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curious particulars in its general topography, whichdo not, to my knowledge, exist, at least in so remark-able a degree, or to so great an extent, in any otherpart of the United States. To collect facts relativeto these, and by comparing these facts with eachother, and judging by the rules of analogy drawnfrom similar appearances in other parts of the globe,to endeavour to discover the probable cause of thesingular features I have mentioned, has induced meto take the liberty of addressing you, and to beg thefavour of you to answer the queries inclosed, as faras your knowledge extends, and as much in detail asyou conveniently can. But before proceeding to thequeries, I will add some conjectures of my own, drawnfrom the very limited means of information I at pre-sent possess. It is well known that there are, at the Little Fallsof the Mohawk river, evident marks of the rockshaving been formerly washed by the waves, or by acurrent of water one hundred feet above the presentsurface at the head of the falls. Now it appears, bythe levels taken by the surveyors employed by thecommissioners of the Grand Canal, that the surfaceof the water at that place, is less than sixty feetlower than at Rome, therefore it seems to me therecan be no doubt, that when the waters washed thetop of the hill at the falls, the country above, alongthe valley of the river, as far as (and much, fartherthan) Rome, must once have been the bottom of alarge lake, bounded on each side, at no great distance,by the uplands, and presenting, in shape, a long nar-row arm, similar to the present lakes of Cayuga and Seneca; and as there is a gradual descent in thecountry west of Rome, as far as Three-River Point,and the elevation from that point to the falls of theSeneca river near Scawyace, is very inconsiderable,it seems to me equally undoubted, that the watersonce reached so far, including the present Cayuga,Cross, Onondaga, and Oneida lakes, the last of which