NEWTON, Sir Isaac (1642-1727), the greatest of natural philosophers, was born on the 25th of December 1642 (o.s.), at Woolsthorpe, a hamlet in the parish of Colsterworth, Lincolnshire, about 6 miles from Grantham. His father (also Isaac Newton) was the farmer of a small freehold property of his own. He died before his son’s birth, a few months after his marriage to Hannah Ayscough, a daughter of James Ayscough of Market-Overton. When Newton was little more than two years old his mother married Mr Barnabas Smith, rector of the neighbouring parish of North Witham. Of this marriage there was issue, Benjamin, Mary, and Hannah Smith, and to their children Sir Isaac Newton subsequently left the greater part of his property. After having acquired the rudiments of education at two small schools in hamlets in close proximity to Woolsthorpe, Newton was sent at the age of twelve to the grammar school of Grantham, the headmaster of which was Mr Stokes. While attending Grantham school Newton lived in the house of Mr Clark, an apothecary of that town. According to his own confession he was far from industrious, and stood very low in his class. An unprovoked attack from the boy next above him led to a fight, in which Newton’s pluck gave him the victory. This success seems to have led him to greater exertions in school, and after some time he rose to be the head boy of the school. He cared but little for the ordinary amusements of his schoolfellows, but he displayed very early a taste and an aptitude for mechanical contrivances. He made windmills, water-clocks, kites, and dials, and he is said to have invented a four-wheeled carriage which was to be moved by the rider. In 1656 Mr Smith died, and Newton’s mother came back with her three children to Woolsthorpe. Newton was then in ...his fifteenth year, and, as his mother in all probability intended him to be a farmer, he was taken away from school. He was frequently sent on market days to Grantham with an old and trusty servant, who made all the purchases, while Newton spent his time among the books in Mr Clark’s house. It soon became apparent to Newton’s relatives that they were making a great mistake in attempting to turn him into a farmer, and he was therefore sent back again to school at Grantham. His mother’s brother, Mr W. Ayscough, the rector of the next parish, was a graduate of Trinity College, Cambridge, and when he found that Newton’s mind was wholly devoted to mechanical and mathematical problems; he· urged upon Mrs Smith the desirability of sending her son to his own college, a proposal to which she was not at all unwilling to give her consent. He was accordingly admitted a member of Trinity College on June 5, 1661, as a subsizar, and was matriculated on July 8. We have scarcely any information as to his attainments when he commenced residence, and very little as to his studies at the university before he took the degree of bachelor of arts. It is known that while still at Woolsthorpe Sanderson’s Logic, a book which his uncle had given him, had been read by him to such purpose that his tutor at Trinity College excused his attendance at a course of lectures on that subject. Newton tells us himself that, when he had purchased a book on astrology at Stourbridge fair, a fair held close to Cambridge, he was unable, on account of his ignorance of trigonometry, to understand a figure of the heavens which was drawn in this book. He therefore bought an English edition of Euclid with an index of propositions at the end of it, and, having turned to two or three which he thought likely to remove his difficulties, he found them so self-evident that he expressed his astonishment that any one should have taken the trouble to offer demonstrations of them. He therefore put aside Euclid “as a trifling book,” and applied himself to the study of Descartes’s Geometry. He had some difficulty in mastering this work, but he succeeded in doing so without any assistance. It is reported that in his examination for a scholarship at Trinity, to which he was elected on April 28, 1664, he was examined in Euclid by Dr Barrow, who formed a poor opinion of his knowledge, and that in consequence Newton was led to read the Elements again with care, and thereby to form a more favourable estimate of Euclid’s merits.
The study of Descartes’s Geometry seems to have inspired Newton with a love of the subject, and to have introduced him to the higher mathematics. In a small commonplace book, bearing on the seventh page the date of January 1663-4, there are several articles on angular sections, and the squaring of curves and “crooked lines that may be squared,” several calculations about musical notes, geometrical propositions from Francis Vieta and Schooten, annotations out of Wallis’s Arithmetic of Infinites, together with observations on refraction, on the grinding of “spherical optic glasses,” on the errors of lenses and the method of rectifying them, and on the extraction of all kinds of roots, particularly those “in affected powers.” And in this same commonplace book the following entry made by Newton himself, many years afterwards, gives a further account of the nature of his work during the period when he was an undergraduate:—
“July 4, 1699.—By consulting an account of my expenses at Cambridge, in the years 1663 and 1664, I find that in the year 1664, a little before Christmas, I, being then Senior Sophister, bought Schooten’s Miscellanies and Cartes’ Geometry (having read this Geometry and Oughtred’s Clavis clean over half a year before), and borrowed Wallis’s works, and by consequence made these annotations out of Schooten and Wallis, in winter between the years 1664 and 1665. At such time I found the method of Infinite Series; and in summer 1665, being forced from Cambridge by the plague, I computed the area of the Hyperbola at Boothby, in· Lincolnshire, to two and fifty figures by the same method.”
That Newton must have begun early to make careful observations of natural phenomena is sufficiently testified by the following remarks about halos, which appear in his Optics, book ii. part iv. obs. 13:—
“The like Crowns appear sometimes about the moon; for in the beginning of the Year 1664, February 19th, at night, I saw twosuch Crowns about her. The Diameter of the first or innermost was about three Degrees, and that of the second about five Degrees· and an half. Next about the moon was a Circle of white, and next about that the inner Crown, which was of a bluish green within next the white, and of a yellow and red without, and next about these Colours were blue and green on the inside of the Outward Crown, and red on the outside of it. At the same time there appear’d a Halo about 22 Degrees 35' distant from the center of the moon. It was elliptical, and its long Diameter was perpendicular to the Horizon, verging below farthest from the moon.”
In the month of January 1665 Newton took the degree-of bachelor of arts. The persons appointed (in conjunction with the proctors, John Slade of Catharine Hall, and Benjamin Pulleyn of Trinity College, Newton’s tutor) to examine the questionists were John Eachard of Catharine Hall and Thomas Gipps of Trinity College. It is a curious accident that we have no information about the respective merits of the candidates for a degree in this year, as the “ordo senioritatis” of the bachelors of arts for the year is omitted in the “Grace Book.”
It is supposed that it was in 1665 that the method of fluxions first occurred to Newton’s mind. There are several papers still existing in Newton’s handwriting bearing dates 1665 and 1666 in which the method is described, in some of which dotted or dashed letters are used to represent fluxions, and in some of which the method is explained without the use of dotted letters.
