? 12. What two states arc the most southern ? MAP. EASTERN HALF OF THE UNITED STATES. MAP OF THE UNITED STATES. 13. What one state east of the Missis- sippi not yet mentioned? 14. On what five states does it border? 15. What six states east of the Hudson River ? 16. What are the three principal western tributaries of the Mississippi River? 17. Its principal eastern tributary? 18. Of 2 A what five states does the Ohio River form part of the boundary? 19. What bay south of New Jersey? Its two capes ? 20. What bay east of Vir- ginia ? 2 1 . Its two capes ? What cape on an island east of North Carolina ? 22. What five great lakes form part of the boundary between the United States and Canada? What large river? 23. Where is Lake Michigan? 24. Lake Cham- plain ? i8 GEOGRAPHY, INDUSTRIES AND RESOURCES. THE UNITED STATES. I. General Description. The central portion of the North Ameri- can continent, extending from the Atlantic to the Pacific, and lying between the British Possessions on the north and the Gulf of Mexico and the Republic of Mexico on the south, is comprised in the Republic of the United States of America; in addition to which the Republic owns the territory of Alaska, at the northwestern extremity of the continent. The length of the United States, from Cape Cod on the Atlantic, to the Pacific, is about 2,800 miles, and its greatest width is about 1,600. Its entire area, including Alaska, is more than three and a half mil- lion square miles, which is twenty-five times more than all the European possessions of Great Britain. There are forty-eight states and terri- tories in the Union, of which, twenty-six states are east of the Mississippi, and twenty- two states and territories, including Alaska, are west of that river. Eighteen of these divisions border on the Atlantic coast and Gulf of Mexico, and four on the Pacific, while twenty-six of them have no direct ocean communication. II. The Western or Highland States and ' Territories. There are eleven of what may be called the Western or Highland States and Terri- tories, four of which — Montana, Wyoming, Colorado and New Mexico, 1 — not only crown the summits, but lie partly on both sides, of the principal chain of the Rocky Mountains. Adjoining these four on the west are Idaho, Utah, and Arizona, which, together with Nevada that is west of Utah, and parts of Washington and Oregon, 1 Montana, Wyoming, New Mexico, Idaho, Utah, Arizona and Washington, are territories at the present date. occupy the vast elevated plateau which ex- tends from the Rocky Mountains on the east to the Sierra Nevada range on the west. This latter range runs northward, cen- trally through California, Oregon, and Washington ; and this, and the coast ranges, under different names, all running nearly parallel to the coast, terminate in Alaska, a country of volcanic origin, in which there are more than sixty volcanic peaks, some eight or ten of which are active volcanoes. In the western portion of the great mountain plateau, and having the Wahsatch range on the east, is what is called The Great Basin, which extends over Nevada, western Utah, and southern Oregon. Its lower portions are more than 4,000 feet above the level of the sea. It contains numerous salt water lakes, that have no outlet, the most important of which is the Great Salt Lake of Utah. Farther east, between the lofty Wahsatch range and the Rocky Mountains proper, is the Colorado plateau, which is from 2,000 to 3,000 feet higher than the Great Basin. On the east- ern border of this plateau the Rocky Moun- tains attain their greatest elevation, and here are more than two hundred peaks that rise to an altitude of thirteen or fourteen thousand feet above the level of the sea. These mountains, piercing the blue sky With their eternal cones of ice, — The torrents dashing from on high, O'er rock and crag and precipice, — Change not, but still remain as ever, Unwasting, deathless, and sublime, And will remain while lightnings quiver, Or stars the hoary summits climb, Or rolls the thunder-chariot of eternal time. —Albert Pike. A little further north, in the northwest THE UNITED STATES. J 9 corner of Wyoming Territory, is the Yel- lowstone National Park, from seven to eight thousand feet above the sea level, and hemmed in by mountain ranges from two thousand to four thousand feet higher, that are covered with perpetual snow. No other portion of the globe so abounds in natural curiosities. Its numerous spouting geysers, its lake, its thousands of hot springs, its waterfalls, its grand canon more than 350 feet high — all, combined, have given to this region its well-merited name — the " Won- derland of America." III. The Mississippi Valley System. Most of the states lying between the Rocky Mountains on the west and the Appalachian chain on the east, belong to the great Mississippi Valley System, as nearly all of them are mostly or wholly drained by the Mississippi River and its tributaries. From this large group we must except Michigan on the north, and Alabama and Texas on the south, as the drainage of the former is into the Great Lakes, and of the latter into the Gulf of Mexico direct ; while New York divides her tribute between the Lakes and the Atlantic; and Ohio is drained into Lake Erie and the Mississippi. The Mississippi River itself, which claims the first rank among the rivers of America, is the distinguishing feature of the region occupied by the Central states ; and so many are the advantages derived trom it that, aided by a fertile soil and genial climate, it has necessarily moulded, to a great ex- tent, the character of the industries and resources of the vast and growing popula- tion gathered there. Its superiority over other great rivers of the continent was rec- ognized by the Indians, who called it "The Father of Waters." Its source has been traced to Itasca Lake, a clear, deep, and beautiful sheet of water about eight miles long, and 130 miles northwest of the head of Lake Superior, whence, after a general southerly course of more than 2,600 miles, including the wind- ings of the stream, it falls into the Gulf of Mexico about 100 miles below New Orleans. Taken in connection with the Missouri, its most northern and principal tributary, which ought to be considered a part of the Missis- sippi, it is navigable 1,700 miles in a direct course from its mouth. Its entire course, with the Missouri, exceeds 4,000 miles, and, with the exception, perhaps, of the Nile, it is the longest river in the world. Several great rivers are its tributaries. Besides the Missouri, its principal affluents on the west are the Arkansas and Red rivers, and on the east, the Ohio. The Missouri and the Ohio are navigable to great dis- tances from their mouths, and the Arkansas and Red rivers through the lowlands. So level is the country through which the Mississippi itself flows, that from its source to its mouth there is nothing like a moun- tain to obstruct the view, and the average descent is less than eight inches to the mile. The Missouri, from the Great Falls, almost at the base of the Rocky Mountains and about 2,500 miles by its course from the Mississippi, has an average descent of only ten inches to the mile ; and the Ohio, from Pittsburgh to the mouth of the river, has a descent of less than five inches to the mile. The Great Basin drained by the Missis- sippi and its tributaries has three marked divisions. Centrally is the lowland valley, of varying width and of the richest alluvial formation, including the rich valleys extend- ing from it far up its tributary streams. Westward of the central lowlands are the vast upland plains of the continent, that stretch away more than seven hundred miles to the base of the Rocky Mountains, in a succession of gentle swells like the waves of the ocean when the winds are at GEOGRAPHY, INDUSTRIES AND RESOURCES. rest. These plains are made up, to a great extent, of rolling prairies, seemingly as boundless as the sea, over which millions of buffalo once roamed wild and fearless, but which are fast dwindling to timid, watchful, wary herds, ever scenting danger, and taking flight at the approach of man. The Plains. Room ! Room to turn round in, to breathe and be free, And to grow to be giant, to sail as at sea With the speed of the wind on a steed with his mane To the wind, without pathway or route or a rein. Room ! Room to be free where the white-bordered sea Blows a kiss to a brother as boundless as he ; And to east and to west, to the north and the sun, Blue skies and brown grasses are welded as on';, And the buffalo come like a cloud on the plain, Pouring on like the tide of a storm-driven main, And the lodge of the hunter, to friend or to foe Offers rest ; and unquestioned you come or you go. Vast plains of America ! Seas of wild lands ! I turn to you, lean to you, lift up my hands. —Joaquin Miller. Eastwardly of the bottom lands of the Mississippi are the rich upland plains of Ohio, Kentucky and Tennessee. The whole valley system is a region of prairies and plains, sloping from the mountain ranges on the east and the west to the Mississippi, with a gentle southern decline to the Gulf of Mexico. This extensive region is acknowledged to be one of the largest and finest river basins in the world, having an area of a million and a quarter square miles, and only exceeded in extent by the valley of the Amazon, while the entire length of its river system, all centering in one broad and deep flowing stream, is estimated at 40,000 miles. Not only in the extent of fertile territory drained, but in the vast flood of waters which it carries down to the Gulf, the Mississippi has no equal among the rivers of Europe. Ay, gather Europe's royal rivers all, — The snow-swelled Neva, 1 with an empire "s weight On her broad breast, she yet may overwhelm ; — Dark Danube," hurrying, as by foe pursued. Through shaggy forests and from palace wall?, To hide its terrors in a sea of gloom ; — The castled Rhine, 3 whose vine-crowned waters flow, The fount of fable and the source of song ; — The rushing Rhone, 4 in whose cerulean depths The loving sky seems wedded with the wave; — The yellow Tiber," choked with Roman spoils, A dying miser shrinking neath his gold ; — And Seine, where Fashion glasses fairest forms; — And Thames," that bears the riches of the world ; — Gather their waters in one ocean mass, — Our Mississippi, rolling proudly on Would sweep them from its path, or swallow-up, Like Aaron's rod, these streams of fame and song. — Sarah J. Hale. Forty years ago, a European geographer, writing of the Mississippi River, said : " Though civilization has only begun to strike its roots and scatter its seeds in the wide regions through which it flows, it is already a well-frequented channel of com- munication. J3ut the boldest flights of imagination can hardly figure what the Mississippi will be when the rich and fruitful countries on its banks, and those o\ its afflu- ents, are all fully peopled, and making use of its waters to send abroad their surplus products, and to import those of oiher countries and climates." — McCulloch. For more than a hundred years, emigra- tion from our Eastern States, and lrom the 1 Neva, the river on whose hanks is St. Petersburg, the capital of Russia. 2 Danube, the great river of Central Europe, that flows into the Black Sea. 3 Rhine, the principal river of Germany, that flows through extensive vineyards, past ruined castles, and is visited annually by a multitude of tourists. 4 Rhone, the principal river of Southern Europe, rises in the mountains of Switzerland, and atler descending 4,000 feet enters the Lake of Geneva, whence it flows to the Mediterranean. 5 Tiber, the river on whose banks stands Rome, once called the '•Mistress of the World." 6 Seine (san), the river on whose banks stands Paris, the centre of fashion, the capital of France. 7 Thames (temz), the principal river of England, but not the largest, on whose banks stands the city of London. THE UNITED STATES. Old World, has been swarming to these Western plains, planting there the towns and cities, the arts, and the industries, of civilized life. And still there is room. Our country has thrown wide open its portals, and given to the needy and the worthy of foreign lands a generous welcome to our shores, such as was never proffered to the stranger before. And here the native and the foreign born become one people, and have one common country. " We see the white sails on the main, we see, on all the strands, Old Europe's exiled household's crowd, and toil's un- numbered hands — From Hessenland and Frankenland,from Danube, Drave, and Rhine, From Netherland — the sea-born land, and the Norseman's hills of pine, From Thames, and Shannon, and their isles — and never, sure, before, Invading host such greeting found upon a stranger shore. " They learn to speak one language ; they raise one flag adored Over one people evermore, and guard it with the sword. In festive hours they look upon its starry folds above, And hail it with a thousand songs of glory and of love. Old airs of many a fatherland still mingle with the cheer, To make the love more loving still, the glory still more dear." " Who does not see," says Guyot, " that here, in this great valley of the Mississippi, is the character and the fortune of America; while the countries of mountains and pla- teaus seem destined to play only a second- ary part ? " There is, indeed, little reason to doubt that, as — " Westward the star of empire takes its way," the Valley of the Mississippi is destined to become the great centre of the population, civilization, and wealth of the New World. 4. The Appalachian Range, and Atlantic Slope. The Appalachian Range of mountains makes the nearest approach to the sea in the Highlands of the Hudson, about thirty miles from New York, while in South Caro- lina and Georgia it is about two hundred miles from the coast. This system com- prises all the mountain ranges and their plateaus between the Atlantic Ocean and the Mississippi River ; but the principal ridges of which it is composed have received different names in different states. The most important of these are White Moun- tains in New Hampshire ; Green Mountains in Vermont ; Adirondacks, Catskill, and Highlands in New York ; Alleghanies in Pennsylvania ; Blue Ridge, with its many branches, in Virginia ; the Black Mountain group in North Carolina, and the Smoky Mountain range between North Carolina and Tennessee. Eastward of the Appalachian range is what is called the Atlantic Slope, which is generally hilly in the New England States ; and here the land, with the exception of the river valleys, is better adapted to grazing than to grain. Bordering the coast, south of the Hudson is, first, a lowland belt ex- tending as far as the Mississippi River, and including the entire peninsula of Florida. The northern section of this belt is generally sandy to some distance from the coast, throughout New Jersey, Maryland, and Virginia : farther south it is more swampy, with frequent sandy and alluvial tracts, which embrace some of the richest rice lands of the South. Between this lowland belt and the mountains is a moderately elevated table-land or plateau, admirably adapted to the cultivation of the cereals cotton, and tobacco. The rivers of the Atlantic slope, which are numerous, run mostly at right angles from the mountain ranges. The Hudson GEOGRAPHY, INDUSTRIES AND RESOURCES. River, with its Mohawk branch, is the only one that is not turned aside from its course by the rocky barriers of the Appalachian chain. 5. Climate. As a general rule, the higher the latitude of a place, the greater the elevation above the sea, and the farther it is from large bodies of water, especially the ocean, the colder is the climate : but these positions are far from being universally true ; for climate is modified by numerous other causes, such as ranges of mountains, prevailing winds, ocean currents, sandy deserts, — and by causes addi- tional that are little understood. North America presents some striking exceptions to the general principles that regulate the variations of temperature. It is well known that an eastern is gen- erally warmer than a western exposure, and as the great slopes of the American conti- nent are to the east, and those of Europe to the west, we should expect to find the former warmer than the latter. But, on the contrary, our Atlantic states have a tem- perature about ten degrees colder than countries in the same latitude in Western Europe ; and if it were not for the modera- ting influences of the Gulf Stream, our Atlantic coast would be colder than it is. California, though sloping to the west, has a much milder climate than the Atlantic states in the same latitude. In localities mostly surrounded by water, the extremes of temperature are usually much less than in inland countries. Thus, in Novia Scotia, which is almost an island, it is much cooler in summer and warmer in winter than in the same latitude in Central Canada ; but the rule does not hold good as between the Atlantic coast generally and the elevated plains at the base of the Rocky Mountains. Thus, at Boston, in clcse prox- imity to the ocean, the mean annual tem- perature is two or three degrees colder than in the same latitude at Fort Laramie in Wyoming, 4,500 feet above the sea ; and at St. Johns, in Newfoundland, it is ten degrees colder than at Fort Benton in northern Montana, 2,700 feet above the sea. Baltimore is in the same latitude as Denver in Colorado, and both have about the same average temperature for the year, and. yet Denver is 6,000 feet higher than Baltimore. So, also, the heat is found to increase gradually from the Mississippi River west- ward, over the ascending highlands, up to the very base of the Rocky Mountains, and, contrary to the general rule, the ele- vated inland regions are here warmer than the eastern sections on the coast. Another illustration will show, still more forcibly, the great variation that is some- times found between the lines of average heat and the lines of latitude. Starting from the Atlantic coast in the 42d degree of latitude, with the average of summer heat on Long Island, the degree of heat that prevails there extends westward in a line through Pittsburgh, Cleveland and Chicago; thence the line rises quite rapidly in a northwest direction, crosses the north- ern boundary line of the United States, passes through Manitoba, and rises to the 5 2d degree of latitude in the valley of the Saskatchewan River, and renders this west- ern portion of the Dominion of Canada one of the best wheat regions in the world, while a vast extent of country farther east and south, in the same dominion, is wrap- ped in the snows and frosts of almost per- petual winter. Although the Great Lakes on our north- ern border render the adjacent country cooler in summer and warmer in winter than it otherwise would be, yet there are no mountain ranges immediately north of them to intercept the cold blasts from the ice fields of British America, that sweep THE UNITED STATES. 2 3 across the line at every rise of temperature farther south; and thus we have the chill winds to which our Northern states are so subject, especially in the spring months. 6. Our Railway System. The industries and resources of the country, which are generally treated under the heads, Agriculture, Commerce and Manufactures, will be appropriately consid- ered in connection with the accounts that will be given of the several individual states ; but a fitting introduction to the whole will be found in a brief survey of the wonderfully- rapid growth of our Raihvay System, and the great advance which it has already made. It was in 1826 that the first railway was built in the United States. This was at Quincy, Massachusetts. The road was only four miles in length, and was used for haul- ing large masses of granite by horse-power. When, two years later, a short railroad was begun in Maryland, no one dreamed of using steam upon the road ; but in 1830 the first locomotive for railroad purposes ever used in America for the transportation of passengers, was built by Peter Cooper. The entire weight of this novelty was not over a ton, yet it drew an open car filled with passengers from Baltimore to Ellicott's Mills in Maryland, a distance of thirteen miles, at a speed which reached eighteen miles an hour. By the close of the year 1830, there were 23 miles of railway in use in the United States ; and from this time forward the building of railroads, their improvement in methods of construction, and the improve- ment of cars and locomotives, made rapid progress. Locomotives weighing from 30 to 70 tons are now built ; they often attain a speed of 50 and 60 miles an hour, and it has been estimated that in the year 1886, there were 130,000 miles of railroad in use in the United States, — sufficient to reach more than five times around the earth. The railroads of the Northern and the Atlantic states, and of the Mississippi valley, are now so numerous that it would be difficult to enumerate them, or to show them on the map : but in addition to these there are already several great trunk lines and their branches, that connect the Missis- sippi valley system of roads with the Pacific coast. The principal of these are, 1st, the Northern Pacific, which extends from Duluth, at the western extremity of Lake Superior, to Puget Sound and the Columbia River: 2d, the Central and Union Pacific, which extends from Omaha on the Missouri River to San Francisco : 3d, the Southern Pacific, which extends from San Francisco southward, through Los Angeles, and into New Mexico, and thence, under another name, in a northeasterly direction to Kan- sas City on the Missouri, above St. Louis ; while two great lines branch from it south- ward, and run to New Orleans. Our numerous railroads already form an intricate net work, radiating all over the land wherever the resources of the country invite them, thus reaching nearly every important town, and, literally, binding our vast country together with bands of iron. All the states of our Union, however great their extent, — however widely separated and seemingly diverse their interests, are thus brought into one compact neighborhood of mutual dependence and good will. We no longer think of Chicago as a thousand miles from New York, or of New Orleans as a thousand and six hundred miles from Boston ; but we speak of the one as but twenty-four hours distant, and the Bostonian thinks of his friends in New Orleans as only forty hours away. Railroads, telegraphs and telephones, have already worked a great revolution in modern modes of thought, as well as in business relations. 24 MAP OF MAINE. Notf. — When the name of the County cannot conveniently be inserted, each County is designated by a number corresponding to the number attached to the name in the column of Counties. COUNTIES. i. Androscoggin. 9. Oxford. 2. Arcostock. 10. Penobscot. 3. Cumberland. 11. Piscataquis. 4. Franklin. 12. Sagadahoc. 5 Hancock. 13. Somerset. 6. Kenebec. 14. Waldo. 7. Knox. 15. Washington. 8. Lincoln. 16. York. 2 5 QUESTIONS ON THE MAP. Bound Maine. — What is its capital, and how situated? Where is Ouoddy Head ? Kittery Point ? What counties border on New Brunswick? On the Province of Quebec ? On New Hampshire ? What eight counties on the Atlantic coast? What are the four interior counties? I. Mountains and Forests. — [p. 26.] — Of what mountain chain do the Maine Mountain groups form a part ? What is the most eastern of the peaks in Maine? Name other principal peaks. Which way from Mars Hill is Sugar Loaf Mt. ? Which way from the latter is Mt. Katahdin ? Where are Mts. Abraham and Saddleback? II. Rivers, Lakes and Valleys. — [p. 27.] What rivers drain the northern part of Maine ? Into what do they flow? Where is the mouth of the St. John River ? J What five principal rivers drain the southern part of the state ? What is their general course ? What large lake in the central part of the state ? What two Mts. near its eastern shore ? Where are the Rangeley Lakes ? Which one of these lies partly in New Hampshire? Where are the Schoodic Lakes ? [p. 28.] — What is the largest river of Maine ? What long lake does it pass through? Into what bay does it empty? 2 Where is Old Town ? Bangor ? Belfast ? 2 Castine? 2 [p. 30.] — What large lake is the principal source of Kennebec River ? Where is Dead River ? Where is Augusta ? 3 Waterville ? Skowhegan ? Norridgewock ? What towns on the river below Augusta ? 3 What large river enters the Kennebec near its mouth? 3 What lakes are the principal source of the Androscoggin ? Where is Lewiston ? 3 Auburn ? 3 Brunswick ? 3 Where is the Saco River? 3 Where does it rise ? Ill Coast Line, Harbors and Islands. [p. 32.] — Where is Passamaquoddy Bay? 4 What other bays on the coast? Where are Calais (kal'is) and Eastport? 4 What other towns on and near the coast ? Where is Mount Desert Isle? 2 What bay borders it on the east? 2 Principal islands in Pen- obscot Bay ? 2 Where is Rockland ? 2 [p. 34.]— Where is Portland? 3 What other towns on Casco Bay? 3 Where is Harpswell? 3 [p. 34.] — Where is Pemaquid Point ? 3 Mt. Agamenticus ? Where is York county ? Oxford? Aroostock? Washington ? 1 See Map p. 17. - See, also, Map p. 33. 3 See, also, Map p. 34. 4 See, also, Map p. 32. CHAPTER I. — MAINE. Far in the sunset's mellow glory, Far in the daybreak's pearly bloom, Fringed by ocean's foamy surges, Belted in by woods of gloom, Stretch thy soft, luxuriant borders, Smile thy shores, in hill and plain, Flower-enamelled, ocean-girdled, Green bright shores of Maine. Rivers of surpassing beauty From thy hemlock woodlands flow, — Androscoggin and Penobscot, Saco, chilled by northern snow; These from many a lowly valley Thick by pine trees shadowed o'er, Sparkling from their ice-cold tributes To the surges of thy shore. 26 GEOGRAPHY, INDUSTRIES AND RESOURCES. Bays resplendent as the heaven, Starred and gemmed by thousand isles, Gird thee, — Casco, with its islets, Quoddy with its dimpled smiles ; O'er them swift the fisher's shallop And tall ships their wings expand, While the smoke-flag of the steamer Flaunteth out its cloudy streamer, Bound unto a foreign strand. Bright from many a rocky headland, Fringed by sands that shine like gold, Gleams the lighthouse white and lonely, Grim as some baronial hold. Bright by many an ocean valley Shaded hut and village shine ; Roof and steeple, weather-beaten, Stained by ocean's breath of brine. — Isaac McLellan. Maine, the " Pine Tree State," is the extreme northeastern state of the Union, having for its northern and eastern boundaries the British possessions of Canada and New Brunswick. In extent of territory Maine is a little larger than the other five New England States combined, and embraces twenty million acres distributed over only sixteen counties. Its greatest length is 303 miles, from north to south, and its extreme width on the direct coast line, from Quoddy Head on the east to Kittery Point on the west, is about 218 miles. I. MOUNTAINS The surface of the state is broken and uneven — rocky and comparatively level near the coast, and hilly toward the interior — ■ having tracts of great fertility adjoining others of but little agricultural value. Groups of detached mountains, that are a part of the White Mountain Chain of New England, run northeasterly through the centre of the State about 160 miles, and terminate in the isolated peak, Mars Hill, on the borders of New Brunswick. This mountainous belt or plateau, the great cen- tral water-shed of Maine, is nearly 60 miles in width, and has an average eleva- tion of about 2,00c feet above the sea. Among its prominent peaks are Saddleback, Bigelow, Abraham, Spencer, Katahdin, and Sugar Loaf just east of the river Seboo'is, whence no less than fifty mountain summits and seventeen lakes may be seen. Katahdin, the highest elevation in the state.is a grand solitude of perpendicular walls of bare granite, 5,385 feet high, encircled for miles by conical granitic peaks. Whenaclear view from its summit can be obtained, the country is spread out before the eye, west and south, for scores of miles, revealing "an AND FORESTS. immeasurable forest that looks like a firm grass sward, and countless lakes that have been compared to a mirror broken into a thousand fragments, that, widely scattered over the grass, reflect the full blaze of the sun." The elevation of Maine's great central plateau secures to the state a large and uniform amount of rainfall, a moist climate, and freedom from droughts, that give it, at all seasons, an extraordinary proportion of water. The wilderness, or unsettled portion, covers nearly the whole northern half of the state. It consists of a vast stretch of pine, spruce, hemlock, cedar, beech, maple, and other forest trees, that yield immense quan- tities of valuable lumber, and afford shelter for the moose, bear, wolf, and various fur-bearing animals, the beaver among the number ; of numerous lakes, ponds, and rapid streams, that abound in fine salmon and other trout ; and of occasional clearings and bare mountain-tops. But the striking feature of the whole is the extent of forest, the proportion of woodland to the entire area being greater than in any other state east of the Mississippi. Referring to the MAINE. continuousness of the forest, and to its soli- tudes, Thoreau says : " It is even more grim and wild than you had anticipated, — a damp and intricate wilderness, in the spring every- where wet and miry. The aspect of the country, indeed, is universally stern and savage, excepting the distant views of the forest from hills, and the lake prospects, which are mild and civilizing. This is not the artificial forest of an English king, — a royal preserve merely. Here prevail no forest laws but those of Nature. The aborigines have never been dispossessed, nor Nature disforested." 