the E.; the Atlantic Ocean, New Jersey and Pennsylvania, on
the S.; and Pennsylvania, Lake Erie and the Niagara river on
the W.
The state has a triangular outline, with a breadth from E. to W. of 326·46 m. and from N. to S., on the line of the Hudson, of 300 m. In addition, it includes Long Island and Staten Island on the Atlantic Coast. Its land area is 47,654 sq. m. and the area of the inland waters is 1550 sq. m., giving a total area of 49,204 sq. m. In addition to this, New York includes 3140 sq. m. of water in Lakes Ontario and Erie.
Topography.—The most notable topographic feature is the roughly circular mountain area of north-eastern New York known as the Adirondack mountains (q.v.). This is a very ancient mountain mass of crystalline rocks resembling more the Laurentian mountains of Canada than the Appalachians. Indeed, it is commonly considered to be an extension of the Canadian mountains. Parts of the crystalline area are worn down to a condition of low relief, but in the main mountain mass, although greatly worn, there are still elevations of truly mountainous proportions. The highest peak is Mount Marcy (5344 ft.), though associated with it are several other peaks with an elevation from 4000 to 5000 ft. Even the higher summits are worn to a rounded condition, and are therefore for the most part forest covered up to the timber line which, on Mount Marcy, is at an elevation of about 4900 ft. From the crest of the dome of the Adirondacks proper the surface slopes in all directions to surrounding lowlands: to the St Lawrence valley on the N.; the Champlain-Hudson lowland on the E.; the Mohawk valley on the S.; and Lake Ontario on the W. While igneous and metamorphic crystalline rocks form the bulk of the Adirondack area, it is surrounded by a ring of ancient Palaeozoic sediments in which these peripheral lowlands have been developed. The Adirondack area proper, and much of the surrounding ring of more recent rocks, is either too rugged, or has a soil too thin and rocky for extensive agriculture. It is therefore a sparsely settled region with lumbering for one of the leading industries, though there is some mining, as of iron. Owing to the varied and beautiful scenery, this is a favourite summer resort; the game of the forests and the fishing in the streams and in the multitude of lakes serve as further attractions. In the peripheral ring farming increases, especially dairying; and manufacturing industries connected with the products of forests, farms and mines are developed. These and other manufacturing industries are greatly aided by the extensive water power furnished by the mountain streams which flow out radially from the central area.
South of the Adirondack region, and S. of the Mohawk Valley, rises a high-level plateau which extends westward to the Pennsylvania boundary. Here the rocks are all essentially horizontal and of Palaeozoic age, mainly Devonian. This plateau province, which includes more than half the state, differs greatly from place to place. Its elevation decreases toward the N. by a series of steps, having its lowest elevation on the Ontario plain which skirts the southern shore of Lake Ontario. Similar to this is a narrow plain along the southern shore of Lake Erie, which, in fact, lies in a shallow depression in this Erie plain. Both of these plains are so level, and have so fertile a soil that they are the seats of extensive agriculture, especially fruit raising, which is further encouraged by the influence of the large bodies of lake water that moderate the heat of summer and the cold of winter, and tend to check the late frosts of spring and the early frosts of autumn.
Elsewhere in the plateau province the land is higher and the surface far more irregular, increasing in ruggedness toward both the S. and the E. Elevations of between 1500 and 2000 ft. are common in this region all the way from Chautauqua county in the extreme W. to the Catskill mountains in the E.; and in places the surface becomes so rugged as to simulate the features of mountains and locally to win the name mountain. Valleys are deeply sunk in the plateau, the largest with bottom lands of sufficient width to give rise to strips of fertile farm land. The valley walls rise to undulating, and often fairly level uplands, which are, in large part, cleared of forest; but the uplands are remote from markets, and the soil is thin. In the main they are grazing lands—the seat of important dairy and sheep-raising industries. This is the region of abandoned farm houses. Thousands have been deserted and they may be found along all the upland roads.
Since this plateau region is a northward extension of the Alleghany plateau, which skirts the western base of the Appalachian mountains, it rises as the mountains are approached. Thus, in S.E. New York, where the Appalachians enter the state, the plateau becomes much higher than in the W., reaching its culmination in the Catskills. Here, partly because of elevation, and partly because of the resistant nature of the Catskill sandstones, dissection has so sculptured the plateau as to carve it into a mountainous mass which is generally known as the Catskill mountains. In this part of the plateau, summit elevations of from 3000 to 4000 ft. are common, the highest point being Slide Mountain (4205 ft.). Like the Adirondacks, this region is largely forest covered, and is a favourite summer resort; but it is far less a wilderness than the Adirondacks, and in places is cleared for farming, especially for pasturage.