Both in 1665 and in 1666 Trinity College was dismissed on account of the plague. On each occasion it was agreed, as appears by entries in the “Conclusion Book” of the college, bearing dates August 7, 1665, and June 22, 1666, and signed by the master of the college, Dr Pearson, that all fellows and scholars who were dismissed on account of the pestilence be allowed one month’s commons. Newton must have left college before August 1665, as his name does not appear in the list of those who received extra commons on that occasion, and he tells us himself in the extract from his commonplace book already quoted that he was “forced from Cambridge by the plague” in the summer of that year.
Newton was elected a fellow of his college on October 1, 1667. There were nine vacancies, one of which was caused by the death of Cowley in the previous summer, and the nine successful candidates were all of the same academical standing. A few weeks after his election to a fellowship Newton went to Lincolnshire, and did not return to Cambridge till the February following. On the 16th of March 1668 he took his degree of Μ. A.
During the years 1666 to 1669 Newton’s studies were of a very varied kind. It is known that he purchased prisms and lenses on two or three several occasions, and also chemicals and a furnace, apparently for chemical experiments; but he also employed part of his time on the theory of fluxions and other branches of pure mathematics. He wrote a paper Analysis per Equationes Numero Terminorum Infinitas, which he put, probably in June 1669, into the hands of Isaac Barrow (then a fellow of Trinity College, and the first occupant of the Lucasian chair of mathematics), at the same time giving him permission to communicate the contents to their common friend Mr John Collins, a mathematician of no mean order, and a correspondent of many of the eminent men of his time. Barrow did this on the 31st of July 1669, but kept the name of the author a secret, and merely told Collins that he was a friend staying at Cambridge, who had a powerful genius for such matters, and expressed a hope that the paper would not a little delight him. In a subsequent letter on the 20th of August, Barrow expressed his pleasure at hearing the favourable opinion which Collins had formed of the paper, and added, “the name of the author is Newton, a fellow of our college, and a young man, who is only in his second year since he took the degree of master of arts, and who, with an unparalleled genius (eximio quo est acumine), has made very great progress in this branch of mathematics.” Shortly afterwards Barrow, who had resolved to devote his attention to theological in preference to mathematical studies, resigned the Lucasian chair, and was instrumental in securing Newton’s election as his successor. Newton was elected Lucasian professor on the 29 th of October 1669. It was his duty as professor to lecture at least once a week in term time on some portion of geometry, arithmetic, astronomy, geography, optics, statics, or some other mathematical subject, and also for two hours in the week to allow an audience to any student who might come to consult with the professor on any difficulties he had met with. The subject which Newton chose for his lectures was optics. He gave courses of lectures on this subject, and the success which attended his researches in optics must have been great. The results of his investigations, however, were known only through his own oral lectures, and were not published until he presented an account of them to the Royal Society in the spring of 1672. On December 21, 1671, he was proposed as a candidate for admission into the Royal Society by Dr Seth Ward, bishop of Salisbury, and on January 11, 1672, he was elected a fellow of the Society. At the meeting at which Newton was elected a description of a reflecting telescope which he had invented was read, and “it was ordered that a letter should be written by the secretary to Mr Newton to acquaint him of his election into the Society, and to thank him for the communication of his telescope, and to assure him that the Society would take care that all right should be done him with respect to this invention.”
In his reply to the secretary on January 18, 1672, Newton writes :—
“I desire that in your next letter you would inform me for what time the society continue their weekly meetings; because, if they continue them for any time, I am purposing them to be considered of and examined an account of a philosophical discovery, which induced me to the making of the said telescope, and which I doubt not but will prove much more grateful than the communication of that instrument, being in my judgment the oddest if not the most considerable detection which hath hitherto been made into the operations of nature.”
The promise here made was fulfilled in a communication which Newton addressed to Oldenburg, the secretary of the Royal Society, on February 6, 1672, and which was read before the Society two days afterwards. The whole is printed in No. 80 of the Philosophical Transactions, and the first part of it has been already printed in the article Light, voL xiv. p. 590. After explaining his discovery of the composition of white light, he proceeds:—
“When I understood this, I left off my aforesaid Glass works; for I saw, that the perfection of Telescopes was hitherto limited, not so much for want of glasses truly figured according to the prescriptions of Optick Authors (which all men have hitherto imagined), as because that Light it self is a Heterogeneous mixture of differently refrangible Rays. So that, were a glass so exactly figured as to collect any one sort of rays into one point, it could not collect those also into the same point, which having the same Incidence upon the same Medium are apt to suffer a different refraction. Nay, I wondered, that seeing the difference of refrangibility was so great, as I found it, Telescopes should arrive to that perfection they are now at.”
He then points out why
‘ ‘ The object-glass of any Telescope cannot collect all the rays which come from one point of an object, so as to make them convene at its focus in less room than in a circular space, whose diameter is the 50th part of the Diameter of its Aperture: which is an irregularity some hundreds of times greater, than a circularly figured Lens, of so small a section as the Object-glasses of long Telescopes are, would cause by the unfitness of its figure, were Light uniform"·, and he adds—
“This made me take reflections into consideration, and finding them regular, so that the Angle of Reflection of all sorts of Rays was equal to their Angle of Incidence; I understood, that by their mediation Optick instruments might be brought to any degree of perfection imaginable, provided a Reflecting substance could be found, which would polish as finely as Glass, and reflect as much light, as glass transmits, and the art of communicating to it a Parabolick figure be also attained. But these seemed very great difficulties, and I have almost thought them insuperable, when I further considered, that every irregularity in a reflecting superficies makes the rays stray 5 or 6 times more out of their due course, than the like irregularities in a refracting one; so that a much greater curiosity would be here requisite, than in figuring glasses for Refraction.
“Amidst these thoughts I was forced from Cambridge by the Intervening Plague, and it was more than two years before I proceeded further. But then having thought on a tender way of polishing, proper for metall, whereby, as I imagined, the figure also, would be corrected to the last; I began to try, what might be effected in this kind, and by degrees so far perfected an Instrument (in the essential parts of it like that I sent to London), by which I could discern Jupiters 4 Concomitants, and shewed them divers times to two others of my acquaintance. I could also discern the Moon-like phase of Venus, but not very distinctly, nor without some niceness in disposing the Instrument.
“From that time I was interrupted till this last Autumn, when I made the other. And as that was sensibly better than the first (especially for Day-Objects), so I doubt not, but they will be still brought to a much greater perfection by their endeavours, who, as you inform me, are taking care about it at London.”
Then, after a remark that microscopes seem as capable of improvement as telescopes, he adds—
‘ ‘ I shall now proceed to acquaint you with another more notable difformity in its Rays, wherein the Origin of Colour is unfolded: Concerning which I shall lay down the Doctrine first, and then, for its examination, give you an instance or two of the Experiments, as a specimen of the rest.