1 II. RIVERS, LAKES, AND VALLEYS— TOWNS AND CITIES. It will be seen by the map that the WalMoostook' 1 and Aroo'stook rivers and their tributaries drain all the northern slopes of Maine's central water-shed into the St. John, and thence, through New Bruns- wick, into the Atlantic. The valleys of Maine on and near the St. John River are quite fertile, but most of the extensive region in the northern half of the state is rugged, and incapable of cultivation. South of the water-shed the drainage is by the five basins of the rivers St. Croix, Penobscot, Kennebec, Androscoggin and Saco. Two or three thousand lakes and ponds dot the surface of the state, and many of these form the headwaters of the rivers, or contribute to their volume on their passage to the sea. The largest of these lakes, Moosehead, is a deep body of water, 35 miles long and from 2 to 12 miles wide, much broken by islands, and with densely wooded and ele- vated shores of irregular outline that present wild and varied scenery. It is about 1,000 feet above the sea. Spencer Mountain, near the east shore, rises to a height of 4,000 feet, and Mount Kin'eo nearly 1,200 feet. The latter is a solid mass of hornstone, a variety of quartz resembling flint, that is said to be the largest mass of this stone known in the world. It was probably the great quarry from which the Indians of New England obtained the material for their arrow-heads, tomahawks and other imple- ments. 1 In a part of its course also c died St. John. Moosehead Lake and Vicinity. Certain Indian legends relating to these places have left their record in names still retained. The imaginative powers of the Eastern Indians created adventures in which the moose, 2 the largest animal of their country, bore a prominent part. They say that in olden times, the moose were too large, and that a great Indian hunter under- 1 " In the Maine Woods," hy Henry D. Thoreau. 2 The Moose, Moose Deer, or American Elk, the largest animal of the d^er kind, and as tall as a horse, once roamed from the Carolinas to the polar regions ; but its southern limit now is the northern borders of Maine and New York. It is an awkward, clumsy, and disproportioned animal: it has an immensely large head, often more than two feet in length, with branching, palmated horns, that have an expanse, when fully grown, in the fifth year, ot nearly six feet, and a weight varying from 45 to 70 pounds, and that of the animal from eight to twelve hundred pounds. Length of tail from six to ten inches. Its sense of smell is very acute, and the breaking of the smallest twig is sufficient to startle it from its hiding place. The female has no horns. Color of the moose, ashy gray, darker in winttr, and in old age nearly black. 28 GEOGRAPHY, INDUSTRIES AND RESOURCES. took to make them smaller. To this end, taking his pack and kettle, and his weapons, he started on a hunting excursion. Over- taking a big moose, the head of the tribe, he threw away his pack and dropped the kettle in his swift pursuit, and having at length killed the moose — Kineo Mountain — he reduced his size by cutting slices from his body, which he cooked and ate. After that all the moose in the forest grew smaller and smaller. Confirmatory of the legend, it is said that Mount Kineo, when seen from the southern side, looks not unlike an immense moose in a reclining posture, — that the streaks of lean and fat, on the side of the animal, where the hunter cut his steak, can be plainly seen ; and that Moosehead Lake, with its far-reaching arms, shows where the antlers of the moose fell, and left their im- press in the soil, since filled with water. Hence the name, Moosehead. Further still, to carry out the legend, the most easterly of the peaks of Spencer Mountain still retains the name Sabota'wan, "the pack " which the Indian threw away, while the western peak is Kotad'jo, "the kettle." From the top of Mount Kineo a fine prospect opens before the beholder. There is Kotad'jo, on the east, like a great rounded kettle, and near by is the cone-shaped Sabota'wan ; while, below, are the waters of the lake, edged, for miles, with the unbroken forest green ; and at the foot of the moun- tain, on a level plat of land jutting out into the lake, is the white cluster of Mount Kineo House and its dependencies, now a pleasant summer resort. Among the more important lakes, be- sides Moosehead, are the Rangeley Lakes, 1 in the Western part of the state, that have 1 The principal lakes of this group are Rangeley, Cupsuptic , Mooselucmagu7itic , Molechunkamunk , Lower Richardson and I 'mbagog. an elevation of about 1,250 feet, and furnish continuous water communication for 50 miles, terminating on the south in Lake Umbagog, which lies partly in New Hamp- shire ; — also the Schoodic or Grand Lakes, about 25 miles by 4 in extent, that have their outlet in the St. Croix River. About 25 miles south of these is^ another chain of lakes, also flowing into the St. Croix. In the southwest lies Lake Sebago, 14 miles by 1 1 in extent, the source of the water supply for the city of Portland. /. The Penobscot River. The largest and most important river is the Penobscot, that rises near the Canada frontier, where " Slow sweep its dark and gathering floods, Arched over by the ancient woods, Which Time, in those dim solitudes, Wielding the dull axe of Decay, Alone hath ever shorn away." At first the Penobscot runs northeasterly; it then turns south and expands into Ches- un'cook Lake, two miles by twenty in ex- tent ; thence, some miles below, it enters a large group of lakes, 3 and finally after re- ceiving the East Branch from the north, the Mattawamkeag from the east, and the Pis- cataquis and other affluents from the west, it falls into Penobscot Bay. Its total length is nearly 300 miles. The Penobscot basin is estimated to con- tain 8,200 square miles, or 5,890,000 acres, and at many points the river furnishes valu- able water power, notably at Oldtown, 12 miles north of Bangor, where is probably the largest sawmill in the world. Here the Penobscot encloses Oldtown Island, on which has long existed a village of the Penobscot Indians. The river has many other islands, several of them hundreds of acres in extent, and is navigable for large vessels sixty miles - The most important of these are Femiduiu'cook, Millino'kett and Twin Lakes MAINE. 29 from its mouth, to the city of Bangor, where the tide rises 17 feet owing to the wedge- like shape of the river below. This import- ant city, the second in Maine in population, has a capacious harbor, is the great lumber centre of the state, and second only to Chicago in the extent of its lumber busi- ness. Belfast, 30 miles from the sea, is the winter port of the Penobscot, and an im- portant ship-building city. Across the bay from Belfast, on a peninsula, is the wealthy town of Castine, a favorite summer resort by reason of its seclusion, its heroic memories, its fine boating and fishing facilities, and the salubrity of its sea-breezes. The history of Castine is said to have more ro- mantic interest than that of any other New England town ; and its soil abounds with the relics of five national occupations, while five naval battles have been fought in its harbor. 1 It was somewhere on the banks of the romantic and picturesque Penobscot, proba- bly at the Indian village where Bangor now stands, that the fabulous city " Norembe'ga " was located by the early French fishermen and explorers of Cape Breton, who told big stories of its wealth and magnificence. The winding stream bore many an adventurer in search of this Northern Eldorado ; and in 1604 Champlain, the French voyager, sailed up the river on the same errand. But he found no evidence of civilization, 1 There was a Puritan fort at Castine as early as 1626, and the place was long a subject of contention between the French, the Dutch, and the English, who repeatedly fought (or its possession. In 1667 the Fiench Baron de Castine came here, married the daughter of Madockawando, Sachem of the Tarratines, and be- came the received apostle of Catholicism among the surrounding tribes. For thirty years he was the relentless enemy of the F.nglish. His son by the Indian princess became chief of the Penobscot tribes, and long ruled his wdd subjects with much wisdom, until in 1721, he was taken prisoner and carried to Boston, from which place he soon went to France to take possession of his paternal estates. His lineal descendants governed the remnant of the Tarratines down to the middle of the present century. During the war of the Revolution, in 1779, the British fortified Castine, and in the same year utterly destroyed a Massachusetts fleet that was sent against them. They held the place until the conclusion of peace, in 1783 ; and they captured it again in the war of 1812. save a cross, very old and mossy, that marked the burial-place of a nameless traveler, and he wisely concluded that those who told of the city had never seen it, — that it was but a shadow and a dream. The Phantom City. Midsummer's crimson moon, Above the hills like some night opening rose, Uplifted, pours its beauty down the vale Where broad Penobscot flows. And I remember now That this is haunted ground. In ages past Here stood the storied Norembe'ga's walls, Magnificent and vast. The streets were ivory paved, The stately walls were built of golden ore, Its domes outshone the sunset, and full boughs Hesperian fruitage bore. And up this winding flood Has wandered many a sea-tossed daring bark, While eager eyes have scanned the rugged shore, Or pierced the wildwood dark, But watched in vain ; afar They saw the spires gleam golden on the sky, The distant drum-beat heard, or bugle-note Wound wildly, fitfully. Banners of strange device Beckoned from distant heights; yet as the stream Narrowed among the hills, the city fled, — A mystery, — or a dream. — Frances P. Mace, 2. Ihe Kennebec and the Androscoggin Portions of the territory between the Penobscot and Kennebec rivers are exceed- ingly fertile; and the latter river, through- out the greater part of its course, flows through a highly cultivated, populous, and delightful region. Of the great river basins, that of the Kennebec and the Androscoggin are the most remarkable for the extent of their lakes and reservoirs. The Kennebec has its principal source in 3° GEOGRAPHY, INDUSTRIES AND RESOURCES. Moosehead Lake, from which it flows, nearly due south, about 150 miles. The Dead River, one of its largest affluents, forces a passage through the mountainous region of which Mt. Bigelow is the most important summit. Augusta, the state capital, is finely situated on and around the high hills that border both sides of the Kennebec, at the head of tidewater, 43 miles from the sea. Here immense water-power is pro- vided by a dam 584 feet long. Above the capital are Waterville, at Ticonic Falls, the centre of a rich agricultural district and the seat of Colby University, formerly Water- ville College ; Skowhegan, where the river has a perpendicular fall of 28 feet over ragged ledges, with a picturesque island at the crest of the fall; and Norridgewock, a quaint old town, quiet and dreamy, with interesting historical associations, and noted for the beauty of its wooded hills and its charming mountain prospects. There is a hill o'erlooking Norridgewock, Whose summit is a crown of mossy rock, Whereon the daylight lingers ere it dies, When the broad valley in the gloaming lies. Around you are the everlasting hills, Whose presence all your soul with worship^fllls. The distant mountains, purple clad, are grouped Like monarchs, when the golden sun has stooped Down toward his journey's ending in the west, — The amaranthine palace of his rest. Below, the river, like a sheet of glass, Reflects the glories of the clouds which pass, With here a wide stretch, like a lake, revealed By the low level of a fertile field, — And here but hinted at, or half concealed Behind the clustering maples of a grove Where all the day the mocking echoes rove. — Anon. In 1724, Norridgewock, then a famous village of partly civilized Indians, who planned many of the forays that long ter- rorized the white settlers of Maine, was sur- prised and destroyed by a party of rangers, and nearly all the Indians were slain and scalped. Among the noted leaders in the forays that this massacre sought to avenge, was Mogg Megone, a Saco chief, the subject of the poet Whittier's tragic story of that name, in which brief reference is made to that fearful day — " When Norridgewock became the prey Of all unsparing foes." Below the capital are the important cities of Hallowell, noted for its production of oil-cloth and cotton cloths, and for its adjacent granite quarries; 1 Gardiner, the centre of the ice industry on the Kennebec; and Bath, twelve miles from the ocean, the great ship-building depot of the state, and ranking next after New York, Philadelphia, and Baltimore, in this important industry. The tonnage of wooden vessels built here, exceeds that of any other port in the United States. A few miles above Bath, at Merrymeet- ing Bay, the Kennebec is joined by the Androscoggin from the west, that has its principal source in Lake Umbagog, the most southerly of the Rangeley Lakes. It has an irregular course in the state of Maine, of nearly 100 miles. At Lewiston, the third 1 Granite quarries. Granite, so abundant in several of the New England States, and long considered the oldest of all rocks, derives its name from its granular (grain-like) appearance. It is a hard, grayish, sometimes reddish, and generally durable rock, com- posed chiefly of the minerals, quartz, and feldspar, with the addition of either mica or hornblende. Pure granite U of great strength, and of vast importance as a building material. It has required a weight of more than twelve tons to crush a half-inch cubic block of pure granite. (See Syenite, p. — .) Quar lying is often done by blasting; but this wastes the rock. Notwithstanding its great strength, granite is easily split. A series of holes is first drilled in the rock, a few inches deep and three or four inches apart, along the line where it is wished to open the stone : two iron wedges, round on one side and flat on the other, are then placed in each hole, and a steel wedge is inserted between their flat sides : the workman then passes along the line, gently tapping each wedge with a hammer, and so repeating the process until the strain causes a crack, and the rock gradually opens. MAINE. 3 1 city of the state in population, and the seat of Bates College, there is a fall of 60 feet in the Androscoggin, within a distance of 200 feet, and the abundant water-power is util- ized by a system of dams costing over one million dollars. Here cotton and woolen goods are the chief manufactures, of which over eleven million dollars worth are turned out annually. Auburn, directly across the river, on the west bank, produces more boots and shoes than any other city in the state. At the prosperous town of Brunswick, the seat of Bowdoin College, and the head of tide-water, 29 miles N. E. of Portland, there is another fall of some 42 feet. j. Saco River. The last of the important rivers of Maine is the Saco, which rises far up in the White Mountains of New Hampshire, and runs an irregular course of about 175 miles to the Atlantic. Its water-power is extensive. The chief of its numerous falls are the " Great Falls," at Hiram, having a descent of 70 feet over several rocky ledges ; " Steep Falls," of twenty feet, at Limington ; " Salmon Falls," at Hollis, 30 feet ; — and, six miles above the river's mouth, at the city of Biddefoi d, which is next to Lewiston in cotton manufactures, with Saco directly opposite, are the " Saco Falls," of 42 feet, where — Far down through the mist of Ihe falling river, Which rises up like an incense ever, The splintered points of the crags are seen, With water howling and vexed between, While the scooping whirl of the pool beneath Seems an open throat, with its granite teeth. — Whittier. That part of the delightful sea beach below the city of Saco, but within its limits, known as Old Orchard Beach, is noted for its admirable driving and bathing facilities. The Saco River is a rapid, crooked stream, easily affected by freshets, that start in the mountains, and frequently cause destructive inundations. From A-gio'chook's 1 granite steeps, Fair Saco rolls in chainless pride, Rejoicing as it laughs and leaps Down the gray mountain's rugged side ; — The stern rent crags and tall dark pines Watch that young pilgrim flashing by, While close above them frowns or shines, The black torn cloud, or deep blue sky. Soon gathering strength it swiftly takes Through Bartlett's vales 2 its tuneful way, Or hides in Conway's 3 fragrant brakes, Retreating from the glare of day ; — Now, full of vigorous life, it springs From the strong mountain's circling arms, And roams, in wide and lucid rings, Among green Fryeburg's 4 woods and farms. Here with low voice it comes, and calls For tribute from some hermit lake, And here it wildly foams and falls, Bidding the forest echoes wake; — Now sweeping on it runs its race By mound and mill in perfect glee ; — Now welcomes, with its pure embrace, The vestal waves of Ossipee. 5 At last, with loud and solemn roar, Spurning each rocky ledge and bar, It sinks where, on the sounding shore, The broad Atlantic heaves afar ; — There, on old ocean's faithful breast, Its wealth of waves it proudly flings, And there its weary waters rest, Clear as they left their crystal springs. — yames G. Lyons. 1 Ag-i-o'chook, one of the Indian names for the White Moun- tains, meaning " the Snowy Forehead and Home of the Great Spirit." 2 Bartlett' s Vales, the valley of the Saco. through Bartlett Township, Carroll Co., N. H. 3 Conway, a summer resort of Carroll Co., N. H., in Conway township. 4 Fryeburg, a village and summer resort on the Saco, in Frye- burg Township, Oxford Co , Maine. 5 Ossipee River, the outlet of Ossipee Lake, in Carroll Co., N. H., flows eastward, and enters the Saco River in Maine, west of Sebago Pond. 32 GEOGRAPHY, INDUSTRIES AND RESOURCES. III. COAST LINE, HARBORS, AND ISLANDS. The coast of Maine is about 218 miles in the vicinity are Calais (kal'is), near the extent, in a straight line ; but it is so in- dented by bays and inlets, that the length of the actual shore line is nearly 3,000 miles. It abounds in more good harbors than are found on all the coast from Sandy Hook to Mexico, and consequently has unusual facilities for commerce. On such a coast, where there are not only so many islands and narrow passages, but numerous rocky islets also, many lighthouses are needed, and more than thirty are now in use, to guide the mariner to and from the mainland. /. From Passamaquoddy to Portland. Among the largest bays are Passama- quoddy, at the eastern extremity, lying partly in New Brunswick, and Machias, Pleasant, Frenchman's, Penobscot, Casco, and Saco. Passamaquoddy is seldom ob- structed by ice, and has sufficient depth for the largest vessels. Cod, herring, and mouth of the St. Croix, second only to Bangor in the lumber trade, and Eastport, the port of entry of the Eastern District of Maine. The town is' on Moose Island, with high hills in the rear, which overlook the blue waters of a magnificent bay dotted with thickly wooded islands. The pleasant village and seaport of Lubec, four miles south of Eastport, and the easternmost town of the United States, is separated from the British island of Campo Bello by a channel only half a mile wide. Quoddy Head on the Maine coast, near by, and Grand Menon Island belonging to New Brunswick, are favorite resorts for excursion parties. The lumber trade, fishing, and ship- building, are the chief industries of all the towns and cities on or near the coast, of which the important ones, not already men- tioned, are Machias, Ellsworth, Camden, Rockland, Wiscasset, Boothbay, and Port- land. Ellsworth is one of the most thriving cities in the state, and Camden and Rock- land, on the west shore of Penobscot Bay, are the centres of the important granite and lime industries. 1 Wiscasset is noted for its fine scenery, and is much frequented as a Map. Passamaquoddy Bay and Vicinity. mackerel are plentiful. The tide here rises twenty-five feet. The important places in half barrels of lime annually. 1 Lime is a white alkaline earth, an oxide of the mineral cal- cium, usually obtained by exposing common limestone to a strong red heat in a limekiln, so as to expel its carbonic acid. It is then very caustic, and is called quicklime. When this lime is being slaked, by the application of water, of which it absorbs a large quantity, a high degree of heat is produced, and the lime crumbles into a fine powder, when it may be mixed with sand and water and formed into a mortar that is used for cementing bricks, stone, etc., for building purposes. It is also extensively used as a manure to fertilize land. The uses of lime when combined with various other substances, forming what are calJed chemical salts, are very numerous. When quicklime is exposed to the air for a few days, it absorbs sufficient moisture to reduce it to a powder; and when barrels of lime get wet, sufficient heat is sometimes produced to set buildings on fire. The limekilns of Rockland produce about a million and a- MAINE. 33 summer resort. Boothbay is very attractive, with islands in front guarding its noble har- bor, in which, during long storms, several hundred fishing vessels sometimes take refuge. Between Frenchman's Bay and the Penobscot, and also within the latter, are the principal islands of Maine, including Mount Desert, 14 miles long by 8 broad, a popular summer resort, where locality on the Atlantic coast of the two Americas, except Rio Janeiro, — combining, as some one has said, the charms of " the Isles of Shoals and Wachu'sett, Nahant and Monadnock, Newport and the Catskills." The island has thirteen distinct mountain peaks, separated by valleys of great wild- ness and beauty, where nestle numerous charming lakes, into which flow brooks of the clearest and coldest water. Map of Penobscot " Rocks, left austere by winter, laugh again With sweet and happy hearts at summertide." Visitors mostly congregate at Bar Har- bor, a village of hotels and cottages in the midst of the finest land and water views, near the northeast extremity of the island. The scenery of this island is considered more magnificent than that of any other Bay and Vicinity. Among the stupendous cliffs that line the island's southeast coast, the most re- markable are Schooner Head, with a white formation on its seaward side resembling a schooner under sail ; and Great Head, the highest headland between Cape Cod and New Brunswick. The highest of the peaks is Green Mountain, which rises 1,762 feet above the sea. The view from this emi- 34 GEOGRAPHY, INDUSTRIES AND RESOURCES. nence is superb. Twenty miles out at sea, and bearing a noted lighthouse, is Desert Rock, that, Abrupt and bare Lifts its gray turrets in the air,— Seen from afar, like some stronghold Built by the ocean Kings of old ; while all along the coast, Beneath the westward turning eye, A thousand wooded islands lie, — Gems of the waters! — with each hue Of brightness set in ocean's blue. Each bears aloft its tuft of trees, And, with the motion of each breeze, Changing and blent, confused and tossed, The brighter with the darker crossed, Their thousand tints of beauty glow Down in the restless waves below, And tremble in the sunny skies As if, from waving bough to bough, Flitted the birds of Paradise. — Whit tier. Penobscot Bay, with its Winding shores Of narrow capes, and isles which lie Slumbering to ocean's lullaby — is the largest bay on the coast. Including Belfast Bay, at its northern extremity, it is 35 miles long, and about 20 miles in width. Its most important islands are Deer, Long, Fox, and Dix with its fine granite quarries ; 1 while, fronting the entrance, 20 miles south- east of Rockland, is Matinicus Island with its clustering islets, — and, a few miles further south, is Matinicus rock, where are two stone lighthouses, that stand off at this distance from the coast like grim sentinels, as if to give warning of approaching danger. On a rocky promontory a few miles east from Boothbay, is the site of the ancient l This island is a vast mass of granite, where vessels load directly lrom the sides of the ledges. It furnished the stone for the New York Post-Office, and the immense columns for the U. S. Treasury at Washington. colony of Pemaquid, that has great historic interest. It was the first permanent Eng- lish settlement in Maine (1625); and in 1674 it was called " the metropolis of New England." During the Indian wars it was frequently plundered, and twice destroyed, but re-settled ; and in 181 3, a few miles off the Point, the British brig " Boxer" struck her colors to the American brig " Enter- prise," after a sharp conflict of only forty- eight minutes. On the now deserted Point have been unearthed ancient fortifications, streets, cellars, wharves, and a burial- ground which a poet describes under the title — God's Acre at Old Pemaquid. Where ocean breezes sweep Across the restless deep It stands, with headstones quaint with sculpture rude, Its green turf thickly sown With dust of lives unknown, Like withered leaves on autumn pathway strewed. Willow nor cypress bough Shadow the dead below, Nor mournful yew, by summer's soft breath stirred ; The dawn, and twilight's fall, Never made musical, By carol clear of some sweet-throated bird. Not from the sunny earth, Her tones of sylvan mirth, Her flowery meads, and plains of waving corn, But from the treacherous waves, Their rocks and sparry caves, Unto their rest were these sad sleepers borne. Perchance they had their home Far from the crested foam, And blue seas rippling o'er the pink-lipped shells, Some green vale far away, Where sweet-voiced waters play, And the bee murmurs in the wild-flower's bells. O churchyard drear and lone ! Haunted by voices gone MAINE. 35 And silent feet, and lives like rose-leaves shed ; Thy dust shall yet arise, When from our earthly skies Mists fade away and seas give up their dead. Anonymous. 2. The City of Portland — Casco Bay. The commercial metropolis of Maine is to Montreal and Detroit, forms a direct channel for the commerce of the St. Law- rence and of the West. In the winter sea- son, when the navigation of the St. Law- rence is closed, nearly all the Canadian imports and exports pass through Portland, which has then a weekly line of steamers to England. Unsurpassed facilities have given Map of Casco Bay and Vicinity. Portland, on Casco Bay, pleasantly located on an elevated peninsula, and remarkable for its numerous churches, handsome streets and buildings, and expensive and elaborate public improvements. The harbor is one of the safest and best in the country, and numerous railroads have their termini in the city. One of these, the Grand Trunk, this city an extensive ocean commerce and inland trade that are rapidly increasing; while its manufactures, consisting chiefly of heavy iron goods, sugar and petroleum refining 1 , and boots and shoes, have an annual value of about ten million dollars. The canning of fish and vegetables is an 1 See Petroleum , p — . GEOGRAPHY, INDUSTRIES AND RESOURCES. extensive business, and ship-building is still an important industry. Portland is remarkably healthy, and the city and vicinity have many attractions. Casco Bay, extending northeastward some 20 miles, with hundreds of green isles stud- ding its bright waters, is one of the most interesting sections of the coast. The poet Whittier well pictures its varied beauties, and the charms of the adjacent mainland, in these lines. Casco Bay. Nowhere fairer, sweeter, rarer, Does the golden-locked fruit bearer Through his painted woodlands stray, Than where hill-side oaks and beaches Overlook the long blue reaches, Silver coves and pebbled beaches, And green isles of Casco Bay ; Nowhere day, for delay, With a tenderer look beseeches, " Let me with my charmed earth stay." On the grainlands of the mainlands Stands the serried corn like train-bands, Plume and pennon rustling gay ; Out at sea, the islands wooded, Silver birches, golden-hooded, Set with maples, crimson-blooded, White sea-foam and sand-hills gray, Stretch away, far away, Dim and dreary, over-brooded By the hazy autumn day. Gayly chattering to the clattering Of the brown nuts downward pattering, Leap the squirrels red and gray. On the grass-land, on the fallow, Drop the apples, red and yellow, Drop the russet pears and mellow, Drop the red leaves all the day, — And away, swift away, Sun and cloud, o'er hill and hollow Chasing, weave their web of play. — Whittier. On a long narrow peninsula that runs down into Casco Bay is the little town of Harpswell, now a popular summer resort, to which increased interest is given by one of the New England traditions that still clings to it. The early settlers of Harpswell, like those of most of the coast towns, were sea- faring people ; and stories of the perils of the sea, often mingled with superstitious fancies, were common among them. Among many such it is related that a phantom ship — " a sad sea-ghost," used to sail into Harpswell harbor and out again, whatever the wind and tide, whenever a sailor from that port had died, or a ship had gone down at sea. This was evidently intended to notify friends of the loss. We give the tradition as it is related in the following poem : The Dead Ship of Harpswell. What flecks the outer gray beyond The sundown's golden trail ? The white flash of a sea-bird's wing, Or gleam of slanting sail ? Let young eyes watch from Neck and Point, And sea worn elders pray, — The ghost of what was once a ship Is sailing up the bay ! She rounds the headland's bristling pines ; She threads the isle-set bay ; No spur of breeze can speed her on, Nor ebb of tide delay. Old men still walk the isle of On 1 Who tell her date and name, Old shipwrights sit in Freeport- 1 yards Who hewed her oaken frame. What weary doom of baffled quest, Thou sad sea-ghost, is thine ? What makes thee in the haunts of Lome A wonder and a sign ? No foot is on thy silent deck, Upon thy helm no hand ; No ripple hath the soundless wind That smiles thee from the land ! 1 Orr, an island adjacent to Harpswell peninsula, on the east. - Freeport, a ship-building village on Casco Bay, 18 miles N. E. of Portland. MAINE. 