LAKES. The region has many lakes. The largest are lakes Champlain and George, but hundreds of snuffler ones add an indescribable charm to the scenery. The greater number are due to barriers of glacial drift that bloek the streams. Often they run in chains, apparently indicating former great lines of drainage. The Fulton chain, Racquet te. Forked, Long, and Saranac lakes are strung, out in a northeast and southwest series, and are familiar summer re sorts.
01:orocv. The Adirondack region is formed almost entirely of aneient Pre-Cambrian crystal line rocks. Gneisses and coarsely crystalline igneous varieties abound, and more Ily S111:I Iler areas of crystalline limestones and quartzites are present. The gneisses and crystalline limestones are without doubt equivalents of the Grenville series of Canada. The most abundant rocks are ano•tInisites, or In bra d orite a nil syenites. All the higher peaks are formed of the labradorite rocks. Basaltic and traellytie dikes, usually but a few feet wide, often inter sect these older rocks. On (lie borders of the an cient erystallines, and on the southeast. as rare exposures from •5 to 40 miles from their edge:, are the Paleozoic sediments, beginning with the Potsdam sandstone of the Cambrian system and terminating with the Utica slate of the Ordo vician. All the Paleozoic rocks dip at low angles, and while small folds may be sometimes seen, the strata usually appear in faulted blocks. No rocks are found between the Utica slate and the glacial deposits of the Pleistocene period, so that the geological history of this long space of time can only be imperfectly inferred from the physi ography. The great ice sheet from the northeast to southwest, and covered the high est summits. It spread a mantle of sand and boulders all over the region. On its melting armor temporary lakes were formed, of which beaches and deltas are often found. During the Champlain submergence, clays were deposited in great quantities in the Champlain Valley.
Frou.%. The flora is of a pronounced northern character as compared with that of southern New York, but it naturally varies with the alti tude. On the higher summits many small boreal plants remain as relics of the glacial epoch. The tree distribution is significant. Chestnuts pene
trate only the southern and lower and more open valleys, whereas the spruce is found only at 1000 feet and more above the sea.
FAttNA. The animals are likewise those of the North. Moose, though once abundant, are now exterminated. Black bears are frequent, and deer are numerous bee use protected by game laws. The smaller animals are those characteristic of tin• North. Of fish, black bass and brook trout are most sought, and in the larger lakes, lake trout are frequent. Salmon are now extinct.
KEsoun•t:s. The Adironda•ks contain vast deposits of iron ore. chiefly magnetite, which is extensively produced near Port Henry, on Lake Champlain, at, Lyon Mountain on the north, and at the Benson mines on the west. The region was once the home of the bloomery process, hut almost all the old forges are in ruins. At the head waters of the iludson on Lake Sanford there are immense bodies of titaniferous magnetite not as yet utilized. Building stone in the form of green granite has been quarried near Keese and a highly prized and very hard pink sandstone is produced neat' Potsdam on the northwest. Marble is found near Gouverneur on the west, and to some extent in the Cham plain Valley. Tale is extensively mined near Gouverneur.
The products of the forests form the most important industries. For Imnber, the pine tree: have been practically exhausted: spruce is the chief wood sought. The paper-pulp mills, how ever, consume much more than do the saw-mills. They take either spruce or poplar. The former is stripped from the mountains, where it may not. grow again, hut the latter rapidly renews itself maul the sandy barrens. After the tim ber has been cut off, and more especially in ear lier years, when the outer mountains acre strip ped for eharcoal. the owners often allowed the taxes to remain unpaid until the tracts were sold icy the State at piddle auction. The State itself has at these times acquired extensive posses sions. to which it adds yearly, with a view of preserving, the waterways and forming a great public park for the people. Enormous tracts are also held by private individuals and clubs as recreation grounds. Forestry has received much attention from the State authorities.