In the plateau province there are other areas known as mountains, of which the Helderberg mountains are the most conspicuous. This formation is really an escarpment facing the lower Mohawk and the Hudson river S. of Albany, where there is a downward step in the plateau. The steeply rising face of the plateau here is due to the resistance of a durable layer of limestone, known as the Helderberg limestone. There are other lower escarpments in the plateau province, similar in form and cause to the Helderberg escarpment. Of these the most notable is the Niagara escarpment which extends eastward from Canada, past Lewiston and Lockport,—a downward step from the Erie to the Ontario plain, where the Niagara limestone outcrops, and its resistance to denudation accounts for the steeply rising face at the boundary between the two plains.
South and S.E. of the Catskills, although including only a small portion of the state, there are a number of different topographic features, due to the belts of different rock structure which cross the state from S.W. to N.E. First come the low folds of the western Appalachians, which, though well developed in Pennsylvania, die out near the New York boundary. The most pronounced of these upfolded strata in New York form the low Shawangunk mountains, which descend, toward the S.E., to a lowland region of folded strata of limestone, slate and other rocks in Orange and Dutchess counties. This lowland area, due to the non-resistant character of the strata, is a continuation of the Great Valley of the Appalachians, and extends N.E. into Vermont and S.W. across New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland and Virginia. It is bounded on its S.E. side by the Highlands, a belt of ancient crystalline rocks which extends N.E. into Connecticut and Massachusetts, and S.W. into the Highlands of New Jersey and thence to the Blue Ridge. South of the Highlands, in New Jersey, but extending to the very banks of the Hudson, is a belt of Triassic sandstone with intrusions of trap rock, which, on account of its peculiar columnar jointing, has developed a palisade structure—the famous Palisades of the lower Hudson. On the New York side of the Hudson the rocks are crystalline, the surface a region of low hills, a continuation of the crystalline area of Connecticut, and comparable with the Piedmont plateau of the Southern states. Long Island, though modified by extensive glacial deposits, may be considered a N.E. extension of the coastal plains which attain a much more perfect development in New Jersey and the states farther S.
The entire surface of New York, with the exception of a very small area in the extreme W., in Chautauqua and Cattaraugus counties, was covered by the continental glacier. With its source in Canada, it overrode even the highest mountains and spread beyond the boundary of New York into Pennsylvania and New Jersey; but farther E. its front rested on Staten Island and Long Island, whose surface features, and a part of whose area, are due to the deposits along the ice front, including terminal moraines and outwash gravel plains. Elsewhere in the state, also, the work of the glacier is very evident. It broadened and deepened many of the valleys; rounded the hills; turned aside many streams, causing changes in drainage and giving rise to innumerable waterfalls and rapids; and it formed the thousands of lakes, large and small, which dot the surface. As the ice receded, it halted at various points, forming moraines and other glacial deposits. Thus the soil of almost the entire state has been derived by glacial action. After the continental ice sheet entirely disappeared from the state, local valley glaciers lingered in the Adirondacks and the Catskills.
Drainage.—The drainage of New York finds its way to the sea in various directions. The St Lawrence system receives the most, mainly from short streams from the plateau province and from the Adirondacks. A small part of the state, in the W., drains to the Ohio, and thence, by way of the Mississippi, to the Gulf of Mexico; and a much larger area drains into the Susquehanna, entering the head of Chesapeake Bay. A part of the Catskills, and the region farther S., drains into Delaware Bay through the Delaware river. Thus New York is pre-eminently a divide region, sending its drainage, by various courses, into widely separated parts of the ocean. Only the Hudson and a few streams in the extreme S. have independent courses to the sea within the state itself.
The Hudson (q.v.) is essentially a New York stream, though it receives some drainage from the New England States through its small eastern tributaries. Its entire course is within New York, from which it receives most of its water supply. It is by far the most important river in the state, for, owing to the sinking of the land, which has admitted the tide as far as Troy, it is navigable for 151 m. from the sea. Thence westward the Mohawk Valley furnishes a highway which is followed by canal, railway and waggon road. Thus there is here a gap, easily traversed, across the Appalachian mountains and plateaus to the more level and fertile plains beyond. A low gap also leads northward from the Hudson to the Champlain Valley across a pass only 147 ft. above sea-level. This was of much importance in early wars; but it is of only minor importance as a commercial highway since it leads to Canada through a region of little economic importance.
The lower Hudson, below Troy, is really a fiord, the stream valley being drowned by the sea through subsidence of the land. It is noted for its remarkable scenery, especially where it crosses the Highlands. The other large river valleys are far less useful as highways, though each is paralleled by one or more railways. The action of the