37 For never comes the ship to port, Howe'er the breeze may be ; Just when she nears the waiting shore She drifts again to sea. No tack of sail, nor turn of helm, Nor sheer of veering side ; Stern-fore she drives to sea and night, Against the wind and tide. In vain o'er Harpswell Neck the star Of evening guides her in; In vain for her the lamps are lit Within thy tower, Seguin 1 ! In vain the harbor-boat shall hail, In vain the pilot call ; No hand shall reef her spectral sail, Or let her anchor fall. And men shall sigh, and women weep, Whose dear ones pale and pine, And sadly over sunset seas Await the ghostly sign. They know not that its sails are filled By pity's tender breath, Nor see the Angel at the helm Who steers the Ship of Death. Whit tier. In the year 1635, all the territory of Maine between the Kennebec and the Pisca- taqua was purchased by one Ferdinando Gorges, who subsequently became gov- ernor-general of New England. He looked with special interest and pride upon the early settlement of Agam'enticus, now York, on the southwest coast, and, resolving to perpetuate his name, in 1642, with great pomp and ceremony, he erected the little village of a few hundred inhabitants into a city thathe called Gorgeana, — extending the limits over a region of forest on the north side of the inlet, embracing 21 square miles. The name of the quiet little settlement still survives in that of the mountain near the ocean, which serves as an important 1 Segtcin, a small island off the mouth of the Kennebec, that has a lighthouse 203 feet high. landmark for the sailor, " Who murmurs Agamenticus ! As if it were the name of a saint." But the " Forest City," as it has been called, that was as good a city as seals and parchment, mayor and aldermen, and other dignitaries could make of a little village, and that was to be a memorial of its founder's pride and power, has left no record of its existence, and is but — A Spectre by the Sea. Where rises grand, majestic, tall, As in a dream, the towering wall That scorns the restless, surging tide, Once spanned the mart and street and mall, And arched the trees on every side Of this great city, once in pride. For hither came a knightly train From o'er the sea with gorgeous court ; The mayors, gowned in robes of state, Held brilliant tourney on the plain, And massive ships within the port Discharged their loads of richest freight. Then when at night, the sun gone down Behind the western hill and tree, The bowls were filled, — this toast they crown, " Long live the City by the Sea !" Now sail-less drift the lonely seas, No shallops load at wharves and quays, But hulks are strewn along the shore, — Gaunt skeletons indeed are these That lie enchanted by the roar Of ocean wave and sighing trees ! Oh, tell me where the pompous squires, The chant at eve, the matin prayers, The knights in armor for the fray? The mayors, where, and courtly sires, The eager traders with their wares, — How went these people hence away? And when the evening sun sinks down, Weird voices come from hill and tree, Yet tell no tales, — this toast they crown, " Long live the Spectre by the Sea !" — Anonymous. 3* GEOGRAPHY, INDUSTRIES AND RESOURCES. IV. INDUSTRIES AND RESOURCES. Most of the leading industries of Maine are directly connected with the natural yield of land and water ; and the chief of these, as already alluded to, are comprised in the lumber interests, ship-building, and the coast fisheries. Although Maine has fallen from the position that she once held as the first timber-producing state in the Union, her lumber industry is still a vast business. A great variety of superior tim- ber is still procurable, and the nearness and availability of a vast extent of water enable it to be easily and cheaply produced, manu- factured, and transported to the markets of the world. The Penobscot River is the great centre of the lumber trade. Its tributaries pene- trate the great forests in every direction, and when the ice breaks up with the open- ing of spring, the floods bear downward to the city of Bangor immense rafts of logs, in the sawing of which and the shipment of the lumber this city finds its chief industry. When, with sounds of smothered thunder, On some night of rain, Lake and river break asunder Winter's weakened chain, Down, the wild March flood shall bear them, To the saw-mill's wheel, Or where Steam, the slave, shall tear them With his teeth of steel. — Whit tier. Over 200 million feet of lumber are sometimes surveyed at Bangor in a single season, and about 2,000 vessels are annually engaged in its transportation. This indus- try is the chief occupation of the people of Penobscot, Washington, and Piscataquis counties. Closely related to the lumber industry is ship-building, a leading pursuit in nearly all the coast towns. Nearly three hundred ves- sels, including ships, barks, brigs, schooners, sloops, and steamers, have been built in Maine in a single year. Employed both coastwise and in the commerce of distant seas, they train up a body of hardy sailors who are the chief reliance of our Navy in time of war; and in peace they exchange the teeming products of our land for those of every clime. We here find a happy ap- plication of Whittier's — Song of the Ship-Builders. Up ! — up ! — in nobler toil than ours No craftsmen bear a part : We make of Nature's giant powers The slaves of human Art. Lay rib to rib and beam to beam, And drive the treenails free ; No faithless joint nor yawning seam Shall tempt the searching sea ! Her oaken ribs the vulture beak Of Northern ice may peel, The sunken rock and coral peak May grate along her keel ; And know we well the painted shell We give to wind and wave, Must float — the sailor's citadel, Or sink — the sailor's grave ! God bless her ! Wheresoe'er the breeze Her snowy wings shall fan, Aside the frozen Hebrides, Or sultry Hindostan ! Where'er, in mart or on the main, With peaceful flag unfurled, She helps to wind the silken chain Of commerce round the world ! Be hers the Prairie's golden grain, The Desert's golden sand, The clustered fruits of sunny Spain, The spice of Morning-land ! MAINE. 39 Her pathway on the open main May blessings follow free, And glad hearts welcome back again Her white sails from the sea ! The cod, mackerel, and herring fisheries, in which nearly a thousand vessels belong- ing to Maine are engaged, and which give employment to about three thousand men, yield, on an average, an annual revenue of over a million dollars. These fisheries ex- tend not only over her own coasts and those of the British possessions around the Gulf of St. Lawrence ; but as far north as the bleak and rugged coasts of Labrador, Maine's hardy " toilers of the seas " gather in their ocean harvests. It is not only a toilsome, but, often, a perilous occupation, and the men who engage in it, accustomed to danger, are those who are ever most for- ward in deeds of noble daring. A vivid picture of this kind of seafaring life is given in the following — Song of the Fishermen. Hurrah ! the seaward breezes Sweep down the bay amain ; Heave up, my lads, the anchor ! Run up the sail again ! Leave to the lubber landsmen The rail-car and the steed ; The stars of heaven shall guide us, The breath of heaven shall speed. From the hill-top looks the steeple, And the light-house from the sand; And the scattered pines are waving Their farewell from the land. One glance, my lads, behind us, For the homes we leave one sigh, Ere we take the change and chances Of the ocean and the sky. Now, brothers, for the icebergs Of frozen Labrador, Floating spectral in the moonshine Along the low, black shore ! Where like snow the gannet's 1 feathers On Brador's 2 rocks are shed, And the noisy murre 3 are flying, Like black scuds overhead ; — ■ Where in mist the rock is hiding, And the sharp reef lurks below, And the white squall smites in summer, And the autumn tempests blow; Where, through gray and rolling vapor, From evening unto morn, A thousand boats are hailing, Horn answering unto horn. Hurrah! for the Red Island,* With the white cross on its crown ! Hurrah ! for Meccatina, 5 And its mountains bare and brown ! Where the Caribou's 6 tall antlers O'er the dwarf-wood freely toss, And the footstep of the Mickmack : Has no sound upon the moss. There we'll drop our lines, and gather Old Ocean's treasures in, Where'er the mottled mackerel Turns up a steel-dark fin. The sea's our field of harvest, Its scaly tribes our grain ; We'll reap the teeming waters As at home they reap the plain. — IV hit tier. In the production of lime, which amounts to over two million dollars worth annually, 1 The Common Gannet, or Solan-Goose. These sea-birds, feeding on fish, follow the shoals of herrings, and thus give the fishermen notice of the approach and direction of these fishes. - Bra-dor, for Labrador. 3 Murre, the Common Auk, or Razor-Bill. They build no nests, but lay their eggs upon the bare rocks. * Red Island, a small island on the Newfoundland coast, on the eastern shore of the Gulf of St. Lawrence. 5 Meccati'na, a river, harbor, and island on the Labrador coast, on the northwest shore of the Gulf of St. Lawrence. 6 Car'ibou, a small variety of the reindeer, found in Labrador and Newfoundland, and roaming west to the Northern Pacific. It was formerly found in the forests of Maine. Its flesh is much used by the Esquimaux, and by hunters and travelers. " Mickmack, the name by which the Indians around the shores of the Gulf of St. Lawrence are generally known. The allusion is to their stealthy tread in hunting the caribou and the moose. 4o GEOGRAPHY, INDUSTRIES AND RESOURCES. Maine ranks next to Pennsylvania. Other important industries are the numerous granite quarries, mostly along the coast, that yields an article of fine grain, beautiful in color and very durable ; ice gathering, carried on principally in Kennebec and Knox counties, and yielding a product of over three hundred million tons annually ; the canning of vegetables, principally corn ; the packing of fish, clams, and lobsters, which latter are caught in the numerous bays and inlets more extensively than any- where else on the American coast. In agriculture, Maine's great drawback is the severity of the climate, which prevents many rich sections from being properly cultivated ; but the hay and potato crops are of special excellence, and afford a large surplus for export ; while the dairy products are of great value, and the wool-clip large and of fine quality. In mineral resources the state is rich, but its wealth in this respect is not very fully developed. Besides lime and granite, iron ore of the best quality is found near Mt. Katahdin, 1 and elsewhere ; an extensive belt of roofing slate runs through Piscataquis County from the Penobscot to the Kennebec ; beautiful ruby-red, green, black, and blue crystals of tourmaline 2 are found at Paris 1 The "Katahdin Iron Works," which use bog-ore, are on Pleasant River, fifty miles N. W. of Bangor, and S. W. of Mt. Katahdin. Iron, one of the metallic elements, the most useful and the most extensively diffused of all metals, is found in combination with many other substances, and these give rise to differently- named ores, of which the hematite, a reddish, heavy, clay iron- stone, and the limonile (bog-ore) are very widely diffused in North America. Iron from the latter is too brittle for wire or sheet-iron, but is good for what is called cast-iron or pig-iron. Steel is formed by heating pure iron in contact with charcoal (pure carbonj, by which a portion of carbon is imparted to the iron. As between crude or cast-iron, steel, and wrought-iron, cast-iron contains the most carbon, and wrought-iron the least. — (See, further, Pitts- burgh, under Pennsylvania, p. — .) 2 Tourmaline, the handsome varieties of which are highly esteemed in jewelry, is a crystal of several shades and colors. Its principal constituents are silica and alumina, with a little soda, and Hebron ; fine specimens of beryl 1 at Greenwood, Streaked Mountain and Bow- doinham ; crystals of feldspar 2 at Paris and at Mt. Desert Isle; garnet 3 of many varieties — red, yellow, and brown, — at many places; lead, in veins of considerable ex- tent, at Lubec ; copper at Lubec and Dexter ; and other minerals in various sections. But the one great resource of Maine is its water-power. Such is the character of the rivers of the state, having their sources in the great central plateau, flowing over rocky beds and descending to the sea in a succession of cascades, — such the amount of rainfall in the northern and central parts of the state, and its comparative constancy throughout the year, — so numerous and ex- tensive the natural reservoirs of lakes and ponds, — and so great the facilities for stor- manganese, and iron, and the different proportions of these give the different colors. Rubellite, is of various shades of red, some- times transparent ; Indicolite, blue, or bluish-black ; Brazilian, green and transparent ; Ceylon, honey-yellow; Achroite, colorless Aphrizite, black, &c. 1 Beryl, allied to the emerald, and consisting of silica, alumina and the rare earth glucina, is usually of a bright, transparent, emerald green, found in beautiful, oblong, prismatic crystals larger than those of the emerald. It is the aqua marine of jewelers. Some varieties are of a sapphire-blue, pale violet, reddish, or brownish yellow. Specimens of this crystal have been found four feet in length. - Feldspar (or'thoclasc), an ingredient of granite and some other rocks, consisting of silica, alumina, and potash, is found in cleavable masses, and, also, of several varieties, in the form of white, red, green, or bluish crystals. Moonstone is a variety of resplendent feldspar. By a natural process of decomposition feld- spar furnishes kaolin, used in making porcelain or china ware. In Albite, ciosely allied to feldspar, soda takes the place of potash. 3 Garnet, consisting of silica, alumina, and lime, with a little iron or manganese, is a mineral or gem, of several varieties— such as alumina-garnet, iron-garnet, and chrome-garnet— mostly in the crystalline form. It is the carbuncle of the ancients. Common garnet is translucent, and of various colors. Yellow garnet crystals, and cinnamon stone, are found in many places in Maine. The precious garnet of jewelers is transparent, red, and in crystals of rounded grains. The name is said to have been suggested by the seeds of the pomegranate, which are small, numerous, and rtd. Handsome red garnets are found at Brunswick, Maine. MAINE. 4i ing, for summer use, the surplus water from the \vinter snows and spring rains, that, to a large extent, every stream can be, con- verted into an unbroken series of water privileges from mouth to fountain-head ; and thus nearly all the waters of the state be utilized for manufacturing purposes. This water-power is being rapidly de- veloped, and is fast giving the state strength and importance in manufactures. Of these, cotton and woolen goods, leather, and boots and shoes, are the leading industries, in the order named What the ultimate value of the water-power will be can scarcely be computed Its permanency is reasonably assured, and Maine has the opportunity to become the leading manufacturing state of the Union. Commissioners appointed to determine the character and extent of these water privileges, have estimated that they may be developed to be equal to the work- ing power of eight millions of men ; and they add : — " We feel justified in affirming that they will eventually be more to Maine than are her iron and coal mines to Penn- sylvania, her rice swamps to South Carolina, and her corn fields to Illinois Those all may fail; but these, based upon the un- changing laws of Nature, will never fail." 42 MAP OF VERMONT AND NEW HAMPSHIRE. NEW HAMPSHIRE AND VERMONT. 43 QUESTIONS ON THE MAP. NEW HAMPSHIRE. How is New Hampshire bounded? What is its length ? Its width ? What extent of sea coast has it ? What, and where, is its capital ? I. Its Mountain System.; — [p. 44]. What mountains run through the central portions of the state ? Of what three principal groups do they consist ? Name the prin- cipal peaks of the White Mountain group proper ? In what county are most of them ? Peaks of the Franconia group ? In what county? Peaks of the Sandwich group? Where is Mount Kiarsarge ? Mount Kear- sarge ? Mount Monadnock? What four principal streams and their affluents traverse the White Mountain pla- teau ? Where is Gorham ? Littleton ? Bethlehem ? Plymouth ? North Conway ? II. Rivers, Lakes, and Valleys. — [p. 51]. Describe the Connecticut River ? What are its principal eastern tributaries? The principal New Hampshire towns of the Connecticut valley ? Where is Lebanon ? Claremont ? Keene ? Describe the Merri- mack River ? Where is Plymouth ? Frank- lin ? Concord ? Manchester ? Nashua ? Where is Squamscot River? The Piscata- qua? Where is Exeter ? Dover? Ports- mouth? In what part of the state is the Lake Region ? What is the largest lake ? In what direction from it is Ossipee Lake ? Squam Lake ? Sunapee Lake ? New- found Lake ? III. Coast Line and Islands. — [p. 58]. What places on and near the coast ? How is Portsmouth situated ? What islands off the coast ? What counties border on Maine? On Vermont? On Massachu- setts? What two counties in the interior? VERMONT. [To be studied in connection with Chap. III.] 44 GEOGRAPHY, INDUSTRIES AND RESOURCES. CHAPTER II. — NEW HAMPSHIRE. This state, called the " Granite State," from the preponderance of granite rock in its geological formation, lies between Maine and Vermont, and covers an area of about 9,300 square miles. It is 180 miles long from north to south, and varies in width from 19 miles at its northern extremity to 90 miles near the southern boundary. Of its six million acres, 1 1 0,000 are covered by lakes and rivers, and less than two-fifths of its area are improved land. The state is well wooded, and in the deep forests of the northern part the wolf and the bear are still found. The prominent physical feature of New Hampshire is the long mountainous ridge, or watershed, that follows the course of the east- ern rim of the Connecticut River basin, and, north of the centre of the state spreads across to the eastern boundary. This ridge, and the Merrimack River flowing south from it, naturally divide the state into four sections, of which the southeast section, between the Merrimack and the eastern boundary, has the least elevation, and contains the largest tracts of fertile soil, and most of the impor- tant towns and cities. The average eleva- tion of the state is 1,200 feet above the sea, and the climate is colder, but more steady, than that of Maine. Along the ocean front of 18 miles, level plains stretch inland for some distance ; but the surface is generally rough and hilly, affording better pasturage than tillage, except in some of the river valleys, where the soil is exceedingly fertile I. THE WHITE MOUNTAINS. This mountain chain of New England, that begins near the headwaters of the Aroos'took River in Maine, has its fullest development in New Hampshire, where the highest portion of the chain extends south of the Androscoggin River about 40 miles, to the large lakes in Carroll County, and runs westward nearly across the state. The term " White Mountains," in its popular sense, or as used by tourists, specially refers to this section of the range, which consists of a plateau from 1,600 to 1,800 feet high, embracing the ranges and valleys of the White, Franconia, and Sandwich groups. From this plateau rise more than two hun- dred peaks, with an average elevation of 4,000 feet. The principal summits of the White Mountain Group proper, are Mounts Madi- son, Jefferson, Adams, Clay, Washington, Monroe, Webster, Franklin, and Jackson, which are thickly clustered near the eastern boundary of the state. Of these, Mt. Wash- ington, 6,293 f ee t above the sea, is the highest peak north of North Carolina. Mts. Adams and Jefferson, the next highest peaks, are from four to five hundred feet lower. West of this White Mountain group, in the northern part of Grafton County and south of the Lower Ammonoosuc River, is the Franconia Group, of which Mts. Lafay- ette, Profile, Haystack and the Twin Moun- tains, are the principal peaks. Of these, Mount Lafayette, the highest, rises to an altitude of 5,259 feet. Near the southern boundary of the pla- teau is the Sandwich Group, the most im- posing of which is Whiteface ; and twenty miles beyond this, to the northeast, is the rough and scraggy pyramidal Kiarsarge, or Pequawket, 3,251 feet in height. Between NEW HAMPSHIRE. 45 Map of the White Mountains. Kiarsarge and Whiteface, and separated from the latter by a range of six prominent peaks, is Chocor'u-a — with a little lake reposing at its base — a wild, grand, and picturesque mountain, — The pioneer of a great company That wait behind him, gazing toward the east, — Mighty ones all, down to the nameless least, — Though after him none dares to press, where he With bent head listens to the minstrelsy Of far waves chanting to the moon, their priest. A shadowy, cloud cloaked wraith, with shoulders bowed, He steals, conspicuous, from the mountain-crowd. — Lucy Larcom. It has been said that Chocor'u-a is everything that a New Hampshire moun- tain should be, and that no mountain has interested our best artists more. Its form is massive and symmetrical, and with the exception of Mount Adams of the Mount Washington range, there is no other peak so sharp as Chocor'u-a. It bears the name of an Indian chief. It is invested with tra- ditional and poetical interest, and it is the only mountain peak that is crowned with a legend. Selecting from several traditions, Choc- or'u-a is described in one of them as an 46 GEOGRAPHY, INDUSTRIES AND RESOURCES. Indian prophet and chief of the Sokokis tribe, — a warrior of dark, fierce, ungovern- able passions. Incited to revenge for a fancied injury, he destroyed the entire family of one of the early white settlers of that region, while the husband and father was absent from home. It was now the white man's turn to seek revenge. Learn- ing that Chocor'u-a had gone up, unat- tended, into the mountain that bears his name, the white man, rifle in hand, pursued him to the very pinnacle of the mountain. Aiming at the chief the deadly weapon, which was then a great terror to the Indians, he commanded him to throw himself into the abyss beneath. The warrior, seeing no way of escape, but undaunted, first invoked the Great Spirit to curse the white men, call- ing out in tones that reverberated through the mountain : " May the Great Spirit curse ye when he speaks in the clouds, and his words are fire. May lightning blast your crops ! Winds and fire destroy your dwel- lings ! The Evil Spirit breathe death upon your cattle ! Your graves lie in the war- path of the Indian ! Panthers howl and wolves fatten over your bones! — Chocor'u-a goes to the Great Spirit, — his curse stays with the white man ! " Then throwing himself headlong down the mountain-side, he fell, a mangled corpse upon the rocks, in plain view of his enemy. Tradition says that the warrior's curse long rested on the settlement of the white men in the valley below. South of this great central plateau, for a distance of 80 miles, the White Mountains have an elevation of about 1,500 feet, with several prominent summits. One of these is Mount Kearsarge, a noble granite peak nearly 2,500 feet high, in Merrimack County. This mountain gave its name to the United States war vessel that sunk the notorious " Alabama." Another summit is Grand Monadnock, 3,186 feet high, containing distinct stratas of slate and mica, and covering an area at its base of five miles by three. It rises in solitary grandeur in Cheshire County, — And there, forever firm and clear, Its lofty turret upward springs ; It owns no rival summit near, No sovereign but the King of kings. Thousands of nations have passed by, Thousands of years unknown to story, And still its aged walls on high It rears, in melancholy glory. — W. B. O. Peabody. The prominent streams and their tribu- taries that traverse the White Mountain plateau, have cut deep furrows in its rocky formations ; and wonderful notches, cas- cades, ravines, and lakes are numerous. These streams furnish the following four grand avenues of approach to the heart of the mountains: 1st, From Gorham, in the valley of the Androscoggin, on the north- east ; 2d, from Littleton and Bethlehem in the valleys of the Connecticut and the Lower Ammonoosuc on the west ; 3d, from Plymouth on the south, up the valley of the Pemigewasset or Merrimack ; and 4th, from North Conway, on the southeast, up the valley of the Saco. Each of these towns is the centre of varied and rich landscapes, and each is a charming summer resort. North Conway, in particular, is noted for its delightful situation, and the " dreamy charm " of its mountain scenery. The scenery of the White Mountains is so grand and varied that it attracts visitors from all parts of the world ; and it has gained for this elevated region the title — " The Switzerland of America?' The great point of interest is that enor- mous mass, Mount Washington, the grand central figure of some sixteen miles, north and south, of dependent peaks of huge pro- NEW HAMPSHIRE. 47 portions. The summit is reached either by a carriage-road winding through galleries and on long curves, or by a railway having a heavy notched centre-rail, into which plays a centre cog-wheel of the locomotive. The ascent of three miles and over by rail is usually made in about ninety minutes. The ascent by the bridle-path, from the Saco valley by way of Mounts Clinton, Pleasant, Franklin, and Monroe, is consid- ered peculiarly attractive, as the route passes over several grand summits, from which open the most extensive and charm- ing views On the east side of Mt. Monroe the path descends to where nestles, on the verge of a great gulf, the little " Lake of the Clouds," the source of the lower Am- monoosuc. Several buildings, among them a U. S. Signal Service Station, stand on the summit of Mt. Washington, protected by sheltering rocks from the terrible winds that frequently sweep over the mountain at the rate of one hundred miles an hour. The heaviest recorded gale attained a velocity of ;86 miles an hour. The view from Mount Washington, on a clear day, is the most grand and extensive in New England, and the circle of vision extends about one hundred miles in every direction. And yet the view is generally considered to be inferior to that from other and lower summits, because the immense height renders near objects indistinct, and obscures the more distant ; while, as has been said by a recent writer, " any picture of the mountains that does not show the cloud-capped monarch himself, attended by his train of grand peaks, — the central, domi- nating, perfecting group — must be essen- tially incomplete." We quote further from this writer his impressions of The Victv from Mount Washington} " For some moments — moments not to 1 " The Heart of the White Mountains;" by Saml. Adams Drake. be forgotten — we stood there silent. The scene was too tremendous to be grasped in an instant. A moment was needed for the unpracticed eye to adjust itself to the vast- ness of the landscape, and to the multitude of objects — strange objects — everywhere confronting it. My sensations were at first too vague for analysis, too tumultuous for expression. The flood choked itself. "All seemed chaos. On every side the great mountains fell away like mists of the morning, dispersing, receding, to an endless distance, diminishing, growing more and more vague, and finally vanishing on a limitless horizon neither earth nor sky. Never before had such a spectacle offered itself to my gaze. The first idea was of standing on the threshold of another planet, and of looking down upon this world of ours outspread beneath ; the second, of being face to face with eternity itself. No one ever felt exhilaration at first. The scene is too solemnizing. " But by degrees order came out of chaos. The bewildering throng of moun- tains arranged itself in chains, clusters, or families. Hills drew apart, valleys opened, streams twinkled in the sun, towns and villages clung to the skirts of the mountains or dotted the meadows ; but all was mys- terious, all as yet unreal. " Comprehending at last that all New England was under my feet, I began to search out certain landmarks. But this in- vestigation is fatiguing ; besides, it conducts to absolutely nothing. Pointing to a scrap of blue haze in the west, my companion observed, ' That is Mount Mansfield ;' and I, mechanically, repeated, 'Ah ! that is Mount Mansfield.' It was nothing. Dis- tance and Infinity have no more relation than Time and Eternity. It sufficed for me to be admitted near the person of the great autocrat of New England, while under skies so lair and radiant he gave audience 48 GEOGRAPHY, INDUSTRIES AND RESOURCES. to his splendid and imposing retinue of mountains. " I consider this first introduction to what the peak of Mt. Washington looks down upon, an epoch in any man's life. I saw the whole noble company of mountains from highest to lowest. I saw the deep depressions through which the Connecticut, the Saco, the Merrimack, and the Andros- coggin, wind toward the lowlands. I saw the lakes which nurse the infant tributaries of those streams. I saw the great northern forests, the notched wall of the Green Moun- tains, the wide expanse of level land, flat and heavy, like the ocean, and finally the ocean itself. And all this was mingled in one mighty scene. " The utmost that I can say of this view is that it is a marvel. You receive an im- pression of the illimitable such as no other natural spectacle — not even the sea — can give. Astonishment can go no farther. Nevertheless, the truth is you are on too high a view-point for the most effective grasp of mountain scenery. It is true that you see to a great distance, but you do not distinguish anything clearly. * * * " One word more : from this lofty height you lose the symmetrical relation of the lesser summits to the grand whole. Even these signal embodiments of heroic strength — the peaks of Jefferson, Adams, and Madi- son — even these suffer a partial eclipse , but the summits stretching to the southward are so dwarfed as to be divested of any character as typical mountain structures. The charm of the view — such at least is the writer's conviction — resides rather in the immediate surroundings than in the extent of the panorama, great as that unquestion- ably is." Among the noted waterfalls of these mountains are the "Artists Falls" in North Conway, with beautiful groupings of rock and woodland scenery ; " Glen Ellis Falls," the finest in the mountains, where the Ellis River plunges down in a thick, white mass; " Berlin Falls," six miles north of Gorham, on the Androscoggin River, which here pours down a powerful stream through a narrow granite pass, descending nearly 200 feet within a mile ; " Ripley Falls," on a tributary of the Saco River, east of Mount Willey, falling 156 feet at an angle of forty- five degrees ; and the falls of the Ammon- oosuc, which descend over 5,000 feet in a course of thirty miles. Ihc Crawford Notch. Passing from North Conway up the valley of the Saco beyond Mount Crawford and the "Giant Stairs" — the latter, two enor- mous steps, respectively 350 and 450 feet in height — the traveler enters one of the five great passes of the mountains, the White Mountain or Crawford " Notch," where " the abrupt mountain breaks, And seems with its accumulated crags To overhang the world." This " Notch " lies between Mounts Webster and Willey, and is 1,914 feet in depth, and two miles long. In this immense but nar- row defile of dripping cascades and noisy mountain torrents, enclosed by a labyrinth of mountains, nearly every step unfolds new and enchanting views. At the upper end, called the Gate of the Notch, where the huge precipices of Mt. Willard close in upon it, the vast chasm is but 22 feet wide. In this immediate vicinity is a pretty lakelet, the source of the Saco, that struggles, a mere rivulet, through the rocky gorge to the plains below. Says the poet Whittier, — From the heart of Waumbek-Methna, 1 from the lake that never fails, Falls the Saco in the green lap of Conway's intervales ; There, in wild and virgin freshness, its waters foam and flow, As when Darby Field 2 first saw them, two hundred years ago- 1 Indian title, signifying " Mountains with snowy foreheads." - Darby Field was an Irish settler of Exeter, N. H., who, in 1642, made the first known ascent of Mt. Washington. NEW HAMPSHIRE. 