‘ ‘ The Doctrine you will find comprehended and illustrated in the following propositions :—
“1. As the Rays of light differ in degrees of Refrangibility, so they also differ in their disposition to exhibit this or that particular colour. Colours are not Qualifications of Light, derived from Refractions, or Reflections of natural Bodies (as ’ tis generally believed), but original and connate properties, which in divers Rays are divers. Some Rays are disposed to exhibit a red colour and no other; some a yellow and no other, some a green and no other, and so of the rest. Nor are there only Rays proper and particular to the more eminent colours, but even to all their intermediate gradations.
“2. To the same degree of Refrangibility ever belongs the same colour, and to the same colour ever belongs the same degree of Refrangibility. The least Refrangible Rays are all disposed to exhibit a Red colour, and contrarily those Rays, which are disposed to exhibit a Red colour, are all the least Refrangible: So the most refrangible Rays are all disposed to exhibit a deep Violet Colour, and contrarily those which are apt to exhibit such a violet colour are all the most Refrangible.
“And so to all the intermediate colours in a continued series belong intermediate degrees of refrangibility. And this Analogy ’ twixt colours, and refrangibility is very precise and strict; the Rays always either exactly agreeing in both, or proportionally disagreeing in both.
“3. The species of colour, and degree of Refrangibility proper to any particular sort of Rays, is not mutable by Refraction, nor by Reflection from natural bodies, nor by any other cause, that I could yet observe. When any one sort of Rays hath been well parted from those of other kinds, it hath afterwards obstinately retained its colour, notwithstanding my utmost endeavours to change it. I have refracted it with Prismes, and reflected it with Bodies, which in Day-light were of other colours; I have intercepted it with the coloured film of Air interceding two compressed plates of glass, transmitted it through coloured Mediums, and through Mediums irradiated with other sorts of Rays, and diversly terminated it; and yet could never produce any new colour out of it. It would by contracting or dilating become more brisk, or faint, and by the loss of many Rays, in some cases very obscure and dark; but I could never see it changed in specie.
“Yet seeming transmutations of Colours maybe made, where there is any mixture of divers sorts of Rays. For in such mixtures, the component colours appear not, but, by their mutual allaying each other constitute a midling colour.”
Further on, after some remarks on the subject of compound colours, he says—
“I might add more instances of this nature, but I shall conclude with this general one, that the Colours of all natural Bodies have no other origin than this, that they are variously qualified to reflect one sort of light in greater plenty then another. And this I have experimented in a dark Room by illuminating those bodies with uncompounded light of divers colours. For by that means any body may be made to appear of any colour. They have there no appropriate colour, but ever appear of the colour of the light cast upon them, but yet with this difference, that they are most brisk and vivid in the light of their own day-light colour. Minium appeareth there of any colour indifferently, with which ’ tis illustrated, but yet most luminous iu red, and so Bise appeareth indifferently of any colour with which ’ tis illustrated, but yet most luminous in blew....
[16,382 words — estimated reading time: 1.6 hours]
NEWTON ABBOT and NEWTON BUSHEL, situated respectively in the parishes of Wolborough and High week, and separated by the small river Lemon, are generally included under the one name Newton Abbot, a markettown of Devonshire, England, on the Teign, 5 miles south by west of Teignmouth, and 6 north of Torquay. The beauty of the neighbouring scenery and the salubrity of the climate have tended of late years to increase the demand for residences, while the situation of the town at the head of the Teign navigation enables it to carry on a considerable shipping trade. St Mary’s, the parish church of Wolborough, about half a mile south of the town, is in the Perpendicular style, as is also the parish church of Highweek, about a mile to the north-west. A very extensive nunnery, called St Augustine’s Priory, was erected near the town in 1861. To the east of the town is Forde House, an Elizabethan structure belonging to the earl of Devon, visited by Charles I. and William of Orange. The other principal buildings are the union workhouse, the town-hall, and the markets. There are two fine public parks, Courtenay Park and Forde Park. The town possesses iron foundries, malt-houses, flour-mills, a tannery, and a brewery. The engine-works of the Great Western Railway have lately been established in the town. Fine potters’ clay and pipeclay are obtained in the neighbourhood, about 6000 tons being exported annually to the potteries. There is a considerable trade in cattle, corn, and agricultural produce. The population of Wolborough with Newton Abbot in 1881 was 7662, and of Highweek 2164....
Probably both Newton Abbot and Newton Bushel were originally included under Nuietone. Newton Abbot was given to the abbot of Tor by William Lord Brewer, founder of the monastery. Newton Bushel was so called from Robert Bussell or Bushell, foster-child and kinsman of Theobald de Englishville, who was made lord of the manor by Henry III. in 1246.
NEWTON-LE-WILLOWS,oγNewton-in-Makeefield, a township and urban sanitary district of Lancashire, is situated on a branch of the London and North-Western Railway between Liverpool and Manchester, about 15f miles from each. The original town of Newton consists principally of one broad street, but many new buildings have sprung up in the immediate neighbourhood, especially at Earlestown junction, about half a mile distant. There is a town-hall, a mechanics’ institute, and a grammar school. At a short distance from the town is a moated timber-house, and also an ancient barrow of great extent. The Liverpool farm reformatory school is in the neighbourhood. The industrial establishments include the waggon factory of the London and North-Western Railway Company (employing about 1000 hands), a large foundry, printing and stationery works, paper-mills, and sugar refineries. Coal abounds in the neighbourhood. The barony is mentioned as being possessed by Edward the Confessor, but after the Conquest it was given to the Langtons. Near the town a party of Highlanders were in 1648 taken prisoners by Cromwell’s troops, and hanged in an adjoining wood, still called Gallow’s Cross. The town possessed the privilege of returning two members to parliament from the 5th of Elizabeth, but was disfranchised in 1832. The population of the urban sanitary district in 1871 was 8244, and in 1881 it was 10,580.
[563 words — estimated reading time: 4 minutes]
NEW YORK
I. New York State.
NEW YORK, one of the original thirteen United States of America, is situated between 40° 29' 40'' and 45° 0' 2" N. lat. and between 71° 51' and 79° 45' 54"∙4 W. long. It is bounded N. by Lake Ontario and the St Lawrence river, which separate it from the province of Ontario j. E. by Vermont, Massachusetts, and Connecticut; S. by the Atlantic Ocean, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania; and W. by Pennsylvania, Lake Erie, and the Niagara river.