49 The Franc onia Notcli. On the western verge of the Franconia Group is found another celebrated "Notch" or mountain pass, through which flows the Pemigevvasset ; — 'Tis the musical Pemigewasset, That sings, to the hemlock-trees, Of the pines on the Profile Mountain, Of the stony Face that sees, Far down in the vast rock-hollows, The waterfall of the Flume, The blithe cascade of the Basin, And the deep Pool's lonely gloom. — Lucy Larcom. This notch is about five miles in extent, less than half a mile wide, and its walls have an average height of 2,000 feet. " The narrow district thus enclosed," ob- serves Thomas Starr King, 1 " contains more objects of interest to the mass of travelers, Franconia Notch and Vicinity. than any other region of equal extent within the compass of the usual White Mountain tour. In the way of rock sculpture and waterfalls, it is a huge muse'um of curiosi- 1 " The White Hills : their Legends, Landscape, and Poetry;" by Thos. Starr King. 4 a ties. There is no other spot where the visitor is domesticated amid the most savage and startling forms in which cliffs and forest are combined. And yet there is beauty enough intermixed with the sublimity and wildness to make the scenery permanently attractive, as well as grand and exciting." Among the most noted freaks of nature near the southern outlet of the Franconia Notch are the " Basin," a granite bowl 6o feet in circumference and io feet deep, filled with clear water ; the " Pool," 1 50 feet across, with dark cold water 40 feet in depth ; and, above all, the " Flume," a remarkable rock-gallery driven about 700 feet into the heart of the mountain, with precipitous walls from 60 to 70 feet high, through which an ice-cold brook rushes. At the upper end of this gorge, where the walls are but ten feet apart, they hold sus- pended a huge granite boulder. In passing up the Notch from the south, the crags, ridges, and black forests of Mount Lafayette, and the other great central peaks of the Franconia group, are revealed in all their gloomy magnificence. The ascent of Lafayette, though not so long, is even more laborious than that of Washington, and the view from its summit is grand. Says Thomas Starr King, — "It is the lowlands that are the glory of the spectacle which Lafayette shows his guests. The valleysof the Connecticut and Merrimack are spread west and southwest and south With what pomp of color are their growing harvests inlaid upon the floor of New Eng- land ! Here we see one of Nature's great water colors. She does not work in oil. Every tint of the flowers ; all the grada- tions of leaf-verdure ; every stain on the rocks ; every shadow that drifts along a mountain slope, in response to a floating cloud ; the vivid shreds of silver gossamer that loiter along the bosom of a ridge after a shower ; the luxurious chords of sunset 5° GEOGRAPHY, INDUSTRIES AND RESOURCES. gorgeousness ; the sublime arches of di- sheveled light, — all are Nature's temptation and challenge to the intellect and cunning of the artist to mimic the splendor with which, by water and sunbeams, she adorns the world." On Mount Cannon, or Profile Mountain, opposite Lafayette, west of the Notch, and 1,500 feet above the road, are three pro- jecting rocks, that, viewed from a particular point, assume a well defined profile of a colossal human face 80 feet long, with firmly drawn chin, lips slightly parted, and a well proportioned nose, surmounted by a mas- sive brow. Hence the mountain is called " Profile Mountain,'' and to this interesting intimation of a human countenance that suddenly disappears when the observer moves his position to one side, has been given the appropriate title — " The Old Man of the Mountain." A glory smites the craggy heights : And in a halo of the haze, Flushed with faint gold, far up, behold That mighty face, that stony gaze ! In the wild sky upborne so high Above us perishable creatures, Confronting Time with those sublime, Impassive, adamantine features. Thou beaked and bald high front, miscalled The profile of a human face ! No kin art thou, O Titan brow, To puny man's ephemeral race. The groaning earth to thee gave birth, — Throes and convulsions of the planet ; Lonely uprose, in grand repose, Those eighty feet of facial granite. We may not know how long ago That ancient countenance was young ; Thy sovereign brow was seamed as now When Moses wrote and Homer sung. Empires and states it antedates. And wars, and arts, and crime, and glory ; In that dim morn when man was born Thy head with centuries was hoary. Thou lonely one ! nor frost, nor sun, Nor tempest leaves on thee its trace ; The stormy years are but as tears That pass from thy unchanging face. With unconcern as grand and stern, Those features viewed, which now survey us, A green world rise from seas of ice, And order come from mud and chaos. Canst thou not tell what then befell ? What forces moved, or fast or slow ; How grew the hills ; what heats, what chills ; What strange, dim life, so long ago ? High-visaged peak, wilt thou not speak One word, for all our learned wrangle ? What earthquakes shaped, what glaciers scraped , That nose, and gave the chin its angle ? Our pygmy thought to thee is naught, Our petty questionings are vain ; In its great trance thy countenance Knows not compassion nor disdain, With far-off hum we go and come, The gay, the grave, the busy-idle ; And all things done, to thee are one, Alike the burial and the bridal. Profile View. silent speech, that well can teach The little worth of words or fame ! 1 go my way, but thou wilt stay While future millions pass the same : — NEW HAMPSHIRE. 5 1 But what is this I seem to miss ? Those features fall into confusion ! A further pace — where was that face ? The veriest fugitive illusion ! O Titan, how dislimned art thou ! A withered cliff is all we see ; That giant nose, that grand repose, Have in a moment ceased to be ; Or still depend on lines that blend, On merging shapes, and sight, and distance, And in the mind alone can find Imaginary brief existence ! — yohn 7. Trowbridge. At the base of the mountain is the " Old Man's Washbowl," or Profile Lake, a beauti- ful sheet of water, the source of the Pemi- gewasset, a quarter of a mile long and an eighth wide. A little farther up, at the northern entrance to the Notch, is the Pro- file House, hidden away on a pleasant lawn in a deep and narrow glen, a grizzly preci- pice on one side and a shaggy mountain on the other. Opposite the hotel is a lofty crag named Eagle Cliff, an advanced spur of Mount Lafayette ; and half a mile away Echo Lake lies calm, deep, and transparent, encircled by beautiful scenery. Any sound awakens here the most remarkable echoes, — and Mr. King observes that " Franconia is more fortunate in its little lake that is rim- med by the undisturbed wilderness, and watched by the grizzled peak of Lafayette, than in the Great Stone Face from which it has gained so much celebrity." 1 We have not the space to mention other objects of interest and importance in the White Mountain region, or even to enumer- ate its distinct zones of vegetation. It is a rich field of exploration for the tourist, the botanist, and the geologist. It was for a long time believed that these mountains bore no marks of the great Glacial Period ; but Professor Charles H Hitchcock, state geologist, says : , " Few parts of the country display better evidences of the existence of an ice age than New Hampshire. No extensive rock ex- posures can be found that do not exhibit marks of scarification. Even Mount Wash- ington has been furrowed or channelled, and boulders weighing 90 pounds occur here, which have been brought at least one dozen miles and left 3,000 feet higher than their source." 1 The legend and the moral of the Great Stone Face are related by the novelist Hawthorne, in one of his admirable " Twice-told Tales." The author's vivid imagination, as another has well said, " endows the Titanic countenance with a soul, and surrounds the colossal brow with a halo of spiritual grandeur." II. RIVERS, LAKES, AND VALLEYS. It is estimated that about one-sixteenth part of New Hampshire is covered with water, embracing some 1,500 streams and many lakes and ponds. Of these streams the Connecticut River is the largest in New England. It is essentially a New Hamp- shire river, as it rises 1,600 feet above the sea in the northeast part of the State, where " the northern guardians stand, Rude rulers of the solitary land," and its western bank, at low water mark, forms the entire boundary between the State and Vermont. /. The Connecticut and its Valley. From its source among the mountain- pines, the Connecticut passes through two small lakes before striking the Vermont line, and takes a generally southwest course to the Massachusetts line, thence flows southerly through the latter State and Con- necticut into Long Island Sound. The river is over 400 miles long, and its width varies from 150 to over 1,000 feet; while the picturesque valley through which it flows has an average width of about 40 miles. It is navigable for large vessels as 5 2 GEOGRAPHY, INDUSTRIES AND RESOURCES. 2. The Merrimack. Down from the centre of the Franconia range Mows tne winding and picturesque far as Hartford, in Connecticut, 50 miles from its mouth, and for small ones to the mouth of the Lower Ammonoosuc, 270 miles from the Sound ; navigation to this point being secured by canals cut around several falls in the stream. The principal tributaries of the Connec- ticut from New Hampshire are Indian Stream and Perry Stream from the extreme north, the Upper and Lower Ammonoosuc, the Masco'ma, the Sugar and the Ashuelot, all abounding in improved water-powers. The principal towns of the valley are Lan- caster, Haverhill, Hanover the seat of Dart- mouth College, Lebanon, Claremont, New- port and Keene. At Lebanon, the Mas- co'ma, which is the outlet of several small lakes, has a fall of 400 feet in passing through the town. Tilden Female Semi- nary is located here. Claremont is a beau- tiful village on the Sugar River, and as the waterfall is more than 1 50 feet within a mile, the manufacturing industries are consider- able. Keene is the most important place in the valley of the Connecticut, and the sixth city in the State in population and wealth. It is handsomely situated on the Ashuelot, and is the centre of a large and rich agricul- tural district, while its manufactures are extensive. The valley of the Connecticut is famed for its fertility, and for its attractive scenery diversified by towering rocks, mountains, and sunny slopes and vales. Though broader streams our sister realms may boast, Herculean cities, and a prouder coast, • Yet from the bound where hoarse St. Lawrence roars, To where La Plata rocks resounding shores, From where the arms of slimy Nilus shine, To the blue waters of the rushing Rhine, Or where Ilissus glows like diamond spark, Or sacred Ganges whelms her votaries dark, No brighter skies the eye of day may see, Nor soil more verdant, nor a race more free. — Mrs. Sigourney. flows the winding Pemigewasset to the attractive little town of Plymouth, remarkable for the beauty of its meadows and the grace of its elm trees. Plymouth is much visited by tourists, and has a State normal school. In this town Daniel Webster made his first argument before a court ; and here Nathaniel Haw- thorne suddenly expired in the spring of 1864,— " For while he slept his spirit walked abroad, And wandered past the mountain, past the cloud, Nor came again to rouse the form at peace." At this point the Pemigewasset is joined from the west by Baker's River, named from a Massachusetts colonel who destroyed here a large settlement of hostile Indians in the days before the Revolution. Below Bristol it is joined by Smith's River, also from the west; and, passing through widen- ing meadows, at Franklin, in Merrimack County, where there is excellent water- power, it unites " its cold tide with the warmer stream that flows from lake Winne- pesau'kee, and then takes the name of Merrimack." This river is the most important in the State, and drains about two-fifths of it. It flows south from Franklin seventy-five miles to Chelmsford in Massachusetts, through a charming valley of great fertility, that has the warmest climate in the State ; and its numerous falls furnish immense water-power, to which the cities of Con- cord, Manchester, Nashua, and many towns, owe their life and prosperity. From Chelmsford it flows northeast, and enters the Atlantic at Newburyport. Says Tho- reau, — "By the law of its birth the Merri- mack is never to become stagnant, for it has come out of the clouds, and down the NEW HAMPSHIRE. 53 sides of precipices worn in the floods, until it has found a breathing place in the low land. There is no danger that the sun will steal it back to heaven again before it reach the sea, for it has a warrant to recover its own dews into its bosom, with interest, at every eve." The chief tributaries of the Merrimack are the Suncook on the east, and the Con- toocook, the Piscataquog, the Souhegan, and the Nashua, on the west. The latter is a stream of much importance, some 80 miles in length. It rises in central Massa- chusetts, and flows only a few miles in New Hampshire ; but it furnishes superior water-power in the latter State, and above Mine Falls, three miles from its mouth, it waters a valley of great beauty and fertility. A poet gives a pleasing summer picture of this river, in the following song : thou who journeyest through that Eden-clime, Winding thy devious way to cheat the time, Delightful Nashua ! beside thy stream, Fain would I paint thy beauties as they gleam. Far down the silent stream, where arching trees Bend their green boughs so gently to the breeze, One live, broad mass of molten crystal lies, Clasping the mirrored beauties of the skies ! Look, how the sunshine breaks upon the plains! So the deep blush their nattered glory stains. Romantic river ! on thy quiet breast, While flashed the salmon with his lightning crest, Not long ago the Indian's thin canoe Skimmed lightly as the shadow which it threw ; Not long ago, beside thy banks of green, The night-fire blazed and spread its dismal sheen. Thou peaceful valley ! when I think how fair Thy various beauty shines, beyond compare, 1 cannot choose but own the Power that gave Amidst thy woes a helping hand to save, When o'er thy hills the savage war-whoop came, And desolation raised its funeral flame. — Rufus Dawes. On the Merrimack, at the Falls of Amos- keag, in the cavities of whose rocks, tradi- tion says, the Indians stored and concealed their corn, stands Manchester, the first city of the State in population and wealth. The Falls descend 54 feet within a mile, and the ample water-power is employed chiefly in cotton and woolen manufactures, in the annual production of which Man- chester is the fourth city in the United States. Its iron manufactures are also important. Nashua, the third city in the State, is eighteen miles below Manchester, at the junction of the Nashua river with the Mer- rimack ; and here, also, are extensive cotton, woolen, and iron manufactures. The iron works have the largest steam hammer in the United States. The Contoocook River enters the Merri- mack in the northern limits of Concord, the State capital, which is handsomely situ- ated, and is next to Manchester in popu- lation. At the union of the two streams is a small island of much historic interest. It is famous as the place where the heroic Mrs. Duston, of Haverhill, who had been taken prisoner by Indians, with the aid of a girl and a boy killed ten of her captors and escaped. A massive granite pedestal, on which is a statue of Mrs. Duston, with a tomahawk in one hand and a bunch of scalps in the other, was erected here in 1874. Concord has extensive quarries of granite of superior quality, and among its numerous manufactures carriages and furniture are specially noted ; but the natural water- power, both above and below the business centre of the city, has been only partially utilized. The city occupies the ancient seat of the Penacooks, a powerful Indian tribe, whose name is preserved to the locality in Penacook Lake, which supplies Concord with pure water. A beautiful 54 GEOGRAPHY, INDUSTRIES AND RESOURCES. Indian tradition of this section is related by Whittier, in " The Bridal of Pennacook," in which the poet gives the following charm- ing picture of The Merrimack, Centuries Ago. O child of that white-crested mountain whose springs Gush forth in the shade of the cliff-eagle's wings, Down whose slopes to the lowlands thy wild waters shine, Leaping gray walls of rock, flashing through the dark pine, — From that cloud-curtained cradle so cold and so lone, From the arms of that wintry-locked mother of stone, By hills hung with forests, through vales wide and free, Thy mountain-born brightness glanced down to the sea ! No bridge arched thy waters save that where the trees Stretched their long arms above thee and kissed in the breeze ; No sound save the lapse of the waves on thy shores, The plunging of otters, the light dip of oars. Green-tufted, oak-shaded, by Amoskeag's fall Thy twin Uncanoonucs 1 rose stately and tall, Thy Nashua meadows lay green and unshorn, And the hills of Pentucket were tasseled with corn. But thy Pennacook valley was fairer than these, And greener its grasses and taller its trees, Ere the sound of an axe in the forest had rung, Or the mower his scythe in the meadows had swung. In their sheltered repose looking out from the wood The bark-builded wigwams of Pennacook stood ; There glided the corn-dance, the council-fire shone, And against the red war-post the hatchet was thrown. O Stream of the Mountains ! if answer of thine Could rise from thy waters to question of mine, Methinks through the din of thy thronged banks a moan Of sorrow would swell for the days which have gone. Not for thee the dull jar of the loom and the wheel, The gliding of shuttles, the ringing of steel ; But that old voice of waters, of bird and of breeze, The dip of the wild-fowl, the rustling of trees ! 1 Uncanoo'nucs, the Indian name of the two similar mountains at are on the west bank of the Merrimack River, near the Falls. j. The Sqaamscot and the Piscataqna. Besides the upper waters of the Andros- coggin and the Saco, the principal streams that drain the eastern slopes of New Hamp- shire are the Squamscot, the Piscata- qua, and their tributaries. The former river is also known as the Exeter, from the prosperous manufacturing village of that name which, shaded by beautiful elms, stands at the head of tide-water. It is the seat of Phillips Academy, one of the most noted preparatory schools in the country ; and of Robinson Female Seminary, with an endowment of $300,000. Just before enter- ing the Piscataqua the Squamscot enlarges into the tidal basin Great Bay, that covers an area of about nine square miles. The Piscataqua, a deep and wide river, is formed by the Salmon Falls and the Cocheco Rivers, with the former of which it constitutes a part of the eastern boundary of the State. Ample water-power is fur- nished for the cotton, woolen, and other industries of many important places, includ- ing Great Falls on the Salmon Falls River, and Farmington, Rochester, and Dover, on the Cocheco. Dover is the oldest place in the State, and the fourth city in population. It is favorably situated for commerce and manufactures, as vessels of considerable draught can ascend to the falls of the Cocheco, within the city limits, that supply the motive-power for immense cotton mills and other industries. Portsmouth. On a beautiful peninsula formed by the Piscataqua some three miles from its mouth, and on the south side of the river, is the quaint, cultured, and wealthy old city of Portsmouth, the commercial metropolis of the State, and its only seaport. The river is here more than half a mile wide, and fur- nishes one of the best harbors in New Eng- NEW HAMPSHIRE. 55 Portsmouth and Vicinity. land — capacious, deep, well protected, and free from sand-bars and ice owing to the height and force of the tides. On an island across the river from the city, but within the limits of Maine, is the U. S. Navy Yard, containing, among other things, three immense ship-houses, and a balance dry-dock 350 feet by 105, which cost $800,000. Portsmouth has consider- able foreign and coastwise trade, but its commercial importance is gradually declin- ing. Nevertheless, the city is steadily grow- ing in wealth. It has excellent schools and libraries, and its pleasant drives and fine beaches render it a favorite summer resort. Its chief manufactures are cotton fabrics, hosiery,' and boots and shoes. It has been asserted that " there are more quaint houses and interesting tradi- tions in Portsmouth than in any other town in New England." The city has, also, some interesting historical associations, and one event that occurred in December, 1774, is of special importance. It was the night- surprise and capture of Fort William and Mary, in the harbor, by a band of young patriots led by the intrepid John Sullivan, afterward a general in the Continental army. One hundred barrels of powder and fifteen cannon were secured without the firing of a single gun. This was the most dramatic incident immediately preceding the Revolution that has been recorded, and one that precipitated hostilities. Says a recent writer, — " Portsmouth has the stamp of a coin of one hundred years ago. The best houses are still the oldest, and rival the traditional splendors of the Colonial mansions of Boston in spacious- ness, richness of decoration, and a rare combination of simplicity and elegance." Among these relics of the past is the large and picturesque mansion of Gov. Benning Wentworth, at Little Harbor, in the out- skirts. It still retains many of its ancient features, some of which are mentioned in the following description of its condition one hundred years ago. It was a pleasant mansion, an abode Near, and yet hidden from, the great high-road, Sequestered among trees, a noble pile, Baronial and colonial in its style ; Gables and dormer-windows everywhere, And stacks of chimneys rising high in air, — Pandaean pipes, on which all winds that blew Made mournful music the whole winter through. Within, unwonted splendors met the eye, Panels, and floors of oak, and tapestry ; Carved chimney-pieces, where on brazen dogs Reveled and roared the Christmas fires of logs ; Doors opening into darkness unawares, Mysterious passages and flights of stairs; And on the walls, in heavy gilded frames, The ancestral Wentworths with Old-Scripture names. — Henry W. Longfellow. 4.. The Lake Region. With the exception of Lake Umbagog on the northeast boundary, the important lakes of New Hampshire are scattered 56 GEOGRAPHY, INDUSTRIES AND RESOURCES. over the central and southern sections of its scene laid in this vicinity, where the State. The largest of these are New- found, Masco'ma, and Sun'apee, lying in or between the valleys of the Merrimack and the Connecticut, and the Ossipee, Squam, and Winnepesau'kee 1 , in close proximity, just south of the Sandwich mountain range. All these lakes are noted for their beauty ; and the three last named, which impart pe- culiar brightness and animation to the mountain scenery about them are said by tourists to rival, in "picturesqueness, the lakes in Tyrol and Switzerland. For weeks the clouds had raked the hills And vexed the vales with raining; And all the woods were sad with mist, And all the brooks complaining. But a sudden and severe night-storm swept over the mountains and through the valleys, and the rising sun lighted up a scene of surpassing loveliness, that the poet thus describes : The Lake Region. The waters of Squam Lake, about 8 miles long by 4 wide, are of wonderful purity, and are dotted with romantic islets covered with luxuriant vegetation. Os- sipee Lake, in Carroll County, the source of the river of the same name, that flows into the Saco, is a sequestered sheet of water embracing a'bout ten square miles. Whittier's poem, "Among the Hills," has Through Sandwich Notch the west-wind sang Good-morrow to the cotter ; And once again Chocor'ua's horn Of shadow pierced the water. Above his broad lake, Ossipee, 1 Once more the sunshine wearing, Stooped, tracing on that silver shield His grim armorial bearing. Clear drawn against the hard blue sky, The peaks had winter's keenness ; And, close on autumn's frost, the vales Had more than June's fresh greenness. You should have seen that long hill-range With gaps of brightness riven, — How through each pass and hollow streamed The purple lights of heaven; Rivers of gold-mist flowing down From far celestial fountains; The great sun flaming through the rifts Beyond the wall of mountains! Lake Winncpcsaukee. This, the largest and the finest of the New Hampshire lakes, is about 500 feet above the sea, in Carroll and Belknap Counties. The Indian name signifies either " The Smile of the Great Spirit," or " Pleasant Water in a High Place." As a prominent writer observes, " Whichever the word means, the lake itself signifies both. Topographically, it is pleasant water in a 1 Also spelled Winnipiseogee, but pronounced win-ne-pe- saw'-kee. 1 Ossipee Mountain, 2,800 feet high, lies a few miles northeast of Lake Winnepesaukee. NEW HAMPSHIRE. 57 high place, about thirty miles long, and varying from one to seven miles in breadth ; while to all who see in it an expression of the Divine art renewed every summer by the Creator, it is the smile of the Great Spirit." Winnepesaukee is navigable for steam- boats, and several attractive villages rest on or near its shores. The largest of these is Wolfborough, beautifully situated on a bay at the southern extremity. Laconia, on the Winnepesaukee River, is the largest place in this vicinity, and the centre of trade for a large circle of towns. At the northern end of the lake, on the shores of Moulton- borough Bay with its great archipelago of picturesque islands, the Ossipee Indians had their home ; and among the many relics of them that have been found, is a large monumental mound at the mouth of the little Melvin River, known as " The Grave by the Lake," where some great chief was probably buried. The Grave by the Lake. Where the Great Lake's sunny smiles Dimple round its hundred isles, And the mountain's granite ledge Cleaves the water like a wedge, Ringed about with smooth, gray stones, Rest the giant's mighty bones. Close beside, in shade and gleam, Laughs and ripples Melvin stream ; Melvin water, mountain-born, All fair flowers its banks adorn ; All the woodland's voices meet, Mingling with its murmurs sweet. Over lowlands forest-grown, Over waters island-strown, Over silver-sanded beach, Leaf locked bay and misty reach, Melvin stream and burial-heap, Watch and ward the mountains keep. Who that Titan cromlech fills ? Forest-Kaiser, lord o' the hills? Knight who on the birchen tree Carved his savage heraldry ? Priest o' the pine- wood temples dim, Prophet, sage, or wizard grim ? Now, whate'er he may have been, Low he lies as other men ; On his mound the partridge drums, There the noisy blue-jay comes ; Rank nor name nor pomp has he In the grave's democracy. Part thy blue lips, Northern lake ! Moss-grown rocks, your silence break ! Tell the tale, thou ancient tree ! Thou, too, slide-worn Ossipee ! Speak, and tell us how and when Lived and died this king of men ! Wordless moans the ancient pine ; Lake and mountain give no sign ; Vain to trace this ring of stones ; Vain the search of crumbling bones : Deepest of all mysteries, And the saddest, silence is. Nameless, noteless, clay with clay Mingles slowly day by day ; But somewhere, for good or ill, That dark soul is living still ; Somewhere yet that atom's force Moves the light-poised universe. —J. G. Whittier. It is difficult to describe the peculiar loveliness that invests Winnepesaukee. Its waters surround nearly three hundred islands that in summer-time are almost trop- ical in the luxuriance and richness of their vegetation ; bold mountains, and shores clothed in vivid green, are reflected on its glassy surface ; and, in moving over the lake, superb views are obtained of the Sand- wich range or of nearer mountain peaks, and even of Mount Washington, rising ma- jestically through the shadows forty miles away. It is the rare combination of the charms of land and water, and the great expanse of both, that give Winnepesaukee a peculiar and incomparable beauty. 58 GEOGRAPHY, INDUSTRIES AND RESOURCES. III. COAST LINE AND ISLANDS. The short sea-coast of New Hampshire is almost an unbroken line of sand, bor- dered by extensive marshes that stretch back " to the dark oak wood, whose leafy arms Screen from the stormy East the pleasant inland farms." This line of sand is interrupted only where some small creek or stream crosses the marshes to meet the ocean, or where an occasional headland thrusts itself out from the shore into the tossing billows of the sea. /. Hampton and Rye Beaches. With its famous beaches and the outly- ing Isles of Shoals, the New Hampshire coast offers attractions that have made it a city of summer homes from the Massachu- setts line to Portsmouth harbor. Hampton Beach, a noted resort, extends north from Hampton River, near the southern boun- dary, to barren Boar's Head, an interesting and singular promontory, 70 feet high, that juts far out into the ocean, and affords a fine view of the coast from Cape Ann in Massachusetts, to Mt. Agamenticus in Maine. Still farther north, extending up to Portsmouth, is the more fashionable Rye Beach, where the hard sand alternates with sharp and storm-worn rocks that echo the voices of the sea. On the lone rocks of Rye, When the day grows dimmer, And the stars from the sky Shed a tremulous glimmer, While the low winds croon, And the waves, as they glisten, Complain to the moon, I linger and listen. All the magical whole Of shadow and splendor Steals into my soul, Majestic yet tender ; And the desolate main, Like a sibyl intoning Her mystical strain, Keeps ceaselessly moaning. I hear it spell-bound, All its myriad voices, — Its wandering sound, And my spirit rejoices; For out of the deep And the distance it crieth, And, deep unto deep, My spirit replieth. — Thomas Durfee. The largest and best harbor on the coast, next to Portsmouth, is that formed by the small Hampton River, although its entrance is fringed with dangerous rocks and shoals, that may be seen at low tide, " When the ebb of the sea has left them free To dry their fringes of gold-green moss." A legend states that on these rocks was once lost a party of merry villagers, because Goody Cole, a notorious witch of Hampton and long the terror of the people, cast over them the spell of her ill-will as they sailed down the river and out on the summer sea for a day of pleasure. It was near the mouth of Hampton River that the poet Whittier pitched his " Tent on the Beach ;" and in that interesting collection of legend- ary stories he tells the tale of Goody Cole and the lost villagers, as follows : The Wreck of Rivcrmoiith. Once, in the old Colonial days, Two hundred years ago and more, A boat sailed down through the winding ways Of Hampton River to that low shore, Full of a goodly company Sailing out on the summer sea, Veering to catch the land-breeze light, With the Boar to left and the Rocks to right. NEW HAMPSHIRE. 59 " Fie on the witch !" cried a merry girl, As they rounded the point where Goody Cole Sat by her door with her wheel atwirl, A bent and blear-eyed poor old soul. " Oho !" she muttered, " ye're brave to-day I But I hear the little waves laugh and say, ' The broth will be cold that waits at home ; For it's one to go and another to come !' " " She's cursed," said the skipper ; " speak her fair : I'm scary always to see her shake Her wicked head, with its wild gray hair, And nose like a hawk, and eyes like a snake." But merrily still, with laugh and shout, From Hampton River the boat sailed out, Till the huts and the flakes on Star 1 seemed nigh, And they lost the scent of the pines of Rye. They dropped their lines in the lazy tide, Drawing up haddock and mottled cod : They saw not the Shadow that walked beside, They heard not the feet with silence shod. But thicker and thicker a hot mist grew, Shot by the lightnings through and through ; And muffled growls like the growls of a beast, Ran along the sky from west to east. -* * # * * * * The skipper hauled at the heavy sail : " God be our help ! " he only cried, As the roaring gale, like the stroke of a flail, Smote the boat on its starboard side. The Shoalsmen looked, but saw alone Dark films of rain-cloud slantwise blown, Wild rocks lit up by the lightnings glare, The strife and torment of sea and air. Goody Cole looked out from her door : The Isles of Shoals were drowned and gone, Scarcely she saw the Head of the Boar Toss the foam from tusks of stone. She clasped her hands with a grip of pain, The tear on her cheek was not of rain : " They are lost," she muttered, " boat and crew ! Lord, forgive me ! my words were true! " Suddenly seaward swept the squall ; The low sun smote through cloudy rack ; The Shoals stood clear in the light, and all The trend of the coast lay hard and black. But far and wide as eye could reach, No life was seen upon wave or beach ; The boat that went out at morning never Sailed back again into Hampton River. 2. The Isles of Shoals. Nine miles off the coast, the Isles of Shoals, a group of some eight rocky islets, rise out of " the gray line of old ocean like mountain peaks above a cloud " The largest of these islands are Appledore, Star, and 1 One of the Isles of Shoals. The Isles of Shoals. Haley ; the first embracing about four hun- dred acres. Four of the eight islands, in- cluding Appledore, belong to Maine, and the remaining four form a part of Rocking- ham County, New Hampshire. On White Island, the westernmost, is a revolving light 87 feet above the sea, that is visible at a distance of fifteen miles. Rugged, solitary, and as barren as if Nature had disinherited them, these imperishable rocks have a desolate appearance that can scarcely be imagined. Mrs. Celia Thaxter, who has passed most of her life, since her fifth year, on these islands, having her home with the keeper of the lighthouse, has described their charms and mysteries in calm and storm, and through the changing seasons, in a 6o GEOGRAPHY, INDUSTRIES AND RESOURCES. volume entitled Among the Isles of Shoals. She says : " Swept by every wind that blows, and beaten by the bitter brine for unknown ages, well may the Isles of Shoals be barren, bleak, and bare. At first sight nothing can be more rough and inhos- pitable than they appear. The incessant influences of wind and sun, rain, snow, frost, and spray, have so bleached the tops of the rocks, that they look hoary as if with age, though in the summer-time a gracious greenness of vegetation breaks here and there the stern outlines, and softens some- what their rugged aspect." Mrs. Thaxter finds occasion to picture considerable beauty, both in the very deso- lation which these Isles reveal, and in the ever changing shadows and colors of rock, and shore, and sea and sky, flecked here and there by the wings of lazy sea-gulls, and enlivened by the passing sails. The largest of these islands is well described by the poet Lowell in his — Pictures from Appledore. A heap of bare and splintery crags Tumbled about by lightning and frost, With rifts and chasms and storm-bleached jags, That wait and growl for a ship to be lost ; No island, but rather the skeleton Of a wrecked and vengeance-smitten one. ***** * Ribs of rock that seaward jut, Granite shoulders and boulders and snags, Round which, though the winds in heaven be shut, The nightmared ocean murmurs and yearns, Welters, and swas'ies, and tosses, and turns, And the dreiry black seaweel lolls and wags; Only rock from shore to shore, Only a moan through the bleak clefts blown, With sobs in the rifts where the coarse kelp shifts, Falling and lifting, tossing and drifting, And under all a deep, dull roar, Dying and swelling, forevermore, — Rock and moan and roar alone, And the dread of some nameless thing unknown, — These make Appledore. Although isolated, dreary, and unblessed by cultivation or thrift, the Isles of Shoals fascinate by their grandeur and solitude, and have become a favorite summer retreat. They are also rich in the history and romance of pirates, fishermen, and the law- less rovers that once infested the Eastern coast, and of strong ships dashed to pieces on the rocks in the winter's storms. The pirate Captains Kidd and Teach — or Blackbeard, as the latter was called — are supposed to have buried immense treasure here ; and it is related that Blackbeard's beautiful wife, to whom he had entrusted the care of his treasure before making his last fight with an English cruiser, and who had taken an oath to guard it until his return, has been frequently seen on White Island, wrapped in a long sea-cloak," stand- ing on the verge of a low projecting point, gazing fixedly out upon the ocean in an attitude of intense expectation." The solitary lighthouse of these islands, that flashes out its warning over the sea, stands a monument, as well, to the many wrecks that are known to have occurred here before it was built. Among these, one of special interest has passed into song and story. One night in January, 1813, in the height of a severe gale and blinding snow-storm, an unknown Spanish or Portu- guese vessel, built of cedar and mahogany and richly laden, was driven on to Haley's Island, and every life on board was lost. Fourteen rude graves, marked by rough boulders without inscription, enclose as many bodies, that were recovered from the unknown wreck. Fifty long years ago these sailors died ; None know how many sleep beneath the waves ; Fourteen gray headstones, rising side by side, Point out their nameless graves, — Lonely, unknown, deserted, but for me, And the wild birds that flit with mournful cry, And sadder winds, and voices of the sea That mourns perpetually. — Celia Thaxter. NEW HAMPSHIRE. 61 IV. INDUSTRIES AND RESOURCES. The leading industries and resources of New Hampshire differ but little in character from those of Maine, with the exception that New Hampshire has little or no ship- building. Both have, essentially, the same varieties of soil, climate, and natural pro- ducts of land and water, and the same adapta- tion of water-power to manufactures ; but while Maine has a . coast line of nearly 2,500 miles, with abundant harbors, and many long and navigable rivers entering them, New Hampshire has only eighteen miles of coast, and only one good harbor. Hence, while the maritime commerce of the one State is very extensive, that of the other is of little importance. Maine has fourteen United States customs districts; New Hampshire only one ; and while nearly 2,000 vessels from foreign ports enter Maine during the year, less than a hundred enter the single port in New Hampshire. In making these comparisons it should not be forgotten that Maine covers a terri- tory more than three times the extent of New Hampshire; and it will be seen, in the case of the latter State, that what is want- ing in one industry is made up in another. Although the number of manufacturing establishments of all kinds in Maine, and the capital employed, are greater than in New Hampshire, yet the latter is in advance of Maine in the value of the cotton goods it produces, and is exceeded in this branch of industry by Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Pennsylvania only. It is in advance of Maine in woolen industries also. In New Hampshire, as in Maine, the pro- duction of hay, potatoes, butter, wool, wheat, oats, Indian corn, and maple sugar, are the leading farm industries, but some of them are of little extent in the northern sections. The large county of Grafton pro- duces one-third of the 200,000 bushels of wheat raised in the state, one-quarter of the five million bushels of potatoes, and one- sixth of the 700,000 tons of hay ; but neither New Hampshire nor any other New England state raises sufficient wheat for home consumption. Says Professor Hitchcock, — "There are forty extensive granite quarries 1 in the state of New Hampshire. The stone is very fine grained, of a light gray color, and is used largely for obelisks in cemeteries." These quarries are found at Concord, Plymouth, Hookset, Manchester, and several other places. Mica 2 is found at Alstead, Grafton, and Acvvorth, in the granite ledges,- some- times in plates a yard across, and perfectly transparent. Soapstone 3 is found in large quantities at Francestown, and in Pelham, Keene, and Orford. With these exceptions, the mining in- dustries of the state are not important, although iron of superior quality is mined in the townships of Franconia and Bartlett, and gold in moderately paying quantities is obtained from the quartz rock of Lisbon, on the eastern bank of the Lower Ammon- oosuc. 1 Granite quarries, see page 30. 2 Mica, one of the constituents ofgranite, composed principally of silica, alumina, potash, and iron, is a mineral generally found in soft, smooth, tough, elastic, thin/a»iitue or layers, of various colors and degrees of transparency, As it stands heat, it is used, in place of glass, for the doors of stoves, lanterns, etc., and in place of window glass on board vessels of war. 3 Soapstone or steatite, a variety of talc, composed chiefly of silica and magnesia, of a white, greenish white, or light green color, is sawn into slabs and extensively used as tire stones in furnaces and fire places : when ground it is used for diminishing friction; and it is employed in the manufacture of some kinds of porcelain. MAP O F NEW YORK. NEW YORK. QUESTIONS ON THE MAP. 113 I. General View. [p. 114.] — What country north of New York ? What states border it on the east ? On the south and west ? What large lake on the eastern border ? What one connected with it ? Two larger lakes on the north and west ? What large river on the northern border ? On the western border? In the eastern part of the state ? What large city at its mouth P 1 On what island is it ? x Where is Long Island ? Staten Island P 1 What is the principal western branch of the Hudson River ? The capitol of the State ? II. Mountain System, [p. ii5].-Where are the Palisades ? 2 What mountains next north of them ? 2 Principal peaks of the Highlands ? 2 What chain next north of them? 2 What group opposite Hudson? 2 West of Lake Champlain ? 3 Its principal peaks? 3 Lakes? 3 Rivers flowing into the St. Lawrence ? 3 Into Lake Champlain ? 3 To the Mohawk and Hudson ? Into Lake Ontario ? III. Rivers and Valleys, and their Towns and Cities, [p. 121.] — Where does the Hudson River rise ? 3 Its general course ? Into what bay does it empty P 1 Where does the Mohawk enter the Hudson ? 2 Principal tributaries of the Hudson on the east ? 2 From the west ? 2 [p. 122.] — Between what rivers is New York City situated P 1 What three principal islands east of it in the "East River?" 1 Into what sound does this channel lead ? Where are the " Narrows ? " 1 [p. 125]. — Where is Brooklyn? 1 Gover- nor's Island ? x Bedloe's Island P 1 Cony Island ? Where is Yonkers ? 2 Tarrytown ? 2 Peekskill ? 2 West Point ? 2 Newburgh ? 2 Poughkeepsie ? 2 Albany ? 2 Troy ? 2 Co- hoes ? 2 [p. 130.] — What village at the head of Lake George ? On its outlet ? 3 Where is Whitehall? [p. 131.] — What is the general course of the Mohawk River? Where is Little Falls ? What are the principal tributaries of the Mohawk ? Where is Trenton Falls ? Schenectady ? Rome ? Utica ? [p. 132.] — Into what does the Black River empty ? Where is Sackett's Harbor ? Watertown ? Ogdensburg ? W r here are the Thousand Islands ? [P- T 33-] — Where is Oneida Lake? 4 What town at the mouth of Oswego River? 4 What ten lakes have their outlet in this river ? 4 On what outlet is Waterloo ? 4 Seneca Falls ? 4 Auburn? 4 Canandaigua? 4 Near the head of what lake is Syracuse ? 4 Where is Ithaca ? 4 Geneva ? 4 Watkins Glen ? 4 [p. 135.] — What five lakes have their outlet in Genesee River ? 4 What city near the mouth of the river ? 4 Where is War- saw? 4 Mount Morris ? 4 Geneseo? 4 [p 136.] Into what do Cattaraugus and Cayuga Creeks empty ? Tonawanda Creek ? Where is Batavia ? Buffalo ? Niagara Falls ? [p. 138.] — Where is Olean ? Chautau- qua Lake ? Fredonia ? Jamestown ? What three rivers unite near Corning to form the Chemung? Into what does the Chemung flow ? Where is Elmira ? What two lakes are the source of the Susquehanna River? Two chief tributaries of this river from the north ? Where are Oswego and Bingham- ton? Where is Cooperstown ? [p. 140.] — What two streams unite to form the Delaware River ? In what direction does the Delaware run from Port Jervis? What bars its further passage in that direc- tion ? 1 See, also, Map p. 122. 2 See, also, Map p. 128. :i See, also, Map p. 11S. 4 See, also, Map p. 134. ii 4 GEOGRAPHY, INDUSTRIES AND RESOURCES. CHAPTER VII. — NEW YORK. "' Tis a good land to fall in with, men/ and a pleasant land to see." — Henry Hudson. I. GENERAL VIEW. The " Empire State," as New York is called because it is the richest and most populous state in the Union, extends from the Atlantic Ocean to Lake Erie ; and its extreme length, including Long Island, is 435 miles. From the Canada boundary to the south point of Staten Island, its width is 312 miles; through the centre of the state from the St. Lawrence River to the Penn- sylvania border, it measures about 150 miles ; but from the mouth of Genesee River to the Pennsylvania border, only 88 miles. Its outline, therefore, is quite irre- gular, and its greatly diversified surface is divided into three distinct physical sections by the valleys of the Mohawk and the Hud- son, that meet nearly at right angles near the centre of the eastern boundary. 1. The Eastern Section. The smallest of these sections, and per- haps the most important, lies south of Lake Champlain and east of the Hudson River, and is characterized by high hills and broad fertile valleys, with numerous lakes and small streams. It comprises eleven coun- ties, seven of which, including New York, have a population that is exceeded only by the states of Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Illi- nois, respectively. This section includes the principal islands belonging to the State — Manhattan, Long, and Staten. The first is thirteen and a-half miles long, and varies in width from a few hundred yards to nearly three miles. This island was originally rough and rocky, except in parts of the south end, where marshes, ponds, and sand beds were fre- quent. The "Collect Pond," nearly two miles in circumference, covered the present site of the Tombs prison, in New York City, and was connected with the Hudson by a rivulet along what is now Canal Street. Long Island, 115 miles long and 14 miles in average width, is mostly a level plain, broken by high hills in the northern portion. It is generally fertile, and in a state of high cultivation. The coast is deeply indented with numerous bays and inlets ; and off the eastern part of the island are Shelter, Gardiner's, Fisher's, and Plum Islands. Staten Island lies close to the New Jersey shore, and is 13 miles long by about 8 miles broad. 2. The Northern Section. Another section of the state, comprising nearly one-third of its area but only one- eighth of its population, is the generally mountainous tract that lies between the Mohawk, the St. Lawrence, and Lake Cham- plain. The mountain plateau which occu- pies the greater portion of this section has been described as " that comparatively im- mense and beautifully circumscribed nu- cleus, which, from a height of nearly 6,ooo feet, descends with great irregularity, and disappears under the transition rocks which encircle it." 3. The Western Section. The last of the three divisions is the largest, most varied, and most attractive. It embraces all the territory of the state west of the Hudson, and south of the Mohawk and the Great Lakes. The greater part of this section is a broad plateau, with steep, forest-clad hills forming its southern boun- dary. That portion of it whose waters flow NEW YORK. "5 northerly into Lake Ontario, descends^ in a series of rolling and fertile terraces. This " Terrace Region," as it is called, is marked by a series of long and deep transverse valleys gemmed with beautiful small lakes. South of the water-shed the plateau consists of an irregular succession of ridges and valleys, drained by the Delaware, the Sus- quehanna, the Alleghany, and their branches- It will be readily seen that New York occupies a position of great geographical interest, and one of almost unlimited com- mercial advantages. Some of the waters that drain her territory flow north through the great outlet of the St. Lawrence ; others, south through the Hudson, the Delaware, and the Susquehanna, into the Atlantic Ocean ; while others, still, absorbed by the Alleghany, that empties into the Ohio, flow past the great cities of the west and south into the Gulf of Mexico. In the language of a distinguished states- man of New York, 1 "Our state enjoys the apparently incon- sistent advantages of having the deepest channels of commerce with the west, and at the same time of being at the head of the great valleys of the United States. This position enables us to penetrate, with our canals and railroads, into all parts of the country, by following the easy and natural routes of rivers. We can go into twenty states and into two-thirds of the territories of the Union, without leaving the courses of valleys. No other Atlantic state can make a communication between its eastern and western borders without over- coming one or more mountain ridges." 1 The late Ex-Gov. Horatio Seymour. II. THE MOUNTAIN SYSTEM. /. The Palisades, the Highlands, etc. With the exception of the spurs of the Alleghany Mountains that enter the south- western counties — -attaining in some places an altitude of from 2,000 to 2,500 feet — the mountain system of New York is confined almost wholly to the eastern portion of the state. In the southeast corner, on the west bank of the Hudson, the picturesque Pali- sades — a wall of trap rock — rise perpendicu- larly from the water's edge to a height of from 300 to 500 feet, and extend from Weehawken on the New Jersey shore, up into Rockland County, a distance of eighteen miles. The name " Palisades " was prob- ably given to these curious cliffs on account of their ribbed appearance, which resembles, from a distance, rude basaltic columns, or huge trunks of old trees, placed close together in an upright position for a barri- cade or defense. They afford fine views of 5 a the great metropolis, and of the towns and country-seats that line the eastern shore, — " Tall spire, and glittering roof, and battlement, And banners floating in the sunny air ; And white sails o'er the calm blue waters bent, Green isle, and circling shore, are blended there." North of the Palisades are the rugged Highland chains, running northeastward into the Taconic hills of Connecticut and Massachusetts. Their highest points vary from 1,100 to 1,700 feet. One mile above Peekskill, on the east bank, "Anthony's Nose," 1,128 feet high, rises abruptly from the river, a complete mass of rock partly covered with stunted trees ; and on the op- posite shore is the " Dunderberg," from whose summit the city of New York may be seen on a clear day. Immediately across from Cold Spring stands old " Crow Nest," on the western bank, the scene of Rodman Drake's poem of exquisite fancy, The Culprit n6 GEOGRAPHY, INDUSTRIES AND RESOURCES. Fay, which gives poetical life to the tiny- insect creatures that are supposed to dwell in that wild region. It opens with a beauti- ful description of the mountain, when " Nought is seen in the vault on high But the moon, and the stars, and the cloudless sky, And the flood which rolls its milky hue, A river of light on the welkin blue ; " — and it closes with a general jubilee of the Fays, that continues until " The hill-tops gleam in morning's spring, The skylark shakes his dappled wing, The day-glimpse glimmers on the lawn, The cock has crowed, and the Fays are gone." Above Cold Spring are " Bull Hill," 1,586 feet high; "Breakneck Hill," 1,187 feet, on whose extremity the imaginative eye so often pictures the profile of a human face ; and, near Fishkill Landing, " Beacon Hill," which derives its name from the signal fires frequently burned on its summit during the Revolution. " Butler Hill," or "Storm King," on the west shore, 1,529 feet high, closes the list of the wild and lofty Highland hills, whose natural beauty and grandeur have made the locality world- renowned. No storied castles overawe these heights, Nor antique arches check the current's play, Nor moldering architrave the mind invites To dream of deities long passed away ; — But cliffs, unaltered from their primal form Since the subsiding of the deluge, rise And hold their savins 1 to the upper storm, While far below the skiff securely plies. — Thos. W. Jrarsons. Still farther to the north and west the Shawan'gunk (Shong'gum) Mountains, that are a continuation of the Blue or Kittatinny Mountains of Pennsylvania and New Jersey, extend northeasterly through Orange, Sulli- van, and UlsterCounties, and terminate in the 1 Sav'in, a bushy evergreen shrub, of the juniper species. valley of the Esopus Creek, near Kingston. Along their entire western base runs the Delaware and Hudson Canal, that has its northern terminus at Eddyville ; and their eastern base is skirted by the Shawangunk and Wallkill Rivers. On the west are the fertile valleys of the Neversink and the Rondout, lying in the shadows of the lofty hills, and on the east are the famed grazing lands of Orange and Ulster Counties. 