Topography.— The State of New York has a triangular outline, with a breadth from east to west of 326'46 miles, and from north to south, on the line of the Hudson, of 300 miles. In addition it includes Long Island and Staten Island on the Atlantic coast. Its area is 49,170 square miles,—47,620 square miles, or 30,476,800 acres, being land, and the remainder portions of the great lakes that border it. The surface is more diversified than that of any other State in the Union. The eastern and southern portions are high, and from these the land slopes gently north and west to Lake Ontario. The mountainous belt of the eastern part is cut through by the great water-gap of the Mohawk valley, which once connected the Ontario basin with the trough of the Hudson below the present ocean-level, and is the most interesting and important feature in the topography of the State....
Mountains.— The mountains of New York form three distinct groups. (1) The Adirondacks, a series of short ranges having a north-north-east and south-south-west direction, form the centre of the elevated region of the north-east section of the State. The highest of these is Mount Marcy, 5344 feet, with several associated summits which reach the altitude of 5000 feet. (2) The Catskill Mountains, with their foothills, occupy about 500 square miles south of the Mohawk valley and west of the Hudson; the highest peaks reach an altitude of 4000 feet. The Helderberg and Shawangunk Mountains are topographically a portion of the Catskills, the first on the north, the second on the south. These all belong to the Alleghany system, and are connected with the mountains of Pennsylvania by the Delaware Mountains, which have an altitude of from 1600 to 2800 feet. (3) The Highlands of the Hudson, through which the river passes at West Point, are the northern continuation of the Blue Ridge of Pennsylvania, having an altitude of from 1200 to 1800 feet. The so-called mountains of the central and southern counties are portions of a high plateau which connects with the Helderberg and Catskill Mountains on the east. This is cut by eroded valleys in such a way as to leave many elevated points, of which the highest is East Hill in Otsego county, 2300 feet above the sea.
One of the most peculiar and impressive topographical features is formed by the cliffs of the Palisades, which border the Hudson in Rockland county, and are continuous with those of New Jersey.
Lakes and Rivers.— Two of the chain of great lakes border the State, Lake Erie and Lake Ontario, connected by the Niagara river, on which is the most celebrated cataract in the world. Lake Erie gives about 75 miles of coast-line to New York, Lake Ontario over 200. The surface level of the former is 573 feet above the sea, of the latter 245 feet; and this is 606 feet deep. A portion of the eastern border of New York is formed by Lake Champlain, which lies in the trough between the Adirondacks and the Green Mountains. Within the State the number of lakes is very great. The largest is Lake George, famous for its beautiful scenery. Through the central portion a series of peculiar elongated lakes are found which lie with a nearly north-and-south bearing on the slope from the southern highlands to the Ontario basin, or the Mohawk valley. The largest of these are Cayuga, Seneca, Oneida, Crooked, Canandaigua, Owasco, and Otsego. These are river valleys once occupied and modified by glaciers and dammed up by moraines. The Adirondack region is famous for its system of lakes, which are favourite places of resort for tourists. Among the rivers of New York the Hudson is the largest and most beautiful. Formerly it ran several hundred feet below its present level, and was the great channel of drainage which led through the Mohawk valley from the interior. Now, by a subsidence of the continent, it is an arm of the sea, and navigable to Troy, 151 miles from its mouth. The Black River, the Mohawk, and the Genesee are all large streams which lie entirely within the State, while the Alleghany, the Susquehanna, and the Delaware rise there, but soon leave it to become the great rivers of Pennsylvania. From the varied topography and the abundant rainfall the number of streams is large, and many of them are marked by picturesque falls. Besides the great cataract of Niagara, a mile wide and 164 feet high, which New York shares with Canada, there are many other falls worthy of mention, as those of the Genesee at Rochester and Portage, Trenton Falls, the Falls of Ticonderoga, &c. Among the natural features which distinguish the State its mineral springs deserve special mention. Those of Saratoga, Balston, Sharon, Avon, and Richfield are famous throughout the Union. They differ much in chemical composition and medicinal virtues, but all are popular places of resort, and some have gathered round them towns of considerable size.
Climate.— In a general way it may be said that the climate of New York is typical of that of the northern United States, a climate of extremes, hot in summer and cold in winter, and yet healthful, stimulating, and on the whole not disagreeable. The average annual temperature is about 47° Fahr., the average maximum of summer heat 93°, the temperature of 100° being rarely reached, and 102° the highest maximum record. The minimum temperature is about - 20° Fahr., never attained in the southern portion, seldom in the central, but often passed by four or five degrees in the most northern counties. The average rainfall is about 40 inches. Frosts begin from September 1st to October 1st, and end from April 1st to May 1st, according to the locality and year. In the Adirondack region the snowfall is heavy, the winter long and severe. In central New York it is not uncommon for snow to accumulate to the depth of 3 or 4 feet, and yet this is not persistent. About New York city and on Long Island the snow rarely exceeds a foot in depth, sleighing is always uncertain, and sometimes the ground will be bare for weeks together. Thus it will be seen that the climate of New York is intermediate in character between that of New England and the Mississippi valley States,—a little milder than the first, severer than the last. The great lakes which border it are never frozen to their centres, and exert an equalizing influence upon the climate of their shores.
In the absence of extensive alluvial plains and marshes, there is little malaria, and the climate is salubrious. About New York city and on Long Island the ocean softens the rigours of winter, and through the influence of the Arctic current, which bathes the coast as far south as Cape Hatteras, renders the summer perceptibly cooler.
The local variation of climate within the limits of the State will be best seen by the following table :— [table]
Fauna. —At the advent of the whites the fauna of New York included all the wild animals which were found in the north-eastern States of the Union or the adjacent portions of Canada, but by the cutting off of forests, and the occupation of the surface by farms, the range of the native animals has been greatly reduced, and they have been unceasingly destroyed by man. Formerly the elk, the moose, and the caribou were abundant in the northern part of the State, but are now all exterminated, while the Virginia deer in many localities is still quite plentiful. Of the carnivorous animals, the couguar, the black bear, two species of lynx, the red and grey foxes, the wolf, otter, fisher, pine marten, mink, and skunk still remain, but the wolf is on the eve of extermination, and the wolverine, never abundant, has perhaps migrated northward. Among the rodents the beaver and. variable hare are found, but in small numbers, while rabbits, squirrels, rats, mice, fieldmice, <fcc., are still unpleasantly numerous.