2. The Catskills. About eight miles back from the Hud- son, in Greene County, the Catskill range lifts its cloud-capped summits to an altitude of about 3,800 feet. While these moun- tains are a continuation of the Alleghanies, and have the same general geological fea- tures, — showing along their eastern base the" old red sandstone " formation, — higher up, the precipitous slopes of gray sandstone of a harder texture, — and on their summits a conglomerate of stones and pebbles, firmly cemented into immense masses of rock, — they differ from the Alleghanies in the Alpine character of their highest peaks. The white quartz pebbles which cap these peaks are a conspicuous feature of the mountain landscape. As the upper- most of the rocky strata composing these mountains are of the same character as the rocks which underlie the coals of Pennsyl- vania, and as seams of coal a few inches thick are found here among their massive blocks, it is evident that before the Cats- kills were upheaved from the bowels of the earth, a coal formation covered what are now their lofty summits. The Catskills are drained by the Scho- harie River on the west, and by Catskill Creek on the east. On the west they decline gradually into high table-lands, with forests of hemlock, birch, and wild cherry ; but their eastern slopes are characterized by broad and rocky summits and steep NEW YORK. 117 declivities, interspersed with a forest growth of black and white oak, hickory, chestnut, hard maple, and other ordinary woods. These mountains are chiefly remarkable for their varied and beautiful scenery. Of limited area, they have been thoroughly explored, and the cascades of mountain streams, deep gorges or " cloves " bordered by almost perpendicular rocks, and wild haunts that are suggestive of the strange dwarfish creatures that " Rip van Winkle " saw playing nine-pins in mysterious silence, are among the multitude of picturesque scenes that have been revealed. The cascades are a most striking feature. Chief of these are the Catterskill or Kaater- skill Falls, formed in the early part of the course of the Catterskill Creek, which rises in two picturesque lakes near Round Top summit. These are two separate falls of 180 and 80 feet respectively, forming, with the rapids immediately below, an aggregate descent of 300 feet. Hear what a favorite American poet says of them : — Midst green and shades the Catterskill leaps, From cliffs where the wood-flower clings ; All summer he moistens his verdant steeps With the sweet light spray of the mountain springs ; And he shakes the woods on the mountain side, When they drip with the rains of autumn-tide. This is a charming summer picture ; but it is in the winter season, as described by the same poet, that the upper falls should be seen, for then they present a spectacle as unique as it is grand. But when in the forest bare and old, The blast of December calls, He builds, in the starlight clear and cold, A palace of ice where his torrent falls, With turret, and arch, and fretwork fair, And pillars blue as the summer air. — Bryant. The Catskills are noted places of summer resort. Railways now pierce them, and excellent hotels and pretty cottages are planted on heights and slopes that com- mand charming mountain and lowland prospects. From the " Overlook," the " Grand," the " Kaaterskill," and other hotels, and from the terrace of Pine Orchard Mountain, where stands the old and familiar " Mountain House," the views are magnifi- cent. From the higher elevations a vast landscape lies before the beholder, stretch- ing as far as the eye can take in the picture. It is a map of earth, so to speak, with its fields, its forests, and its villages and cities scattered in the distance ; its streams and lakes diminished, like the dwellings of man. into insignificance. This prospect led an- other well-known American poet, and traveller, to exclaim, — How reel the wildered senses at the sight ! How vast the boundless vision breaks in view ! Nor thought, nor word, can well depict the scene ; The din of toil comes faintly swelling up From green hills far below; and all around The forest sea sends up its ceaseless roar Like to the ocean's everlasting chime. Mountains on mountains in the distance rise, Like clouds along the far horizon's verge ; Their misty summits mingling with the sky. Till earth and heaven seem blended into one. — Bayard Taylor. An extension of the base of the Cats- kills constitutes what is known as the Hel- derberg Hills, a limestone formation that continues with considerable distinctness westward to the Niagara River. ,\ The Adirondacks. The most rugged mountains in the state, and the highest of the northern Appalachian spurs, except Mount Wash- ington in New Hampshire, are the Adiron- dacks, composed of granite and other pri- mary rocks. Their first outcroppings are n8 GEOGRAPHY, INDUSTRIES AND RESOURCES. Map. The Adirondack Region. seen at Little Falls and at other points in the Mohawk Valley. They extend in three parallel ranges, with interlocking spurs, through several counties to the north- eastern corner of the state, and the ele- vated plateau from which they rise is nearly 100 by 150 miles in extent, and 2,000 feet above the sea. Among the highest peaks of the moun- tains may be mentioned Mount Marcy, 5,402 feet high, whose Indian name, Ta- h'd'wuSy means, " I cleave the clouds," — Mount Mclntyre and Mt. Haystack, 5,- 201, and 5,006 feet respectively — -"The three royal summits of the state;" also Mt. Dix, 4,916 feet; Mt. Seward, 4,- 384 feet ; and Mt. Sandanona, 4,644 feet ; while Gothic and Basin Mountains are nearly 5,000 feet high. The Adirondacks are rich in iron ores ; they abound in forests of hemlock, spruce, pine and cedar, which are succeeded, in the clearings, by the birch, beech, and maple ; while almost impenetrable swamps of tama- rack, cedar, and hemlock, are found in the lowlands. The forests have an undoubted beneficial climatic effect, and also shield the sources of the Hudson River and other important waterways from evaporation. The drainage of this mountainous region is toward the St. Lawrence River on the northwest, Lake Champlain on the north- east and east, and the Hudson River on the south. The many streams flowing in these different directions connect with one another, or interlock with numerous lakes that lie either in the broader valleys be- tween the ranges, or where the mountains NEW YORK. 119 crowd so closely on the shores that only narrow, deep intervales are found between the water and the mountain steeps. Most of the lakes and streams are well stocked with trout and other fish. To the west and southwest of the great peaks lies a chain of lakes, including Ra- quette, Long, and Tupper Lakes, whose outlet is the Raquette River, that winds along through ever varying scenes of vale and woodland for 140 miles, and empties into the St. Lavyrence. The following sketch from " Down the Raquette " may serve to picture more vividly the scenes that even now meet the eye of the tourist in this wild and romantic region. Mark the crane wide winnowing from us ! Off the otter swims ! Round her fortress sails the fish-hawk ; Down the wood-duck skims ! Glitters rich the golden lily, Glows the Indian Plume, On yon point a deer is drinking, Back he shrinks in gloom ; Now the little sparkling rapid ! Now the fairy cove ! Here the sunlight-mantled meadow ! There the sprinkled grove ! —Alfred B. Street. The St. Regis and Salmon Rivers are additional outlets into the St. Lawrence ; and the Saranac and the Au Sable, that run northeast in nearly parallel lines, dis- charge their waters into Lake Champlain. The Au Sable is distinguished for the dark rocks that uprear their rugged forms against its tortuous current, — for the gloomy shadows that overhang its steep banks, and for its falls of sixty feet near Keeseville, where the river enters a narrow chasm, called the " Indian Pass," more than one hundred feet deep and nearly two miles long. In the stately Indian Pass, From my fount of shadowy glass, I struggle along in hollow song On my blind and caverned way : Sharp, splintered crags ascend, Wild firs above me bend, And I leap and dash with many a flash, To find the welcome day. — Alfred B. Street. The southern declivity of the mountains is drained by the Boreas, the Schroon, the Cedar, the Indian, and many other streams, all of which eventually swell the volume of the Hudson. The Adirondacks, and the great wilder- ness adjacent, that were, until quite recently, the retreat of the hardy trapper or sports- man in quest of deer, bear, beaver, otter, and other game that is still plentiful, are now the summer home of thousands of people. Where there are no roads, the numerous lakes and streams serve as ave- nues of travel ; and hotels, taverns, and cot- tages are found in almost every quarter. Besides the lakes already mentioned, Schroon, Placid, Chateaugay (shat-o-ga/), Blue Mountain, and others are places of resort. But there are mysteries in the Adiron- dacks that the most daring have not yet solved. Says Mr. Colvin : x — " Few fully understand what the Adirondack wilder- ness really is. It is a peculiar region ; for although its geographical center can be readily and easily reached by the lakes and rivers which form a labyrinth of passages for boats, on either hand from these broad avenues of water are sections filled with the most rugged mountains, where unnamed water-falls pour in snowy tresses from the dark, overhanging cliffs, that remain to-day as untrodden by man, and as wild, as when the Indian alone paddled his birchen canoe upon those streams and lakes. Amid these x Superintendent of Surveys made in the Adirondacks, in recent years, by authorization of the Legislature of New York. GEOGRAPHY, INDUSTRIES AND RESOURCES. mountain solitudes are places where the foot of man never trod ; and here the panther has her den among the rocks, and rears her savage kittens undisturbed save by the growl of bear or screech of lynx, or the hoarse croak of raven taking its share of the carcass of slain deer." We close this sketch of the Adirondacks with the following impressive picture of life in the wilderness, which many a one, who has spent much time in this region, in sum- mer or in autumn, will recognize as true to nature. The Music of the Adirondacks.— jf. T.Headley. • " How often we speak of the solitude of the forest, meaning, by that, the contrast its stillness presents to the hum and motion of busy life. Yet the solitudes of .the Adirondacks are full of sound, aye, of rare music, too. I do not mean the notes of birds, for birds rarely sing in the darker, deeper portions of the forest. Even the robin, which in the fields cannot chirp and carol enough, and is so tame that a tyro can shoot him, ceases his song the moment he enters the forest, and flits silently from one lofty branch to another, as if in constant fear of a secret enemy. " Still you find music there. There is a certain kind occurring only at intervals, which chills the heart like a dead-march, and is fearful as the echo of bursting billows along the arches of a cavern. The shrill scream of a panther in the midst of an im- penetrable swamp, rising in the intervals of thunder claps — the long discordant howl of a herd of wolves at midnight, slowly travel- ing along the slope of a high mountain, you may call strange music; yet there are cer- tain chords in the heart of man that quiver to it, especially when he feels that there is no cause of alarm. " The lowing of a moose, echoing miles away in the gorges — the solitary cry of the loon in some deep bay — the solemn hoot of the owl, the only lullaby that cradles you to sleep, all have their charms, and stir you at times like the blast of a bugle. So the scream of the eagle, and cry of the fish- hawk, as they sweep in measured circles over the still bosom of a lake after their prey, or the low, half suppressed croak of the raven — his black form like some mes- senger of death, slowly swinging from one mountain to another — are sights and sounds that arrest and chain you. Yet these are not all — the ear grows sensitive when you feel that everything about you treads stealthily ; and the slightest noise will some- times startle you like the unexpected crack of a rifle. " But there is one kind of forest music that I love best of all. It is the sound of wind amid the trees. I* have lain here by the hour, on some fresh afternoon, when the brisk wind swept by in gusts, and listened to it. All is comparatively still, when, far away, you catch a faint murmur, like the dying tone of an organ with its stops closed — gradually swelling into clearer distinctness and fuller volume, as if gathering strength for some fearful exhibition of its power ; until, at length, it rushes like a sudden sea overhead, and everything sways and tosses about you. For a moment an invisible spirit seems to be near — the fresh leaves rustle and talk to one another — the pines and cedars whisper ominous tidings, and then the retiring swell subsides in the dis- tance, and silence again slowly settles on the forest. Only a short interval elapses when the murmur, the swell, the rush, and the re- treat, are repeated. "If you abandon yourself entirely to these influences, you are soon lost in strange illu- sions. I have lain and listened to the wind moving thus among the branches, until I fancied every gust a troop of spirits, whose tread over the bending tops I caught afar. NEW YORK. and whose rapid approach I could distinctly measure. My heart would throb and pulses bound as the invisible squadrons drew near, till as their sounding chariots swept swiftly overhead, I ceased listening, and turned to look. Thus, troop after troop, they came and went on their mysterious mission — waking the solitude into sudden life, as they passed, and filling it with glorious melody." III. RIVERS AND VALLEYS, WITH THEIR TOWNS AND CITIES. The river and valley system of New York may be said to consist of three general divi- sions : — the eastern, embracing the Hudson and Mohawk Rivers, and Lakes George and Champlain ; — the northern, comprising the basins of the St. Lawrence, the Black, the Oswego, the Genesee, and the Niagara Rivers, respectively, together with those of Lakes Ontario and Erie ; — and the southern, embracing the basins of the Alleghany, the Susquehanna, and the Delaware. /. The Hudson River. — General View. The largest river belonging exclusively to the state, and one of the most important in the whole country, is the Hudson. It is doubtful what European first discovered it, but it was first thoroughly explored, in 1609, by the Dutch navigator Henry Hud- son, whose name it bears, and who ascended the stream beyond the mouth of the Mo- hawk. Its highest known sources are the rills that trickle down the western slope of Mt. Marcy, in the Adirondacks, and that form, a thousand feet below the summit, the little lake called by the Indians " The Tear of the Clouds." From this loftiest lakelet of New York, the Hudson flows southward, gathering volume from numerous streams and the outlets of mountain lakes. After receiving the waters of the Schroon on the north, and the Saconda'ga on the west, it turns eastward, and, a little beyond Glens Falls, it again sweeps to the south, and continues in this direction, with little devia- tion, to its mouth. At Glens Falls, which is an important business point, with an immense lumber trade, the river has a fall of fifty feet over a precipice some nine hundred feet in length, producing a scene of surpassing grandeur. Above the falls is a great dam, built by the state, with a navigable feeder that supplies water to the Champlain Canal. Below the falls is a small island, which the novelist. Cooper has made famous in his " Last of the Mohicans." — " Here, amid the roaring of this very cataract, if romance is to be believed, the voice of Uncas, the last of the Mohicans, was heard and heeded ; here Hawk-Eye kept his vigils ; and here David breathed his nasal melody." One mile above Troy, the Hudson re- ceives the Mohawk River on the west. Its other principal tributaries are the Hoosac and the Croton from the east, and the Wallkill from the west. The entire length of the river is a trifle over 300 miles, and it is navigable by steamboats as far as Troy, 1 5 1 miles, and by sloops as far as Water- ford. The picturesque beauty of its banks, and its legendary and historic associations, make the Hudson the classic stream of the United States ; while its steady and peace- ful, yet majestic flow, has often been referred to as symbolical of our national strength and progress. Roll on ! roll on, Thou river of the North ! Tell thou to all The isles, tell thou to all the continents The grandeur of my land. Speak of its vales, And of its mountains with their cloudy beards Tossed by the breath of centuries ; and speak Of its tall cataracts that roll their bass 122 GEOGRAPHY, INDUSTRIES AND RESOURCES. Among the choral of its midnight storms, And of its rivers lingering through the plains, So long that they seem made to measure Time ; And of its lakes, that mock the haughty sea ; And of its caves, where banished gods might find Night large enough to hide their crownless heads ; And of its sunsets, glorious and broad Above the prairies spread like oceans on And on, and on over the far dim leagues, Till vision shudders o'er immensity. — Wm. Wallace. 2. Neiv York City. Still wert thou lovely,, whatsoe'er thy name, New Amsterdam, New Orange, or New York ; Whether in cradle sleep in sea-weed laid, Or on thine island throne in queenly power arrayed." The early Dutch settlers who bought Manhattan Island of the Indians in 1626 for twenty-four dollars, and founded thereon their city of " New Amsterdam," builded wiser than they knew. They little dreamed that the city around which it was the duty of the Mayor to walk every morning at sun- rise, to unlock the gates, would ever develop into magnificent New York, — the commer- cial metropolis and most populous city of the Western Hemisphere. The present city has little semblance Map of New York, Brooklyn and Vicinity. NEW YORK. 123 of the quaint Dutch town that lay along the "Battery," distinguished chiefly for its windmills, its rude wooden fortress, the gable fronts of its houses, and the grave and stately character of its burghers, while nearly all the rest of the island was shrouded in its primal forest gloom, and the surround- ing shores were occupied by the Manhat- tans, the Pamunkeys, the Hackensacks, and other Indian tribes. The Dutch surren- dered to the English in 1664. The follow- ing may serve as a picture of their town : Where nowadays the Battery lies, New York had just begun, A new-born babe, to rub its eyes, In sixteen sixty-one. They christened it Nieuw Amsterdam, Those burghers grave and stately, And so, with schnapps and smoke and psalm, Lived out their lives sedately. Two windmills topped their wooden wall, On Stadthuys looking down, On fort, and cabbage-plots, and all The quaintly gabled town ; These flapped their wings and shifted backs, As ancient scrolls determine, To scare the savage Hackensacks, Paumunks, and other vermin. Edmund Clarence Stedman. While New York is situated mostly on Manhattan Island, it includes Randall's, Ward's, Blackwell's, and other small islands in the East River, occupied chiefly by penal, reformatory, and charitable institutions ; and Governor's, Bedloe's, and Ellis island, in the Bay, occupied by the United States government. Beyond Spuyten Duyvel Creek and the Harlem River, the city also occupies the mainland as far as Yonkers on the north, and the Bronx River on the east. Its entire area is forty-one and a-half square miles. No other city in the world possesses greater natural advantages for foreign com- merce and inland trade, and its noble situa- tion excites universal admiration. Besides its unrivalled facilities of railroad and water- way communication with all parts of the country, lying, as it does, at the confluence of the Hudson and the East rivers, it has nearly twenty-one miles of water-front that can accomodate the heaviest shipping ; while the Upper and Lower bays, and the two rivers, afford over one hundred and fif- teen square miles of deep and safe an- chorage. In addition to the main sea approach to the city, by way of Sandy Hook and the Narrows, large vessels can now pass, with greater safety than formerly, to and from Long Island Sound, through the East River, — the obstructions at " Hell Gate," so dangerous to navigation, having been largely removed in 1885. With a harbor of such excellence and magnitude, New York stands, next to London, the most important com- mercial centre in the world. 1 In 1 880 New York had a resident popula- tion of more than twelve hundred thousand ; but within a radius of twenty miles are large cities and towns so closely connected in in- terest with the great metropolis as to be practically a part of it. The total popula- tion within this radius approximates three millions ; and tens of thousands of those whose homes are in these outlying places, are daily conveyed by numerous steamboat, ferry, and railway lines, to their business in the great city. The approaches by water present varied and interesting views of the city and vicinity. In coming up through the Narrows, — the narrow channel from the Ocean into New 1 New York has more than one-half of the foreign trade of the Union, and its inland and coasting trade is very large. For the year 1880, its exports were valued at £425,000,000, and its imports at $540,000,000; while in the same year it received, of the vast sur- plus products of the West, " 170,000,000 bushels of grain and flour; 2,400,000 barrels and tierces of meats, lard, &c. ; 1,112,000 bales of cotton; 3,550,000 packages of butter and cheese; and 300,000,000 gallons of petroleum." 124 GEOGRAPHY, INDUSTRIES AND RESOURCES. York Bay, — the variegated shores of Staten and Long Islands are close at hand, and, beyond the broad expanse of the beautiful Bay, alive with craft of all kinds, the vast city looms up on its island bed. Conspicuous objects on both sides of the Narrows, and on the small islands, are the old forts — Lafayette, Hamilton, Wadsworth, etc., with an interesting history — that still carry the Nation's flag, but would prove sorry defenders of its honor against a for- eign foe. An interesting object is the " Statue of Liberty Enlightening the World" — the gift of the French sculptor Bartholdi — that lifts its huge form above Bedloe's Island, and sends its rays of brilliant light a lone distance around. Bartholdi's Statue. Within the city the numerous public parks are prominent features, the oldest of which are the Battery, at the southern point of the island, and, just above it, Bowling Green, so-called from its use prior to the Revolution. But the most extensive is Central Park, in the northern part of the city, one of the most beautiful pleasure grounds in the world. It is two and a half miles long, and covers about 870 acres. Some of the noted buildings are the Post Office, and the Court House and other city and county buildings, in the City Hall Park ; the Sub-Treasury and Custom House in Wall Street ; the Grand Central Depot in 42d Street, the largest and finest railroad building in America; the Fifth Avenue, Windsor, and other hotels ; and a host of elegant bank and insurance buildings, theatres, libraries, hospitals, churches, etc. Cheap and rapid conveyance is furnished throughout the city by numerous lines of street cars, and by elevated steam railways that stretch their iron girders and steel tracks, mile after mile, over several of the principal thoroughfares on a level with the second stories of the buildings. A road called the " Arcade Railway," consisting of four tracks, is now in process of construction under Broadway, from curb to curb, and is to extend from the Battery to the upper part of the city. Among the many important streets is Wall Street, which is to New York what the city is to the nation — the great financial centre. In the northern part of the city are many avenues — fashionable promenades- - that are noted for their fine churches and residences ; but the great central and busi- ness thoroughfare is Broadway, 80 feet wide, running north from the Battery, through the central part of the city, to 59th street. In no other quarter is the cosmopolitan character of the great city so fully revealed as here, in the varied display of dress, and feature, and manner, by the crowds that throng the sidewalks of this street. NEW YORK. I2 5 " Hither they come and thither they go ; Like a mighty river they ebb and flow, With a rushing sound as of falling rain, Or of wind that ripples the grassy plain : The old and the young, the sad and the gay, Jostle each other on bright Broadway." —N. G. Shepherd. Although New York is pre-eminently a commercial city, its manufacturing interests are large, varied, and important. In value of product, men's clothing leads all other manufactures. The sugar and molasses re- fineries are next in importance. In the extent of its public charities, and in its educational facilities, New York is the peer of any city in the world. About three mil- lions of dollars are annually expended for the support of charitable institutions. The free or public-school system, noted for its efficiency and discipline, includes the College of the City of New York for males, a Normal College for females, and over three hundred grammar and primary schools, and several colleges. Private and undenominational schools are also numer- ous. To all these may be added, as im- portant factors in education, several large public libraries, and a public press that in extent and character has probably no equal in the world. New York is a healthy city. This is largely due to its situation between two rapid rivers that carry off its sewage, and to its supply of pure water, that comes from Croton River, in the upper part ot West- chester County, through an aqueduct 40 miles long, 7^ feet wide, and 8^ feet high. The water is carried across the Harlem River on High Bridge, a granite structure 1460 feet in length, with 14 piers and 15 arches, and 116 feet above the water. Two receiving reservoirs in Central Park cover 35 acres; and from another re- servoir at 40th street, that holds 20,000,000 gallons, the water is distributed in pipes throughout the city. The cost of the water-works of New York, up to the present time, cannot be far from $28,000,000 ; and still another aque- duct is being built, costing millions more, to furnish an additional water supply. Yet these large sums are but a fraction of the vast public and varied expenditure required for the well-being of a large and rapidly increasing population. j. Brooklyn. Brooklyn, just across the East River from New York, on Long Island, with over 700,000 inhabitants, is the second city o 1 " the state, and the third city of the United States, in population. Its manufactures and business interests are remarkably large. The water-front of S}4 miles, lined with piers, warehouses, basins, etc., gives the city immense commercial advantages. It is one of the greatest grain depots, and has three of the largest receiving basins for shipping in the world. The massive Atlantic Dock, fronting Governor's Island, has an area of 40 acres, and can accommodate 500 vessels at one time. It is surrounded by immense ware- houses, covering 20 acres more. South of this are the Erie and Brooklyn basins with 60 and 40 acres of water respectively. Another interesting section of the water front is Wallabout Bay, further up the river, where are located the U. S Navy Yard and various government buildings, com- prising 144 acres in all. About 2,000 men are emplo)^ed here. A remarkable feature of the government works is an immense granite dry dock, for inspection and repairs of vessels, costing over two million dollars. As a place of residence Brooklyn has few equals. It occupies an elevated position that affords fine views, and its wide and straight streets are very attractive. From the " Heights " a fine view is had of New York, the Hudson and East River, the Bay, and the New Jersey shore. The city is not 126 GEOGRAPHY, INDUSTRIES AND RESOURCES. specially remarkable for the size or archi- tecture of its buildings, but from the great number of its church edifices it is called the "City of Churches." Like New York, Brooklyn enjoys the possession of a beautiful pleasure-ground — Prospect Park — containing 5 50 acres. This park is located on an elevation in the south- east portion of the city, that afforded unu- sual natural advantages of wooded hills and broad meadows, which have been skilfully and tastefully improved. It commands a grand view of the harbor and bays, and even of the Atlantic Ocean. Leading from it are fine driveways to Coney Island, the great sea-side resort and breathing-place of the cities' multitudes, with its magnificent hotels, fine sea-bathing, and other attrac- tions. On the same ridge with Prospect Park, and farther south, is the great city of the dead, Greenwood Cemetery, widely noted for its natural and artificial beauties, occu- pying 413 acres. But a river flows between them, And the river's name is — Death." The rapid development of Brooklyn has been largely due to its nearness to New York, with which city it has always been closely connected by numerous steam-fer- ries. It is now still more closely connected with the metropolis by a gigantic suspension bridge, the greatest in the world, that spans the East River. The main supports are two stone towers, each 275 feet high, built on the opposite shores of the river. Between these are stretched four cables of steel wire, each 16 inches in diameter, that in turn sus- tain the roadways, consisting of two rail- way tracks, a footwalk 1 3 feet wide, and four wagon tracks. The floor of the bridge is 135 feet above the water. Its chief span, between the towers, is 1,595 feet. The width of the bridge is 85 feet, and its extreme length is 6,000 feet. It extends from the City Hall Park in New York, to the vicinity of the City Hall in Brooklyn, and has cost nearly sixteen millions of dol- View of New York, Brooklyn and the Bridge from Brooklyn Heights. lars. On the 24th day of May, 1883, this mammoth structure was formally opened to the public, when " The Wedding of the Towns," as it has been called, was celebrated with impressive and joyous ceremonies. The occasion is happily commemorated in the following lines : Side by side rise the two great cities, Afar on the traveller's sight; One, black with the dust of labor, One, solemnly still and white. Apart, and yet together, They are reached in a dying breath, NEW YORK. 127 The Wedding of the Towns. Let all of the bells ring clear, And all of the flags be seen ; The King of the Western Hemisphere Has married the Island Queen! For years he watched and waited Along the river side, And vowed that she was fated To be his own fair bride ; Full many a night he wooed her Upon her lofty throne, And he hath long pursued her, To make the prize his own; Nor thankless his endeavor, Nor coy the royal maid, But, like true-love's course ever, The banns were long delayed! And boys to men had grown, And men their graves had sought ; The gulf was yet between them thrown, And the wooing came to nought. Though couriers oft were dashing 'Twixt him and his adored, Still was the river flashing Between them like a sword. In heart they well were mated ; And patiently and long They for each other waited — These lovers true and strong. Let never a flag be hidden ! Let never a bell be dumb! The guests have all been bidden — The wedding-day has come ! For many a golden year Shall gleam this silvery tie : The wondering world will gather here And gaze with gleaming eye. Philosophers will ponder How, blessed by the hand of Heaven, The world has another wonder To add to its famous seven ; Philanthropists will linger To view the giant span, And point with grateful finger Where man has toiled with man ; 4- And all will bless the year When, in the May-month green, The King of the Western Hemisphere Was wed to the Island Queen. — Will Carleton. The Hudson River. — Lotver Section. The lower Hudson is a deep stream, about one mile wide as far up as Tappan and Haverstraw bays, where it expands to a width of three or four miles. Passing up the river from New York, the first import- ant place is the city of Yonkers, on the east shore, picturesquely situated on rising ground. Tarrytown, now a pleasant village, 26 miles above New York, is associated with scenes of the Revolution. Near here Andre, the British spy, was captured by Paulding and his associates. He was executed just across the river, at Tappan. With Tarry- town is pleasantly associated " Sunnyside," three miles south of the village, the home of Washington Irving, the genial humorist ; and two miles above the village is " Sleepy Hollow," the scene of Ichabod Crane's encounter with the Galloping Hessian, that Irving so graphically describes in his Sketch Book. " It is a charming spot, partly overgrown by trees, where the per- fect stillness is broken only by the warbling of the brook that runs through it." Sing Sing, beautifully situated on a slope of hills overlooking Tappan Bay, is the location of one of the state prisons. A few miles above the village is Croton Lake, the fountain-reservoir of New York's water sup- ply. At Haverstraw, on the west shore, are numerous brick yards, that turned out 300 million bricks in 1885. Three miles north of Haverstraw is Stony Point, the site of a fort during the Revolution, and memorable as the scene of two severe con- tests. Forty-five miles above New York, where 128 GEOGRAPHY, INDUSTRIES AND RESOURCES. "The Highland rocks and hills in solemn grandeur rise," these rocky fastnesses contract the river into narrow limits, and the water becomes of still greater depth. Peekskill, at the lower gate of the Highlands, is noted for its iron works.' West Point, on a bold pro- montory rising more than 150 feet above the river, its top a level and fertile plateau, is the seat of the United States Military Academy, and was the scene of important events during the Revolution. Fort Put- nam crested the lofty summit of Mount Independence, westward of the plateau, and all the neighboring summits were fortified ; while across the river, to obstruct the pas- sage of the English ships, was stretched the famous iron chain, with links over two feet long, made of iron bars two and a half inches square, and each link weighing about 140 pounds. At West Point the Highland cliffs seem to close in on the river as if to stop its farther progress; but although every anal- ogy of Nature would lead one to expect here a rocky barrier, the Atlantic tide sweeps on, " Low sunk between the Alleghanian hills," a hundred miles beyond the mountain chain which elsewhere divides the valley of the Mississippi from the Atlantic coast. " Noth- ing can be more impressive than the Ocean's deep and sullen ebb and flow far down among the great foundations of those stern gray heights. They stand as if arrested here when pressing upon the river current, and an enduring gateway is made through their stern portals. Ranged for many miles along the Hudson, had these mountains thrown a single spur across the stream, how would it have changed the course of events in our land ! Impressed with this M „ . p . unbroken current through the Highlands, Map. Hudson River. ° ° NEW YORK. i 29 Entrance to the Highlands. Viewed from the South. the observant Indian called it ' The River of the Mountains.' " j. The Hudson River : Upper Section. Above the Highlands the Hudson and its valley both broaden, and instead of the bold and imposing aspects characteristic of the central portion, gentle eminences and cultivated fields, interspersed with thriving towns and cities, are prominent features of the landscape. At Newburgh, just above the Highlands, the oldest settlement in Orange County, and a thriving city with extensive manufactures, the American army was disbanded at the close of the Revo- lution. Washington's headquarters were in the old stone mansion, still preserved, and now owned by the state, a short dis- tance south of the city. Poughkeepsie, fourteen miles further up the river, is one of the most beautiful cities of the state, and its trade and manufactur- ing interests are large. Vassar Female College is located here, and the city is famous for its schools. A few miles above, on the opposite shore, stands Kingston, the centre of the great ice industry of the Hud- son, and largely engaged in the river traffic. Hydraulic cement and the celebrated blue- stone, or flagging, are shipped here in im- mense quantities, the hydraulic cement alone averaging a million and a half barrels annually. The limestone for this cement is obtained by tunnelling the hills, and by running galleries in the layers of rock, sometimes nearly two miles in length, and often at a depth of 200 feet. 1 At Kingston, in 1777. was formed the first constitution of the state, and here the first legislature as- sembled. Hudson, at the head of ship navigation, 29 miles below Albany, before the war of 181 2, owned more vessels than New York. It has still a large shipping trade. Albany, the state capital, 145 miles north of New York City, and Troy, at the head of tide-water and of steam navigation, six miles north of Albany, are the largest cities of the Hudson valley. Each is the centre 1 Hydraulic Cement. While common building mortar, formed of common limestone, sand, and water (see Note, p. 32,) is a cement that hardens when exposed to the air, the hydraulic cements harden when immersed in water, and are extensively used in the construction of cisterns, cellars, and for cementing stone in the foundations of bridges, breakwaters, reservoirs, &c. The ma- terial from which hydraulic cements are made is what is called an argillaceous or clayey limestone, containing considerable carbonate of magnesia, silica, and clay, as well as carbonate of lime. It is calcined (pulverized by heat), in the same manner as common lime- stone, and then mixed with sand and water, and applied before it hardens. i 3 o GEOGRAPHY, INDUSTRIES AND RESOURCES. of five important railroads, which, with the Erie and Champlain Canals, and the river traffic that has grown up, have wonderfully increased the growth and prosperity of the two cities. Each has varied and important manufacturing interests. Albany is like- wise a great grain and cattle market, and the chief lumber depot of the state ; while the iron and steel industries of Troy exert a controlling influence over the iron interest throughout all the country east of the Alle- ghanies ; and its shirt and collar manufac- tures, having a value of more than three million dollars annually, are the most ex- tensive in the United States. In early times Albany was the centre of the Indian trade, and an important point in military operations. No foe ever invaded it. It became the state capital in 1797. Its public buildings and noted institutions are numerous ; and the new Capitol build- ing, commenced in 1 87 1 and not yet com- pleted, a huge structure of granite, richly decorated inside and out, will be the largest and most costly public building in America, except the National Capitol at Washington. Other prominent places in the basin of the upper Hudson are Lansingburgh, Wa- terford, and Cohoes. The latter is especially important, and derives its prosperity from its unusually extensive manufactures. The Mohawk River furnishes an immense water- power here that is utilized by a succession of canals. Six large cotton-mills supply the chief industry, that of knit-goods, with material, and twenty or more knitting-mills do the work. This place produces a third of all the hosiery manufactured in the United States. 6. Lakes George and Champlain. East and north of the sources of the Hudson lie two lakes, which, with the river, form one almost continuous natural water- way from New York Bay to the St. Law- rence. The first of these lakes, separated from the Hudson by only a narrow strip of land, is Lake George, called by the Indians " Horicon," — or Silvery Waters. Set in a mountain frame -work, this body of water, thirty-six miles long and from two to three miles wide, is remarkable for the hundreds of islands that stud its surface, for its trans- parent water, and its exquisite scenery. These have made it a prominent snmmer resort. In the midst of the mountains all bosky and wooded, Its bosom thick gemmed with the loveliest isles, Its borders with vistas of Paradise studded, — Looking up to the heaven, sweet Horicon smiles. Thick set are its haunts with old legend and story, That, woven by genius, still cluster and blend ; But its beauty will cling, like a halo of glory, When legend and record with ages shall end. — Henry Morford. Just beyond Lake George, and connected with it, lies Lake Champlain, 146 miles long, and varying in breadth from one to fifteen miles. The largest vessels can navigate its whole extent. Enclosed by high moun- tains — the Adirondacks on the west, and the Green Mountains on the east — this lake is celebrated for its magnificent scenery. The southern arm of Champlain is connected with the Hudson River by a canal 66 miles in length, running from West Troy to Whitehall. This latter place is a large lumber and boat-building depot ; and Pitts- burgh, a thriving village on the western shore of the lake, ships 'arge amounts of lumber and iron from the Adirondack region. Throughout its whole length, this great eastern valley of the state occupies a con- spicuous place in American history and legend. Its lower section, along the Hud- son, was the stronghold of our country in the Revolutionary war. It was the fortress of our liberties ; and there is hardly a point, PRIVATE CIRCULAR. Vineland, N. J., October, 1886. To In sending you the accompanying pages, I indulge the hope that the subject embraced in them, and its mode of treatment, will be a suf- ficient apology for the liberty which I have taken. I have long had in contemplation, and have partly written out, an educational work, the general character, purpose, and plan of which I wish to submit to some of our leading educators, that I may obtain their views of the proposed "New Departure," before I decide upon the completion of the work. As the most convenient way of attaining my object, I have had some portions of the work put in type, and printed, — of which I herewith enclose a copy. As one of the results of a long experience in the school-room, and, after that, as a writer of educational text-books, I have been led to regard Geography as the least interesting, and the least satisfactory, of all the studies taught in our schools ; and I know that many ot our best teachers have long been of the same opinion, although some of our modern Geographical text-books are models of their kind, and greatly superior, especially in their maps, to anything in the same line that has preceded them. The old plan has been admirably carried out, but it is the old plan still. Without any disparagement of these works I ask, is not some- thing more needed, in this department, that shall widen its scope, en- hance the interest felt in it, and carry forward the study of Geography to better results than have been heretofore attainable? Please turn to the accompanying extracts from the proposed work herein referred to, and see in what manner the " Geography, In- dustries, and Resources" of Maine, New Hampshire, and New York, have been treated; and then imagine all the other States and Territories of the Union treated in a somewhat similar manner, — and so of all the other countries of the world; and you will then be able to form some idea of the plan on which, departing from the old method, we would treat this important subject, for school purposes. But it will be said, the proper execution of this plan will require four or five books ! True. And are all .these to be studied? No; not as pupils study for the purpose of recitation. Take Maine, for example. Suppose that as good a map of that State as can be made is presented on page 24, and that the pupils first study the map, aided by the ques- tions on the opposite page. Then let the succeeding 18 pages devoted to Maine be used as ordinary reading lessons. These readings, it will be seen, are not confined to dry geographical details, but, embracing, as they do, a wide range of strictly collateral and dependent subjects, with descriptions of scenery, and such poetic and prose selections as are deemed appropriate, they possess considerable ya/iety of matter and of interest. Hence they will not only impress upon the, pupil the location of places, but they will greatly extend his knowledge of the industries and. resource&of the state, present and prospective; as based.- on its phys- ical geography an,d the character of the people. The- fnere, knowledge of prominent localities, without somewhat enlarged views bfiithose phys- ical aspepts that have given -prominence to some towns and cities and some countries over others, in the march of civilization, is of little worth. , . Please observe that the ■■J[ Questions oft the Maps" may all be answered from the maps alone;.. but as they- have the same order of ar- rangement as the descriptive matter which follows, the inquiring pupil, in his answers to the map questions, can readily supplement them with much additional matter from the readings, if he desires to do so. It is well to let this be optional with'the pupil There are no separate ques- tions to the reading matter. In using the work for Geography and Reading combined, I would suggest that the, pupil should study thoroughly his own State, and per- haps one other State s selected by the class, making u*se, in those cases, of the descriptive matter also, in answering the, map questions. Beyond that, the descriptive • matter should be : used for readings .only, and not for study and recitation, except as students should voluntarily make use of it in their map studies. But they rqay, properly, b,e questioned on their reading lessons I have thus given a brief and necessarily imperfect outline -of the general plan and purpose of the. work, but not, of all the; .educational reasons for it. Among these, the following may be briefly alluded to : i . It is customary for many of our schools to introduce two series of Readers, in order to obtain a sufficient amount and variety of read- ing matter. The growing tendency is to introduce more and more reaumg, in place of the old-fashioned study for drill and recitation. Tins tendency I regard as an educational improvement; as what is drudgingly committed to memory is much sooner forgotten than what is read with interest. Would it not be well, therefore, that one of the series should be of the Geographical character, of which specimens are given in the accompanying pages? Lat it be conceded, then, that the plan here outlined shall form a -series of Supplementary Readers, on a Geographical and Industrial basis. 2. Our current School Geographies are designed, and used, for school • study and recitation only They are seldom, if ever, taken up and read by the pupil out of the school-room, or by the family ._ They are not attractive reading. Can the subject be made attractive? Will not this Supplementary series, if completed as here proposed, give additional interest to Geographical studies, both in the school-room and Out of it? Some features in the maps may also be alluded to: i. It will be seen, from the size of page used in the accompanying selections, and from the spaces left for maps, that the separate maps of tlv; several states will be considerably larger than the average maps of the states in our School Geographies. Moreover, by giving enlarged maps of important sections, it is thought that the maps will be quite as useful as they would be if the state maps alone were on a much larger scale. See the spaces left for sectional maps under Maine, New Hamp- shire, and New York. 2. In our School Geographies the names of counties are seldom in- serted, for want of room. This is a serious omission, as the counties are so often referred to. But how can it be remedied? I purpose to designate the counties, in all the state maps in which there is not abun- dant room for their names, by conspicuous numerals, with references to them in an alphabetical list of the counties. See Maps, pp. 24 and — This will make the maps, virtually, much more full than they otherwise could be, and will not confuse by a great multiplicity of names. 3. It is our purpose to have the state and sectional maps lined in squares of statute miles, — 10, 20, or 50 miles square, etc., whereby the measures of distances, in the most appreciable form, will be constantly before the pupil. This is regarded as an important educational feature. The completed work will be in much better shape than is shown in our specimen pages. In estimating the cost, to the pupils, of such a work as is here proposed, it should be borne in mind that the pupil gets a complete Geography ', much more full than ordinary, and a Scries of Readers also. It may, perhaps, be desirable to have this work preceded by a smaller primary work, on a plan somewhat similar to this. The undersigned earnestly hopes that all who receive this Circu- lar will respond to it at an early date, and not only give their views of the plan that is here developed, but that they will make any suggestions that they may think desirable. The authors will be glad to receive in- formation as to any important industries, resources, natural scenery, poetic allusions, etc., or other matters of interest relating to the state or section of country in which our correspondents reside.and which we might chance to overlook. In conclusion we ask : Will the best interests of education, in the school and in the family, be promoted by such an educational series as we here propose? Or, shall we lay it aside, with all our accumulated materials for the work? It will be as our leading educators say; for we send out this Circular, and the accompanying specimen pages, for no other purpose than to learn their views. What shall the verdict be? Very respectfully, MARCIUS WILLSON. Note. Since the plan of the present work was designed, and partly written out, I have seen " The Royal School Series of Geographical Readers" six in number, published by Nelson & Sons, Edinburgh and London, and to be had at 42 Bleecker St., New York, I allude to this work to show that the same want has been felt in the English schools as by many teachers here, and that teachers may obtain the Foreign Series and compare it with the plan here outlined, if they would like to do so. M. W The idea has been suggested that it might, perhaps, be best to confine the work, for awhile, to the two volumes devoted to the United States, on account of expense to pupils. NEW YORK. *3i a mountain height, or a deep ravine, that does not recall heroic memories. The waters of the upper valley are per- haps still more deeply tinged with blood, and they have wilder and older records of savage contests. But they are none the less celebrated for their combats of disciplined warfare. Crown Point, Plattsburgh, Ticon- deroga, and other points on Lake Cham- plain, and Forts George and William Henry on Lake George, are among the historic names that tell where relentless war " star- tled the echoes of these beautiful lakes, and disturbed their wonted quiet and repose." 7. Ihe Mohawk and its Valley. The Mohawk River, which, as we have noted, intersects the Hudson above Troy, is intimately associated with it in historical interest and geographical importance. It rises in Lewis County, and runs for 135 miles through a valley of remarkable fertil- ity and great natural beauty, skirted by up- lands that stretch away to other valleys and mingle with still loftier hills. At Little Falls, an important village, the centre of a fine dairy district, the river forces its way through mountain barriers, falling 42 feet in three quarters of a mile, and affording great water-power for large and varied manufactures. Here the granite walls, on either side, rise to a height of nearly 500 feet, and ages ago they doubtless formed the crown of a cataract as magnificent as Niagara, that poured its flood into the great gulf, more than 100 feet deep, below the present cas- cades. From this gulf " rocky spikes, like church spires, shoot upward, some of them to the surface of the water." The Erie Canal, that runs along the Mohawk from Rome to the Hudson, at Little Falls has been cut through solid rock, a distance of two miles. At "The Noses," in Montgomery county, 6 A the Mohawk makes another depression, and at Cohoes, one mile from its mouth, it has its greatest fall. The river is here more than one hundred yards wide, and perfectly rock-ribbed on both sides. The fall is nearly 70 feet perpendicular, in addition to the tur- bulent rapids above and below. The canals, to which we have elsewhere referred, fre- quently lessen the volume of the stream so much as to lay bare the falls, and disclose here and there the rocky bed of the river, while the surface of the stream is also often streaked and discolored by the dye-stuffs used in the factories. Thus the hand of man, in the grand march of industrial pro- press, has robbed the river of much of its natural grandeur and beauty ; — a result that a poet deplores as follows : The Cataract of the Mohazvk. Ye black rocks, huddled like a fallen wall, Ponderous and steep, Where silver currents downward coil and fall, And rank weeds weep ! — Thou broad and shallow bed, whose sullen floods Show barren islets of red stones and sand, — Shrunk is thy might beneath a fatal Hand, That will erase all memories from the woods. No more with war-paint, shells, and feathers grim, The Indian chief Casts his long, frightful shade from bank or brim. A blighted leaf Floats by,— the emblem of his history ! For though when rains are strong, the cataract Again rolls on, its currents soon contract, Or serve for neighboring mill and factory. A cloud — of dragon's blood in hue — hangs blent With streaks and veins Of gall-stone, yellow, and of orpiment, O'ef thy remains. Never again, with grandeur, in the beam Of sunrise, or of noon, or changeful night, Shalt thou in thunder chant thine old birthright : Fallen Mohawk ! pass to thy stormy dream ! — Richard H. Home. 132 GEOGRAPHY, INDUSTRIES AND RESOURCES. The chief tributaries of the Mohawk are the Schoharie River from the south, which rises in the Catskills, and West and East Canada creeks from the north, which help drain the Chateaugay (shat-o-ga) range of the Adirondacks. In the most westerly of these creeks the Trenton Falls, six in num- ber, occupy a ravine two miles long, with an aggregate descent of 3 1 2 feet. These cas- cades are very beautiful, and in some places the rocky walls are 150 feet high. Like the Hudson valley, the valley of the Mohawk has been the pathway of im- portant events. The great Indian confed- eracy — the Iroquois, or Six Nations — saw its commanding geographical position, and made it the central point of their domain. On the advent of the white man, the then deep recesses and almost unbroken forests of the Mohawk became the scene of a bloody and protracted warfare that extended over the plains of Western New York. In Revolutionary times this warfare was con- tinued with even greater ruthlessness and severity, until, in 1777, the battle of Sara- toga, — the scene of Burgoyne's surrender, — " the field of the grounded arms," — vir- tually ended the contest. Many of the towns and cities along the Mohawk, and in its outlying valleys, recall memories of these bloody conflicts, in which some of the most heroic spirits of our country were engaged. Among these places are the old Dutch city of Schenec- tady, now the centre of the broom manu- facture of the valley, and the seat of Union College ; — Rome, a busy city of Oneida county, the site of old Fort Stanwix, after- ward known as Fort Schuyler; and Oris- kany, where was fought one of the most stubborn contests of the war. The largest city of the valley, Utica, does not stand on historic ground ; but with Gloversville, four miles from the river in Fulton County, where are made two-thirds of the kid gloves and buckskin mittens manufactured in the United States, Utica shares, along with its neighbors of the val- ley, the thrift and enterprise that have made what was once " the dark and bloody ground," a paradise of fertility, repose, and peace. 8. The Black, and other Rivers. The headwaters of the Mohawk are frequently mingled, when swollen by floods, with the waters flowing into Lake Ontario ; but this river is more immediately connected with that great inland sea by means of the Black River Canal, 35 miles long, which runs from Rome to Lyons Falls, in Lewis County. The Black River rises in Herkimer County, and has a tortuous course of 125 miles, partly through a rocky and hilly country rich in iron ore and limestone. It empties into Lake Ontario near Sackett's Harbor, one of the best harbors on the lake. Here are the Madison Barracks built by the government in 18 16; and here were the headquarters of a division of the American fleet in the war of 181 2. On account of rapids the Black River is navigable only between Carthage and Turin, forty miles. At the handsome and busy city of Water- town, the river falls 112 feet in its passage through the city, affording an immense water-power that is utilized in extensive and varied manufactures. The other principal rivers of the state north of the Mohawk, not elsewhere con- sidered, are the Oswegatchie and the Grass, both coursing down from the Adirondacks but a few miles apart, broken at intervals by rapids, and running through picturesque hills and fertile valleys to the mighty St. Lawrence, that takes its majestic way Through massy woods, mid islets flowering fair, And blooming glades, where the first sinful pair For consolation might have weeping trod, When banished from the garden of their God. — Thos. Moore. NEW YORK. 1 33 Ogdensburg, at the junction of the Oswe- gatchie and the St. Lawrence, is known as the " Maple City," from its handsomely built streets lined with fine maples. It is a port of entry, and has a large general trade with Canada and the western lake cities. The St. Lawrence forms the northern limit of only two counties of the state — Jefferson and St. Lawrence. Here its rich valley is nearly ten miles wide, and along the latter county the width of the river is about two miles. Where it emerges from Lake Ontario it expands into the " Lake of the Thousand Isles," so-called on account of its group of rocky islets — estimated at 1,500 in number — the most numerous col- lection of river-islands in the world. They vary in size from a few yards to several miles in length, and present an endless variety of charming scenery. Some are mere sy'enite 1 rocks, — " rocky bastions old, Shaped when the ancient ages rolled Around their thunder-rended forms Earthquakes and unremembered storms ! — " while others are beautifully fringed with luxuriant verdure and shaded by lofty trees. Many of them are places of resort and resi- dence during the summer months. p. The Basin of the Oszvego and the adjacent Lakes. What may properly be considered exten- sions of the Mohawk valley, are the basin of the Oswego River running northward, and the rolling country westward along the northern borders of the inland lakes. The Oswego is a short river — 24 miles long — but it is remarkable for the volume of water that it carries to Lake Ontario. " Beautifully significant," says a historian, " are the Indian 1 Sy'knite is the name given to that variety of granite in which hornblende is substituted in place of mica. (See granite, p. 30). Therefore we have micarcous granite and hornblende granite. Syenite was so named because it was originally mined at Sy-c'nc , in Egypt. names of Oswego and Ontario — rapid water and pretty lake — for the river comes foaming down broad rapids several miles before it expands into Oswego harbor and mingles its flow with the blue waters of Ontario." Some of these rapids are within the limits of the growing and picturesque City of Oswego, at the mouth of the river, where the harbor has three miles of wharfage, and the protection afforded by extensive break- waters. The city is a great grain and coal depot, and carries on an extensive trade with Canada in barley and lumber. Among its numerous industries are vast flouring mills, iron-works and ship yards, and the largest starch factory 2 in the world. Formed by the Seneca and Oneida rivers, the Oswego becomes the general outlet of most of the beautiful lakes that are so remarkable and important a feature of the State. Among these are the Onei'da, Ononda'ga, Skaneat'eles, Owas'co, Cayu'ga, Sen'eca, Keu'ka (or Crooked), and Canan- daigua. These streams and lakes furnish abundant water-power at Waterloo, Seneca Falls, and Baldwinsville, all on Seneca River ; at Fulton and Oswego on Oswego River ; at Perm Yan on Keuka outlet ; at Phelps on Flint creek and Canandaigua out- let; almost the whole length of Skaneateles outlet, the fall there being 453 feet in nine miles ; and at the city of Auburn on Owasco- outlet. Auburn has numerous cloth and carpet factories, a large trade in agricultural imple- - Starch, a granular, white, powdery substance, found in every household, is obtained from many vegetables, but principally from the cereals, and from Indian corn and potatoes, — and, in this country, from Indian corn chiefly, for commercial purposes. It has nearly the same composition as sugar. Starch is extensively used as a constituent of food, for laundry purposes, making size for paper, etc. Arrow root, sago, cassava, and tapioca (purified cassava) are the starch products obtained from various tropical plants. The starch factories of Oswego cover four acres, and pro- duce about twenty-two million pounds of laundry and edible starch annually, much of which is sent to European and other foreign markets. There are extensive starch factories at Glen Cove, L Island, the next in importance to those of Oswego, and that pro- duce about nineteen million pounds annually. J 34 GEOGRAPHY, INDUSTRIES AND RESOURCES. Small Lake and ments, and valuable limestone quarries. One of the state prisons is located here. Syracuse, a few miles east, is the largest city between Albany and Rochester. It is an important railroad and business centre. The manufacture of salt is its chief industry. The salt springs here, and at Salina (now a part of Syracuse) and Geddes, all in Onon- daga county, are under the control of the state 1 . Of the lakes of central New York, Cayuga and Seneca are the most important. The former is a deep and beautiful sheet of water 38 miles long, with an average width of 2 miles. Its broad expanse is broken by only one island ; — " one single gem Glitters in its green diadem." 