Civilization has made but little difference with the reptiles, birds, and fishes. All the birds indigenous to the eastern portion of the continent may probably at times be found within the State, though their relative numbers are affected by the removal of the forests. Among the reptiles are seventeen species of snakes, three of which, two rattlesnakes and the copperhead, are venomous. The fishes include all the species found in the lower lakes, in the rivers of the temperate portions of the continent, and on the Atlantic coast; and the fisheries constitute an important element in the revenues and subsistence of the people. The streams and lakes of the more elevated portions contain brook trout in abundance; those of the lower levels are well stocked with bass, pickerel, perch, and other game fish. The salmon, which formerly inhabited the Hudson and its tributaries, was long since exterminated; but an effort has been made to restock some of the streams, and, like the German carp recently introduced, it may now be reckoned as an inhabitant of the waters of New York. Some of the interior lakes are stocked with a land-locked salmon, or lake trout, a valuable and interesting fish. The oyster industry of the coast has its chief commercial centre in New York city, and an important fraction of the supply of clams, oysters, lobsters, and sea fish is obtained from the New York coast.
Flora.— Originally the surface of New York was occupied by an almost unbroken forest, and, as a consequence of the general fertility of the soil, its topographical diversity, and the range of latitude and longitude, the flora is rich and varied. About seventy species of trees are known to inhabit the State, and these include all found in the adjacent portions of the Union and Canada. The most abundant are oaks, of which there are fifteen species, but with these mingle five species each of maple, pine, and poplar, four species of hickory, three each of elm, spruce, and ash, two of willow, cherry, magnolia, and pepperidge, and one each of larch, liriodendron, dogwood, arbor vitae, balsam, yew, sycamore, honey locust, sweet gum, locust, butternut, black walnut, chestnut, beech, hornbeam, basswood, sassafras, and mulberry. On the summits of the Adirondacks a true alpine vegetation is found, though consisting of but a small number of plants; several of these exist in no other locality in the United States except the mountain summits of Vermont and New Hampshire. The flowering plants and ferns of New York were studied with much care by the late Dr Torrey, and his report upon them forms two of the series of twenty-three quarto volumes which compose the Report on the Natural History of New York. The flowering plants enumerated by Dr Torrey amount to 1540 species, to which a few additions have since been made. The ferns number fifty-four species —more than are found in any other State; the lower forms of plant life, .seaweeds, fungi, lichens, &c., are constantly supplying new material, and many years will yet be required for their complete elaboration.
Geology.— The geological structure of New York is more varied and comprehensive than that of any other State, since it includes, with perhaps the exception of the Jurassic, the entire geological column from the Archaean to the Tertiary. A tabular view of the relations of the rocks of New York may be given as follows :— [table]
The surface exposures of these rocks can be seen at a glance by reference to the accompanying outline map.
The boundaries of the State enclose an area which once formed a part of the eastern declivity of the Archaean continent, of which the Canadian and Adirondack highlands art the most important representatives. These are composed of Laurentian rocks, and are perhaps the oldest portion of the earth’s surface. Upon the slope of this old continent the ocean rose and fell in the different geological ages, cutting away the shore by its waves in its advance, and spreading the debris in sheets of sand and gravel—old sea beaches. During long-continued periods of submergence organic sediments, composed of the hard parts of marine animals, accumulated over the sea bottom. In the process of emergence the shallowing and retreating sea spread over its deep water deposits mixed sediments, the finer wash of the land and organic material, carbonaceous or calcareous. When indurated, these three kinds of deposits became (1) sandstones or conglomerates, (2) limestones, (3) shales or earthy limestones. During the intervals of emergence the surface was more or less eroded, and the elevations gave obliquity to the planes of deposition, so that in each invasion of the sea it deposited its round of sediments unconformably upon the older ones. The repeated submergences which have here left their record did not cover the same area, but overlapped in such a way that the succession of deposits is easily made out,— the different groups which we call geological systems being separable by unconformability along the planes of contact, by lithological characters which are faithful records of conditions of deposition, and by differences exhibited in their fossils, for in the long intervals which separated these inundations the life of sea and land was completely and repeatedly revolutionized.
The processes described above went on through the Cambrian, Silurian, Devonian, and Carboniferous ages, forming on the south shore of the Laurentian continent the most complete and consecutive record of Palaeozoic time of which we have any knowledge. Then the strata along a line passing south-westerly through eastern New York were raised in a series of folds which we call the Alleghany Mountains, and at this time all the interval between the Atlantic and the Mississippi was elevated above the ocean. There it has since remained, the sea rising and falling upon its margin, and leaving its marks, but never submerging the interior. The geological record was continued by minor contributions to the land along the Atlantic coast during the Triassic, Cretaceous, Tertiary, and Quaternary ages, and by the grinding and transporting action of glaciers which once covered the entire surface of the State.
Previous to the elevation of the Alleghanies the sheets of Palaeozoic rocks formed a littoral plain sloping gently southward from the Archaean continent. But in the formation of this mountain belt the country traversed by the southern line of the State was left with a surface inclination northward, and between the Alleghanies and the Canadian and Adirondack highlands a broad valley was formed which became the channel of drainage for a great interior area. Through this valley flowed a large river which reached the sea at or near New York island. From the Carboniferous age to the Ice period this was the course of the drainage of the interior, and thus was formed the great water-gap between the Helder berg and Adirondack Mountains, the gate of the continent, through which the tide of migration has flowed from the seaboard into the Mississippi valley, and where the canal and railroad lines have been constructed which are the great arteries of commerce.
During portions of the Tertiary age perhaps the whole, but certainly the eastern margin, of the continent stood many hundred feet above its present level. The drainage of the interior flowed freely and rapidly through the channel which has been described, until that part of it which lies within the State was cut below the present sealevel, and the great river, which as a whole has never been named, but of which the Hudson, the Niagara, the Detroit, and the St Mary’s are representatives, reached the ocean 80 miles south and east of New York harbour, for its channel may be traced to that point on the sea bottom, and its mouth was 600 feet below its present one. By a subsequent depression of the land or rise in the ocean-level the sea covered much of its old shore, and filled the channels cut by subaerial erosion; the Hudson became an arm of the sea, and the labyrinth of tideways was formed which are such a marked feature of the coast, and such important auxiliaries to New York harbour. During the Ice period important changes were made in the topography of the State,—by local glaciers in its advent and decline, by the great ice sheet at its climax, —the first perhaps increasing topographical variety, the second producing monotony by grinding down and rounding over asperities, and filling depressions with the debris.