1 The brine of the Onondaga Salt Springs is obtained, prin- cipally, by boring wells, two or three hundred feet deep, in the marshy lands which surround Onondaga Lake, whence the water is pumped into reservoirs, from which the salt is obtained by evaporation, or by artificial heat. The state tax on the Onondaga salt was formerly mx cents per bushel, it is now only one cent. While from 300 to 350 gallons of sea- water are required, to produce a bushel of salt, from 30 to 45 gallons only, of the Onondaga brine, are required. — For several years previous to 1871, the annual pro- duction of the Onondaga salt works averaged about eight million bushels; but the amount has declined since that date, owing to stronger brines found in other places, and the cheap importation of Liverpool salt. See, also, Warsaw, p 135. — Common salt is a chli iride of sodium. Terrace Region. The banks of the southern part of the lake are lined with perpendicular cliffs, through which deep and picturesque ravines have been cut by running streams. One mile east, in Tompkins county, are the romantic Taughannock Falls, 190 feet high. Not far away are Enfield Falls, a series of cascades having a fall of 230 feet ; and Fall Creek, having fine cascades and a fall of 500 feet within a mile. Near the head of the lake, on its inlet, is the flourishing village of Ithaca, the seat of Cornell University. Seneca Lake is about the same size as Cayuga, and is peculiarly exempt from freezing. Before the winter of 1856 there is no record of its having been frozen over ; and since then it has been frozen but twice. This lake has a large coal and passenger traffic, and is connected by the Chemung Canal with the river of that name ; by the Cayuga and Seneca Canal with the Erie ; and also by canal with Keuka Lake. Geneva, at its foot, delightfully situated on a lofty bank with the broad waters beneath it, is the seat ot Hobart College, and is noted for its extensive fruit nurseries that cover over 3,000 acres. NEW YORK. 7 -35 Near the head of this lake is Watkins i Glen, a deep rocky ravine, about 2*4 miles long, with numerous beautiful cascades, some of which are 60 feet high. The "Glen Alpha," "The Labyrinth," the " Grotto," the " Cavern Cascade," the " Glen Cathedral," the " Glen of the Pools," and — the crowning gem of all — the " Rainbow Fall," charm and awe the be- holder. Here the varied features of Nature are depicted in " The grace, the grandeur, the wild loveliness, And stern magnificence of waterfall ; Dark chasm, smooth pool, tall tree, and foamy flash Of rapids ; foliage fresh and green as heart Of childhood ; curls of feathery ferns which gave To the Greek temple the acanthus leaf; And mosses plump as formed Titania's floor At elfin dances." — A. B. Street. 10. The Basin of the Genesee. A few miles westward is another series of lakes, some of them equally picturesque and scarcely less important. These are the Honeoye, the Canadice, the Hemlock, and the Conesus, whose waters swell the -volume of the Genesee River, as it flows across the state from Pennsylvania to Lake Ontario. Their outlets furnish considerable water- power ; and Hemlock Lake, fast becoming a local pleasure resort, supplies the city of Rochester, more than thirty miles away, with pure water for domestic uses. Silver Lake, in Wyoming county, Black Creek and other streams, also find their way into the Genesee. Over the hills, a few miles northwest from Silver Lake, is the attractive village of Warsaw, in the beautiful valley of the Oatka, which is diversified by ravines and waterfalls. Warsaw has lately sprung into great prominence and activity as the centre of a large and apparently inexhaustible salt deposit district, that was discovered in 1878. The manufactured salt obtained here has no equal in this country, if it has in the world ; and but nineteen or twenty gallons of brine are necessary to make a bushel of salt, as against thirty to forty-five gallons at the Syracuse salt works. [See Note, p. 134.] The Genesee River, which rises in Penn- sylvania within a few yards of the sources of the Alleghany and the Susquehanna, is one hundred and fifty miles long, but is navigable only from its mouth to the limits of the city of Rochester, a distance of seven miles. It abounds in beautiful scenery, especially in cataracts, and its water-power is extensive. Winding, first, through the rugged spurs of the Alleghanies, near the middle of its course it runs about twenty miles through a deep and narrow gorge of almost perpendicular sandstone cliffs, in some sections 400 feet high. In passing through this gorge it descends more than five hundred feet, and near the southwest corner of Livingston county it forms Portage Falls, three cascades, sixty, ninety,- and one hundred and ten feet high respectively, and all within a distance of two miles. Across the chasm, at Portageville, the Erie Railway has an iron bridge eight hundred feet long and two hundred and thirty-four feet above the stream ; and here, also, the chasm is crossed by the Genesee Valley Canal, that traverses the state from Rochester to the Pennsylvania line, following the river's course nearly the whole distance. At Mount Morris, thirty-four miles south of Rochester, the river emerges into the broad and fertile Genesee Valley, probably the oldest cultivated valley in the state, in whose bosom, not far from the present vil- lage of Geneseo, amid extensive gardens and cornfields, once nestled the great capital of the Senecas, the western tribe of the Con- federate Six Nations. What are known as the " Genesee Falls," *3 6 GEOGRAPHY, INDUSTRIES AND RESOURCES. ninety-six feet high, and the scene of Sam Patch's last jump, are in the city of Ro- chester. Above them are rapids, and a mile below is a double fall of over one hundred feet. Rochester is a beautiful city ; it is an important canal and railroad centre ; its manufactures are extensive ; and the sur- rounding country is one of great fertility. //. The Niagara River and Lake Erie. West of the Genesee lies the basin of Lake Erie, and the Niagara River. Catta- raugus and Cayuga creeks flow westerly into the lake, and Tonawanda Creek into the River. Cattaraugus Creek, seventy miles long, runs partly through rocky cliffs, and furnishes abundant water-power ; as does also the Tonawanda, about the same length, besides affording slack-water navigation for the Erie Canal for ten miles above its mouth. Niagara River. The town of Tonawanda, at the creek's junction with the Niagara River, is a great lumber depot ; and Batavia, farther up the stream, in Genesee county, has some im- portant industries, and is the seat of the New York Institute for the Blind. Butter- milk Falls, also on this creek, are ninety feet high. The Niagara River, which flows from Lake Erie into Lake Ontario, is the channel by which the waters of the four great upper lakes — Erie, Huron, Michigan, and Supe- rior — are borne onward toward the Gulf of St. Lawrence. Where the river emerges from Lake Erie stands the important com- mercial city of Buffalo — the third city of the state in business and population — the western terminus of the Erie Canal, and the eastern depot and distributing centre for the im- mense traffic conducted on the Great Lakes. Its harbor is adequate for the large business of the city, and amply protected by break- waters. Iron manufactures in great variety are the chief industry of Buffalo. The city is delightfully located, and is noted for an extensive system of public parks, with broad boulevards connecting them. The length of the Niagara River is thirty- five 'miles, and its aggregate fall is three hundred and thirty-four feet. It encloses several islands. About four miles below Grand Island, the largest of these, is the celebrated cataract of Niagara, which is visited by tourists from all parts of the world. The river here comes rushing down over the rapids in leaping crests that seem like a battle-charge of tempestuous waves, and is divided by Goat Island into two separate falls, the largest of which, the Horse-Shoe Fall, on the Canada side, is more than two thousand feet across, in its curved outlines, and has a perpendicular descent of one hundred and fifty eight feet. As the deepest water, which forms the boundary between the two countries, is in NEW YORK. 137 the Horse-Shoe Fall, that portion of the fall between the boundary line and Goat Island is often called the Central Fall. As the falling waters are impelled with such force as to spring clear of the rocky wall into the deep pool below, a cave, called the " Cave of the Winds," is thus formed, into which persons often enter, and pass over a slippery and perilous pathway, behind the Central Fall. Niagara Falls and Vicinity. Here, as one looks up, almost over- whelmed by the deafening roar of the cataract, he sees huge mounds of rushing water, smooth, transparent, and gleaming like emeralds, bound over the brink of the precipice and break into silvery foam. Says a European traveller : — " As I passed slowly behind the falling waters, the light streamed in through a break in the flood, and I paused to look up. It was a spectacle never to be forgotten. From a cavern of black waters, turned here and there into cataracts of brilliants, I looked out into a strange world, as fair but as intangible as seen in dreams." The height of the American Fall is one hundred and sixty-seven feet. In the year 1885 the state acquired, by purchase, full control and management of Goat Island, and the surroundings of the great cataract on the American side. By a liberal policy the attractiveness of the locality has been much enhanced, and visitors are now secure from the various annoyances to which they were formerly subjected. The Canadian government has taken similar action regard- ing the Falls on the Canada side. Below the cataract the river flows in a gorge or chasm, seven miles in length, and almost as wonderful as the cataract itself. Three miles below the Falls is the noted " Whirlpool," formed by a deep recess in the cliff on the Canada side, into which the rapid current rushes, and then turning back emerges nearly at a right angle from its former course. Geologists tell us that the cataract of Niagara was once some six miles nearer Lake Ontario than it is now, and it is still receding at the rate of about a foot a year. Changes that affect its form and diminish its volume are also constantly occurring. But Niagara still stands pre-eminent among the cataracts of the world, and is inde- scribably grand. " By universal consent it has long been proclaimed one of the won- ders of the world. It is alone in its kind. Though a waterfall, it is not to be com- pared with other waterfalls. In its majesty, its supremacy, and its influence on the soul of man, its brotherhood is with the living ocean and the eternal hills." The quiet flowing of the mighty stream until it begins to be broken in its course by the rocks, — the rush and roar of the raging waters as they hurry onward to the precipice, — and the thunder and shock of their fall, with the rising clouds of mist and foam arched by the glory of "a thousand rainbows," are well pictured in the following description. Niagara Falls. Thou flowest on in quiet, till thy waves Grow broken midst the rocks ; thy Current then Shoots onward like the irresistible course 138 GEOGRAPHY, INDUSTRIES AND RESOURCES. Of Destiny. Ah, terribly they rage, — The hoarse and rapid whirlpools there ! My brain Grows wild, my senses wander, as I gaze Upon the hurrying waters; and my sight Vainly would follow, as toward the verge Sweeps the wide torrent. Waves innumerable Meet there and madden,- -waves innumerable Urge on and overtake the waves before, And disappear in thunder and in foam. They reach, they leap the barrier, — the abyss Swallows insatiable the sinking waves. A thousand rainbows arch them, and the woods Are deafened with the roar. The violent shock Shatters to vapor the descending sheets. A cloudy whirlwind fills the gulf, and heaves The mighty pyramid of circling mist To heaven. — jfose Maria Heredia. The following selection as vividly de- picts the overwhelming impression of sub- limity and infinite power, which the first view of this cataract is so well calculated to produce upon the beholder. I stood within a vision's spell; I saw, I heard. The liquid thunder Went pouring to its foaming hell, And it fell Ever, ever fell Into the invisible abyss that opened under. I stood upon a speck of ground ; Before me fell a stormy ocean. I was like a captive bound ; And around A universe of sound Troubled the heavens with ever-quivering motion. Down, down forever — down, down forever, Something falling, falling, falling, Up, up forever — up, up forever, Resting never, Boiling up forever, Steam-clouds shot up with thunder-bursts appalling. A tone that since the birth of man Was never for a moment broken, A word that since the world began, And waters ran, Hath spoken still to man, — Of God and of Eternity hath spoken. -Anon. It has often been observed that the feel- ings inspired by the first view of the cata- ract very naturally give place, on farther acquaintance, to those of reverential awe and contemplation, — an expression of which may be found in these lines. Flow on forever, in thy glorious robe Of terror and of beauty. Yea, flow on Unfalhomed and resistless. God hath set His rainbow on thy forehead ; and the clouds Mantled around thy feet. And he doth give Thy voice of thunder power to speak of Him Eternally, — bidding the life of man Keep silence, — and upon thy rocky altar pour Incense of awe-struck praise. The morning stars, When first they sang o'er young creation's birth, Heard thy deep anthem ; and those wrecking fires, That wait the archangel's signal to dissolve This solid earth, shall find Jehovah's name Graven, as with a thousand diamond spears, On thine unending volume. — Lydia H. Sigourney. 12. The Alleghany and the Susquehanna. Passing now to the southern division of the water-courses of the state, we come first to the Alleghany River, that rises in Penn- sylvania, and makes an extensive detour through Cattaraugus County before re- crossing the state boundary line. Near Olean, and at other points in its valley, in the northern extension of the Pennsylvania oil district, petroleum springs 1 were dis- 1 Crude Petroleum (rock oil) was known to the early settlers of New York and Pennsylvania ; and so late as 1850 it was sold as a medicine for two dollars a bottle. It was then known as Seneca Oil, because the Indians had collected it on the shores of Seneca Lake. Since that time it has been obtained in such quantities, by boring, that it has sold for thirty cents a barrel ; and the wholesale price now is seldom over one dollar a barrel. Up to January 1, 1884, the value of the crude petroleum produced In the United States during the preceding thirty years amounted to 625 million dollars. — The illuminating oil, kerosene, that was formerly ob- tained from coal by distillation, is now obtained, together with many other commercial products, from petroleum. (See, under Pennsylvai ia, p. .) NEW YORK. 139 covered in 1881. One of the tributaries of the Alleghany is Conewango Creek, that receives the surplus waters of Chautauqua Lake. This lake is eighteen miles long, and from one to three and a half miles wide, and is beautifully located among the hills. Although only seven miles from Lake Erie it is seven hundred and thirty feet higher, and twelve hundred and ninety feet above the sea. It has become a popu- lar resort, unusually free from all demoral- izing influences ; it is visited by vast num- bers of people, and is the seat of a remark- able school of learning in which instruction is given in the summer season in six dif- ferent departments, — with a " Literary Cir- cle " that has branches throughout the country for special reading and improve- ment. — Jamestown, on the outlet of the lake, is a rapidly growing manufacturing centre. East of the Alleghany, near Corning, a thriving village of Steuben county, the Conhocton, the Canisteo, and the Tioga River from Pennsylvania, unite and form the Chemung. This river irrigates a broad and beautiful valley bounded by ranges of hills that are only broken by the lateral streams flowing into it. The principal city in the valley is Elmira, with its many roll- ing-mills and other iron works, tanneries, and varied manufactures. Hornellsville, on the Canisteo, is a manufacturing village of importance. The Chemung, in turn, flows southeasterly and empties into the east branch of the noble Susquehanna, " Whose gentle tide Picturing the gorgeous beauty of the sky, Onward, unbroken by the ruffling wind, Majestically flows." The chief tributaries of the Susquehanna on the north are the Chenango and Una- dilla rivers. Its main sources are Schuyler and Otsego lakes. The latter is one of the most beautiful and celebrated of the inland lakes, lying among the hills on the southern border of the Mohawk valley. The river leaves the lake at the foot of " Mount Vision," near which is the beautiful village of Cooperstown, and, stealing away under shady banks, it rapidly courses southwest- erly through wooded glens and mountain defiles, or across broad meadow-lands, toward the more rugged Alleghanies of Pennsylvania. Around a spur of these it makes what is known as the " Great Bend," then flows past the handsome and thriving city of Binghamton and the pleasant village of Owego, and finally leaves the State near Waverley. The entire course of the river in New York is much broken by rapids, and it is only during the spring floods that it is navigable for boats and rafts. Its timber traffic is very large. The upper waters of this branch of the Susquehanna traverse a country that is celebrated for its natural beauty, perfect combinations of hill and valley, lake and forest, and one replete with interesting his- torical associations. This whole region has also a wealth of aboriginal legend. In the "Leather Stocking Tales," the genius of Cooper, the first American novelist, whose home was at Cooperstown, has clothed its waters and the neighboring hills and val- leys with a halo of romance and interest that will last forever. " From the « Haunted Lake,' " says a writer, "as Otsego is some- times called, seems to come the wail of a vanished host. The air is filled with un- seen spirits, who pour forth their plaints. The very winds are whist, and the ripplings of the water on the beach are stilled." Otsego Lake. O Haunted Lake, from out whose silver fountains The mighty Susquehanna takes its rise ; O haunted lake, among the pine- clad mountains, Forever smiling upward to the skies, — 140 GEOGRAPHY, INDUSTRIES AND RESOURCES. Thrice blest art thou in every curling wavelet, In every floating water-lily sweet, — From the old Lion at thy northern boundary, To fair Mount Vision sleeping at thy feet. A master's hand hath painted all thy beauties ; A master's mind hath peopled all thy shore With wraiths of mighty hunters and fair maidens, Haunting thy forest glades forevermore. A master's heart hath gilded all thy valley With golden splendor from a loving breast ; And in thy little church-yard, 'neath the pine-trees, A master's body sleeps in quiet rest. O Haunted Lake, guard well thy sacred story, — Guard well the memory of that honored name ! Guard well the grave that gives thee all thy glory And raises thee to long-enduring fame. — Anonymous. rj. The Delaware. The last important river of the southern division is the Delaware, that is formed by- two streams, called the East Branch and the West Branch, which rise in the Catskill Mountains, and, flowing southwesterly, unite near the northeast angle of Pennsyl- vania. The Delaware then proceeds south- east in a winding course, and forms the boundary between Pennsylvania and the Counties of Delaware, Sullivan, and Orange. The Delaware and Hudson Canal, that commences at a dam in the river near Lack- awaxen Creek, connects it with the waters of the Hudson, and the Erie Railway runs along its valley for nearly eighty miles. At Port Jervis, in Orange County, where there are extensive car-works and glass factories, the river is turned sharply to the southwest by the impassable barrier of the Kittatinny Mountains. Like the Susquehanna, the upper waters bf the Delaware are shallow and narrow, but its rafting business is large. The chief tributaries of this river, in New York, are three streams from Sullivan County. The Beaverkill flows into its eastern branch, through a wild region, where the forests throw their deepest shades, and the scream of the cougar is still heard from the moun- tain side ; and, a few miles above Port Jervis, the Delaware is entered by the little Mongaup River, whose picturesque falls roar down, deep-toned and sullen. " Swift as an arrow from the bow, Headlong the torrent leaps, Then tumbling round, in dazzling snow And dizzy whirls it sweeps ; Then, shooting through the narrow aisle Of this sublime cathedral pile, Amid its vastness, dark and grim, It peals its everlasting hymn." — A. B. Street. At Port Jervis, where the Delaware is joined by the Neversink River, the scenery is very fine, and attracts many visitors. It is at this and other points, where the river, hemmed in by high hills, is contracted into a narrow bed, that occur the disastrous freshets for which the Delaware is noted. With the early spring rains it suddenly rises from its winter prison, and huge bodies of ice, hurled by the flood around a sharp curve or bend in the river, are so piled up as to form an immense " ice-jam" across the nar- row gorge. Thus choked in the flow, the waters inundate the country above. Hour after hour uprears the wall, Until a barrier huge and tall Breasts the wild waves that vain upswell To overwhelm the obstacle : They bathe the alder on the verge, The leaning hemlock now they merge, The stately elm is dwindling low Within the deep ingulfing flow, Till, curbed thus in its headlong flight, With its accumulated might, The river, turning on its track, Rolls its broad speeding volumes back. — A.B. Street. NEW YORK. 141 But when the icy barrier finally gives way, and the imprisoned waters are let loose, the loss of property, and even of life, is sometimes very great. The floods sweep everything from their path for miles along the valley below ; and. trees, bridges, cattle, and dwellings are carried away by the rush- ing, resistless torrent. CHAPTER III.— INDUSTRIES AND RESOURCES. New York has no rival among the states in the extent and value of its commerce. One angle of the state rests upon the Atlan- tic Ocean, another reaches north to the St. Lawrence River, while a third stretches west to the Great Lakes and the valleys and streams connected with the Mississippi. The state is thus placed at the heads of the great valleys and waterways of the country, and is united with them by its own system of valleys and waterways that traverse the state in all directions. Through or along these, also, have been constructed numerous canals and railroads — great channels of communication — that develop the state's resources and help it to control the com- merce of the country. Of the ten principal canals, having a total length of nearly 900 miles, the Erie is the grand trunk, affording a continuous water- channel from Lake Erie to the Hudson River, and thence down the river to the port of New York. It was completed in 1825 at a cost of nearly eight million dol- lars ; but its enlargement and other altera- tions have brought up the cost to over fifty millions. Its average width is about seventy feet at the surface, and it has seventy-two locks. At Lockport, Niagara county, there are five locks which give a rise of fifty-six feet from the level of the Genesee valley to the level of Lake Erie. Many other canals unite with the Erie or join important lakes and rivers, the whole forming a body of navigable waters of vast extent. The canals, and the prominent railway lines, carry to New York City the greater part of the surplus products of the Western States and of Canada. The commerce of the city is further increased by a large coasting trade, and by the railroads of New Jersey and the South, of Pennsylvania, and of New England, that converge there. One- half of the exports and more than two- thirds of the imports of the country pass through New York harbor. The manufacturing industries of the state are found in every section, and comprise an infinite variety. They employ nearly one fourth of the capital invested in manufac- tures in the United States, and their pro- ducts have a corresponding extent and valuation. In agriculture, New York is in some respects the leading state. Although four states rank higher in area of farm land, in the value of its farms and of its farm pro- ducts New York is only exceeded by Ohio and Illinois, respectively. While California leads all the states in the amount of barley raised, New York is second on the list. But little of its soil is unproductive. Live stock is raised, and hay is grown, in immense quantities. These, with the dairy products — butter and cheese — are the chief agricultural industries, which include, besides the staple cereals of the rich terraces and lowlands of the western section, the broom-corn of the Mohawk Valley ; the tobacco of Onondaga, Chemung, and Steu- ben counties ; the hops of Ontario, Madison, Oneida, Otsego, and Schoharie ; and the grape and other fruit of the central, lake, and river valleys. The state ranks first of all in its fruit products. The mineral wealth of New York is con- siderable. We have already referred to the 142 GEOGRAPHY, INDUSTRIES AND RESOURCES. rich iron deposits of the Adirondack region, where, it has been said, "the beds of the rivers are of iron, and the foundations of the mountains are laid upon the same material." Iron mines are also found in Wayne, Oneida, and Duchess counties; flagstones and cement in Ulster county ; gypsum 1 in Onondaga; marble in Westchester and at Glens Falls ; and limestone in abundance at many points. The gas-wells 2 of Bloomfield in Ontario county, and of Fredonia in Chau- tauqua count) r , are of much local importance; and petroleum 3 , as we have seen, is obtained in the Alleghany Valley. The salt-springs of Syracuse and of Warsaw have already been mentioned. Summer Resorts. So great are the multitudes of people that leave the crowded cities in midsummer to seek health and recreation in purer air and change of scene, that they have given increased importance to many an inland town or village, and many a seaside resort. Tens of thousands from the country, also, are attracted to these places, and the rail- roads reap rich harvests from the increase of travel occasioned by the general summer exodus. 1 Gypsi'M, or sulphate of lime, is a common rock mineral, usually white, but sometimes colored by foreign substances, and consisting of sulphur, lime, and 21 per cent, of water. Sel'enite and alabaster are varieties of gypsum. As the most important deposit of it is near Paris, France, it is commonly known as Plaster of Paris. When the gypsum rock is calcined its propor- tion of water is driven oft", and if it be then ground and mixed with water it becomes plaster, but soon hardens, and is therefore much used for plaster casts When mixed with glue water, or sand and pulverized marble, it is called stucco, and is much used as a plaster for internal decorations ; but its chief use is as a fertiliz-r for soils. In its preparation for this purpose the gypsum rock is first ground to powder and then calcined As it easily absorbs moisture it should be carefully protected from it until wanted. About 100,000 tons of it are annually produced in New York. 2 Combustible Natural Gas has long been known to issue from the earth, and it is obtained in some places in immense quan. tities by boring. It is of variable composition, but light carburetted hydrogen gas (carbon and hydrogen), or marsh gas, is its principal constituent. In 1886 this gas was used for manufacturing pur- poses on a small scale in eight towns in New York, twenty-four towns in Pennsylvania, and in five in Ohio. (See under Pennsyl- vania, p .) '•Petroleum. Seepage , under Pennsylvania. The most fashionable of these resorts in this state is the village of Saratoga Springs, 32 miles northwest of Albany. It has a resident population of about 12,000, while the visitors during the summer often num- ber, in the aggregate, 50,000. The twenty- eight medicinal springs found here, and the many stately elms, are almost the only fea- tures of interest in the natural scenery, although Saratoga Lake, three miles east of the village, has many and varied attractions. Still farther east, near the Hudson, is the scene of Burgoyne's surrender, in 1777, where, as the poet Halleck says : — The forest leaves lay scattered cold and dead, Upon the withered grass that autumn morn, When, with as withered hearts, And hopes as dead and cold, A gallant army formed their last array Upon that field, in silence and deep gloom, And at their conqueror's feet Laid their war-weapons down. There are many other medicinal springs that have numerous visitors during the summer season. Among these may be mentioned Massena Springs, near the Raquette River, in St. Lawrence County, and Sharon Springs, in a valley of Scho- harie county, surrounded by attractive scenery. Not far away from the latter are Cherry Valley, the scene of one of the In- dian Brant's horrible massacres, and other points of historical interest. The waters of Richfield Springs, in the adjoining county of Otsego, have a high repute for their medicinal virtues. Thirteen miles south is Cooperstown, another resort, which adds to its own charms those of Otsego Lake. Other medicinal springs are those at Balls- ton, six miles southwest of Saratoga ; Lebanon, in Columbia county ; Chittenango in Madison county ; Clifton, in Ontario : Avon Sulphur Springs, in Livingston ; Cornwall Mineral Springs in Orange county ; NEW YORK. 143 and the nine " Oak Orchard Acid Springs," all within a circle of fifty rods, in Genesee county. The Catskill mountains 1 , the Adiron- dacks 2 , Lake George 3 , Trenton Falls 4 , the Thousand Islands 5 , Watkin's Glen 6 , Niagara Falls 7 , Chautauqua Lake 8 , and Coney Island 9 , have already been mentioned as summer resorts. To these may be added Shelter Island at the eastern extremity of Long Island, Fire Island in Great South Bay, on the southern coast, — and Lake Maho'pac, with its beautiful islands and pic- turesque scenery, fifty miles northeast of New York, in Putnam county. 1 See p, 116. — 2 p. 117. — 3 p. 130.— * p. 132. — 5 p. 133. — 6 p. 135. — " P- J 37- — 8 P- *39- — 9 P- I2 ^- Lake of the soft and sunny hills, What loveliness is thine ! Around thy fair, romantic shore What countless beauties shine ! Shrined in their deep and hollow urn, Thy silver waters lie, — A mirror set in waving gems Of many a regal dye. Oh, pleasant to the heart it is In those fair isles to stray, Or Fancy's idle visions weave Through all the golden day, Where dark old trees, around whose stems Caressing woodbines cling, O'er mossy, flower-enamelled banks Their trembling shadows fling. — Caroline M. Sawyer.