The basins of the great lakes which border New York, —Ontario, Erie, and Champlain,—and of the peculiar elongated lakes of the interior, are largely the work of glaciers, which broadened and perhaps deepened river channels, and dammed them up with moraines. When the glaciers retreated from the area of New York many of the old channels of drainage were left partially or completely filled, and the flow of surface water took in some cases new directions. Among the obstructed channels was that of the Hudson west of Albany, filled by the Ontario glacier. By this cause the great river flowing from the interior was deflected from its ancient course and found a line of lowest levels leading from the north-east instead of that from the south-east corner of the Ontario valley. In this way the St Lawrence was made the outlet of the interior basin, and the Mohawk dwindled to a local draining stream. Long Island Sound and part of Long Island itself should also be classed among the products of glacial action, the Sound having been scooped out by the great glacier when it left the more resistant ledges of crystalline rocks which occupy south-eastern New York and Connecticut, and plunged into the softer Cretaceous and Tertiary beds which formed the littoral plain that bordered the continent,—the hills of the island being covered, and in part composed of loose material transported by the glacier and deposited along its edge.
Minerals.— The mineral resources of New York, though less varied than those of some other States, are still of great importance. The most valuable of these are extensive deposits of iron ore, viz. :—(1) magnetite, found in great abundance in the Adirondack region, and in Putnam, Orange, and Rockland counties; (2) haematite, mined in the vicinity of Rossie (St Lawrence county), Clinton (Oneida county), and elsewhere; (3) limonite, largely worked on Staten Island, and at Amenia, Sharon, &c., on the line of the New York and Harlem Railroad; (4) siderite, mined at Hyde Park on the Hudson. The production of ore from these mines in 1879 was 1,239,759 tons, valued at $3,499,132; and New York is surpassed in the quantity of iron produced by Michigan and Pennsylvania only.
The quarries of New York are numerous, and they furnish a great variety of products :—granite in the Adirondacks and along the Hudson; roofing slate in Washington county; white marble in Westchester and St Lawrence counties; red marble at Warwick, Orange county; black marble at Glenn’s Falls; verde antique at Moriah and Thurman. Sandstone comes from Potsdam, Medina, and various other localities; shell-limestone from Lockport and Hudson; excellent flagging from Kingston on the Hudson; and paving stone from the trap of the Palisades. In 1880 the quarries of New York numbered two hundred and fifty-one, and the value of their product was $1,261,495. A large amount of hydraulic cement is supplied from the quarries at Rondout (Ulster county), Manlius (Onondaga county), and Akron near Buffalo; also gypsum from the vicinity of Syracuse. The deposits of these substances are very extensive, and their production could be increased indefinitely. Another item of importance among the mineral resources of the State is the salt produced from the salt-wells at Syracuse; these have been worked for many years, and the present annual product is 10,997,408 bushels, having a value of $1,374,666. In south-western New York gas and oil springs are numerous, and at Fredonia the gas has been used in lighting houses for half a century. Recent discoveries show that the petroleum fields of Pennsylvania extend into New York, and it is probable that petroleum will soon claim a place among the mineral products of the State.
The Amboy clays of New Jersey extend across Staten and Long Islands. With further investigation they may prove as valuable in the one State as in the other. (j. s. n.*) History.— Recent investigations have added little to the knowledge of the prehistoric period of the territory known as the Middle States. The bias of scientific opinion...
[24,034 words — estimated reading time: 2.3 hours]
NEW YORK
I. New York State.
NEW YORK, one of the original thirteen United States of America, is situated between 40° 29' 40'' and 45° 0' 2" N. lat. and between 71° 51' and 79° 45' 54"∙4 W. long. It is bounded N. by Lake Ontario and the St Lawrence river, which separate it from the province of Ontario j. E. by Vermont, Massachusetts, and Connecticut; S. by the Atlantic Ocean, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania; and W. by Pennsylvania, Lake Erie, and the Niagara river.
Topography.— The State of New York has a triangular outline, with a breadth from east to west of 326'46 miles, and from north to south, on the line of the Hudson, of 300 miles. In addition it includes Long Island and Staten Island on the Atlantic coast. Its area is 49,170 square miles,—47,620 square miles, or 30,476,800 acres, being land, and the remainder portions of the great lakes that border it. The surface is more diversified than that of any other State in the Union. The eastern and southern portions are high, and from these the land slopes gently north and west to Lake Ontario. The mountainous belt of the eastern part is cut through by the great water-gap of the Mohawk valley, which once connected the Ontario basin with the trough of the Hudson below the present ocean-level, and is the most interesting and important feature in the topography of the State....
Mountains.— The mountains of New York form three distinct groups. (1) The Adirondacks, a series of short ranges having a north-north-east and south-south-west direction, form the centre of the elevated region of the north-east section of the State. The highest of these is Mount Marcy, 5344 feet, with several associated summits which reach the altitude of 5000 feet. (2) The Catskill Mountains, with their foothills, occupy about 500 square miles south of the Mohawk valley and west of the Hudson; the highest peaks reach an altitude of 4000 feet. The Helderberg and Shawangunk Mountains are topographically a portion of the Catskills, the first on the north, the second on the south. These all belong to the Alleghany system, and are connected with the mountains of Pennsylvania by the Delaware Mountains, which have an altitude of from 1600 to 2800 feet. (3) The Highlands of the Hudson, through which the river passes at West Point, are the northern continuation of the Blue Ridge of Pennsylvania, having an altitude of from 1200 to 1800 feet. The so-called mountains of the central and southern counties are portions of a high plateau which connects with the Helderberg and Catskill Mountains on the east. This is cut by eroded valleys in such a way as to leave many elevated points, of which the highest is East Hill in Otsego county, 2300 feet above the sea.
One of the most peculiar and impressive topographical features is formed by the cliffs of the Palisades, which border the Hudson in Rockland county, and are continuous with those of New Jersey.
Lakes and Rivers.— Two of the chain of great lakes border the State, Lake Erie and Lake Ontario, connected by the Niagara river, on which is the most celebrated cataract in the world. Lake Erie gives about 75 miles of coast-line to New York, Lake Ontario over 200. The surface level of the former is 573 feet above the sea, of the latter 245 feet; and this is 606 feet deep. A portion of the eastern border of New York is formed by Lake Champlain, which lies in the trough between the Adirondacks and the Green Mountains. Within the State the number of lakes is very great. The largest is Lake George, famous for its beautiful scenery. Through the central portion a series of peculiar elongated lakes are found which lie with a nearly north-and-south bearing on the slope from the southern highlands to the Ontario basin, or the Mohawk valley. The largest of these are Cayuga, Seneca, Oneida, Crooked, Canandaigua, Owasco, and Otsego. These are river valleys once occupied and modified by glaciers and dammed up by moraines. The Adirondack region is famous for its system of lakes, which are favourite places of resort for tourists. Among the rivers of New York the Hudson is the largest and most beautiful. Formerly it ran several hundred feet below its present level, and was the great channel of drainage which led through the Mohawk valley from the interior. Now, by a subsidence of the continent, it is an arm of the sea, and navigable to Troy, 151 miles from its mouth. The Black River, the Mohawk, and the Genesee are all large streams which lie entirely within the State, while the Alleghany, the Susquehanna, and the Delaware rise there, but soon leave it to become the great rivers of Pennsylvania. From the varied topography and the abundant rainfall the number of streams is large, and many of them are marked by picturesque falls. Besides the great cataract of Niagara, a mile wide and 164 feet high, which New York shares with Canada, there are many other falls worthy of mention, as those of the Genesee at Rochester and Portage, Trenton Falls, the Falls of Ticonderoga, &c. Among the natural features which distinguish the State its mineral springs deserve special mention. Those of Saratoga, Balston, Sharon, Avon, and Richfield are famous throughout the Union. They differ much in chemical composition and medicinal virtues, but all are popular places of resort, and some have gathered round them towns of considerable size.
Climate.— In a general way it may be said that the climate of New York is typical of that of the northern United States, a climate of extremes, hot in summer and cold in winter, and yet healthful, stimulating, and on the whole not disagreeable. The average annual temperature is about 47° Fahr., the average maximum of summer heat 93°, the temperature of 100° being rarely reached, and 102° the highest maximum record. The minimum temperature is about - 20° Fahr., never attained in the southern portion, seldom in the central, but often passed by four or five degrees in the most northern counties. The average rainfall is about 40 inches. Frosts begin from September 1st to October 1st, and end from April 1st to May 1st, according to the locality and year. In the Adirondack region the snowfall is heavy, the winter long and severe. In central New York it is not uncommon for snow to accumulate to the depth of 3 or 4 feet, and yet this is not persistent. About New York city and on Long Island the snow rarely exceeds a foot in depth, sleighing is always uncertain, and sometimes the ground will be bare for weeks together. Thus it will be seen that the climate of New York is intermediate in character between that of New England and the Mississippi valley States,—a little milder than the first, severer than the last. The great lakes which border it are never frozen to their centres, and exert an equalizing influence upon the climate of their shores.
In the absence of extensive alluvial plains and marshes, there is little malaria, and the climate is salubrious. About New York city and on Long Island the ocean softens the rigours of winter, and through the influence of the Arctic current, which bathes the coast as far south as Cape Hatteras, renders the summer perceptibly cooler.
The local variation of climate within the limits of the State will be best seen by the following table :— [table]
Fauna. —At the advent of the whites the fauna of New York included all the wild animals which were found in the north-eastern States of the Union or the adjacent portions of Canada, but by the cutting off of forests, and the occupation of the surface by farms, the range of the native animals has been greatly reduced, and they have been unceasingly destroyed by man. Formerly the elk, the moose, and the caribou were abundant in the northern part of the State, but are now all exterminated, while the Virginia deer in many localities is still quite plentiful. Of the carnivorous animals, the couguar, the black bear, two species of lynx, the red and grey foxes, the wolf, otter, fisher, pine marten, mink, and skunk still remain, but the wolf is on the eve of extermination, and the wolverine, never abundant, has perhaps migrated northward. Among the rodents the beaver and. variable hare are found, but in small numbers, while rabbits, squirrels, rats, mice, fieldmice, <fcc., are still unpleasantly numerous.
Civilization has made but little difference with the reptiles, birds, and fishes. All the birds indigenous to the eastern portion of the continent may probably at times be found within the State, though their relative numbers are affected by the removal of the forests. Among the reptiles are seventeen species of snakes, three of which, two rattlesnakes and the copperhead, are venomous. The fishes include all the species found in the lower lakes, in the rivers of the temperate portions of the continent, and on the Atlantic coast; and the fisheries constitute an important element in the revenues and subsistence of the people. The streams and lakes of the more elevated portions contain brook trout in abundance; those of the lower levels are well stocked with bass, pickerel, perch, and other game fish. The salmon, which formerly inhabited the Hudson and its tributaries, was long since exterminated; but an effort has been made to restock some of the streams, and, like the German carp recently introduced, it may now be reckoned as an inhabitant of the waters of New York. Some of the interior lakes are stocked with a land-locked salmon, or lake trout, a valuable and interesting fish. The oyster industry of the coast has its chief commercial centre in New York city, and an important fraction of the supply of clams, oysters, lobsters, and sea fish is obtained from the New York coast.
Flora.— Originally the surface of New York was occupied by an almost unbroken forest, and, as a consequence of the general fertility of the soil, its topographical diversity, and the range of latitude and longitude, the flora is rich and varied. About seventy species of trees are known to inhabit the State, and these include all found in the adjacent portions of the Union and Canada. The most abundant are oaks, of which there are fifteen species, but with these mingle five species each of maple, pine, and poplar, four species of hickory, three each of elm, spruce, and ash, two of willow, cherry, magnolia, and pepperidge, and one each of larch, liriodendron, dogwood, arbor vitae, balsam, yew, sycamore, honey locust, sweet gum, locust, butternut, black walnut, chestnut, beech, hornbeam, basswood, sassafras, and mulberry. On the summits of the Adirondacks a true alpine vegetation is found, though consisting of but a small number of plants; several of these exist in no other locality in the United States except the mountain summits of Vermont and New Hampshire. The flowering plants and ferns of New York were studied with much care by the late Dr Torrey, and his report upon them forms two of the series of twenty-three quarto volumes which compose the Report on the Natural History of New York. The flowering plants enumerated by Dr Torrey amount to 1540 species, to which a few additions have since been made. The ferns number fifty-four species —more than are found in any other State; the lower forms of plant life, .seaweeds, fungi, lichens, &c., are constantly supplying new material, and many years will yet be required for their complete elaboration.
Geology.— The geological structure of New York is more varied and comprehensive than that of any other State, since it includes, with perhaps the exception of the Jurassic, the entire geological column from the Archaean to the Tertiary. A tabular view of the relations of the rocks of New York may be given as follows :— [table]
The surface exposures of these rocks can be seen at a glance by reference to the accompanying outline map.
The boundaries of the State enclose an area which once formed a part of the eastern declivity of the Archaean continent, of which the Canadian and Adirondack highlands art the most important representatives. These are composed of Laurentian rocks, and are perhaps the oldest portion of the earth’s surface. Upon the slope of this old continent the ocean rose and fell in the different geological ages, cutting away the shore by its waves in its advance, and spreading the debris in sheets of sand and gravel—old sea beaches. During long-continued periods of submergence organic sediments, composed of the hard parts of marine animals, accumulated over the sea bottom. In the process of emergence the shallowing and retreating sea spread over its deep water deposits mixed sediments, the finer wash of the land and organic material, carbonaceous or calcareous. When indurated, these three kinds of deposits became (1) sandstones or conglomerates, (2) limestones, (3) shales or earthy limestones. During the intervals of emergence the surface was more or less eroded, and the elevations gave obliquity to the planes of deposition, so that in each invasion of the sea it deposited its round of sediments unconformably upon the older ones. The repeated submergences which have here left their record did not cover the same area, but overlapped in such a way that the succession of deposits is easily made out,— the different groups which we call geological systems being separable by unconformability along the planes of contact, by lithological characters which are faithful records of conditions of deposition, and by differences exhibited in their fossils, for in the long intervals which separated these inundations the life of sea and land was completely and repeatedly revolutionized.
The processes described above went on through the Cambrian, Silurian, Devonian, and Carboniferous ages, forming on the south shore of the Laurentian continent the most complete and consecutive record of Palaeozoic time of which we have any knowledge. Then the strata along a line passing south-westerly through eastern New York were raised in a series of folds which we call the Alleghany Mountains, and at this time all the interval between the Atlantic and the Mississippi was elevated above the ocean. There it has since remained, the sea rising and falling upon its margin, and leaving its marks, but never submerging the interior. The geological record was continued by minor contributions to the land along the Atlantic coast during the Triassic, Cretaceous, Tertiary, and Quaternary ages, and by the grinding and transporting action of glaciers which once covered the entire surface of the State.
Previous to the elevation of the Alleghanies the sheets of Palaeozoic rocks formed a littoral plain sloping gently southward from the Archaean continent. But in the formation of this mountain belt the country traversed by the southern line of the State was left with a surface inclination northward, and between the Alleghanies and the Canadian and Adirondack highlands a broad valley was formed which became the channel of drainage for a great interior area. Through this valley flowed a large river which reached the sea at or near New York island. From the Carboniferous age to the Ice period this was the course of the drainage of the interior, and thus was formed the great water-gap between the Helder berg and Adirondack Mountains, the gate of the continent, through which the tide of migration has flowed from the seaboard into the Mississippi valley, and where the canal and railroad lines have been constructed which are the great arteries of commerce.
During portions of the Tertiary age perhaps the whole, but certainly the eastern margin, of the continent stood many hundred feet above its present level. The drainage of the interior flowed freely and rapidly through the channel which has been described, until that part of it which lies within the State was cut below the present sealevel, and the great river, which as a whole has never been named, but of which the Hudson, the Niagara, the Detroit, and the St Mary’s are representatives, reached the ocean 80 miles south and east of New York harbour, for its channel may be traced to that point on the sea bottom, and its mouth was 600 feet below its present one. By a subsequent depression of the land or rise in the ocean-level the sea covered much of its old shore, and filled the channels cut by subaerial erosion; the Hudson became an arm of the sea, and the labyrinth of tideways was formed which are such a marked feature of the coast, and such important auxiliaries to New York harbour. During the Ice period important changes were made in the topography of the State,—by local glaciers in its advent and decline, by the great ice sheet at its climax, —the first perhaps increasing topographical variety, the second producing monotony by grinding down and rounding over asperities, and filling depressions with the debris.
The basins of the great lakes which border New York, —Ontario, Erie, and Champlain,—and of the peculiar elongated lakes of the interior, are largely the work of glaciers, which broadened and perhaps deepened river channels, and dammed them up with moraines. When the glaciers retreated from the area of New York many of the old channels of drainage were left partially or completely filled, and the flow of surface water took in some cases new directions. Among the obstructed channels was that of the Hudson west of Albany, filled by the Ontario glacier. By this cause the great river flowing from the interior was deflected from its ancient course and found a line of lowest levels leading from the north-east instead of that from the south-east corner of the Ontario valley. In this way the St Lawrence was made the outlet of the interior basin, and the Mohawk dwindled to a local draining stream. Long Island Sound and part of Long Island itself should also be classed among the products of glacial action, the Sound having been scooped out by the great glacier when it left the more resistant ledges of crystalline rocks which occupy south-eastern New York and Connecticut, and plunged into the softer Cretaceous and Tertiary beds which formed the littoral plain that bordered the continent,—the hills of the island being covered, and in part composed of loose material transported by the glacier and deposited along its edge.
Minerals.— The mineral resources of New York, though less varied than those of some other States, are still of great importance. The most valuable of these are extensive deposits of iron ore, viz. :—(1) magnetite, found in great abundance in the Adirondack region, and in Putnam, Orange, and Rockland counties; (2) haematite, mined in the vicinity of Rossie (St Lawrence county), Clinton (Oneida county), and elsewhere; (3) limonite, largely worked on Staten Island, and at Amenia, Sharon, &c., on the line of the New York and Harlem Railroad; (4) siderite, mined at Hyde Park on the Hudson. The production of ore from these mines in 1879 was 1,239,759 tons, valued at $3,499,132; and New York is surpassed in the quantity of iron produced by Michigan and Pennsylvania only.
The quarries of New York are numerous, and they furnish a great variety of products :—granite in the Adirondacks and along the Hudson; roofing slate in Washington county; white marble in Westchester and St Lawrence counties; red marble at Warwick, Orange county; black marble at Glenn’s Falls; verde antique at Moriah and Thurman. Sandstone comes from Potsdam, Medina, and various other localities; shell-limestone from Lockport and Hudson; excellent flagging from Kingston on the Hudson; and paving stone from the trap of the Palisades. In 1880 the quarries of New York numbered two hundred and fifty-one, and the value of their product was $1,261,495. A large amount of hydraulic cement is supplied from the quarries at Rondout (Ulster county), Manlius (Onondaga county), and Akron near Buffalo; also gypsum from the vicinity of Syracuse. The deposits of these substances are very extensive, and their production could be increased indefinitely. Another item of importance among the mineral resources of the State is the salt produced from the salt-wells at Syracuse; these have been worked for many years, and the present annual product is 10,997,408 bushels, having a value of $1,374,666. In south-western New York gas and oil springs are numerous, and at Fredonia the gas has been used in lighting houses for half a century. Recent discoveries show that the petroleum fields of Pennsylvania extend into New York, and it is probable that petroleum will soon claim a place among the mineral products of the State.
The Amboy clays of New Jersey extend across Staten and Long Islands. With further investigation they may prove as valuable in the one State as in the other. (j. s. n.*) History.— Recent investigations have added little to the knowledge of the prehistoric period of the territory known as the Middle States. The bias of scientific opinion...
[24,034 words — estimated reading time: 2.3 hours]