1791. It is well built, with wide and well shaded streets. The court house, and several of the other public buildings, exhibit great architectural merit.

It is largely engaged in manufactures of almost every description; cast and bar iron, nails, cotton and woollen goods, coaches, sleighs, wagons, railroad cars, flour, distilled and malt liquors, leather, cordage, steam engines, machinery, &c., are the principal. The entire value of its manufactures exceeds $4,000,000 per annum.

The schools of Troy have long maintained a high rank. The Rensselaer Institute, founded by, and named after, the late Patroon, is an excellent practical school, designed to furnish young men with a thorough mathematical education, and to fit them for the practice of civil engineering.

The Troy Female Seminary, begun in Middlebury, Vermont, in 1814, and removed to Troy in 1821, has long ranked among the first institutions of its kind in the country. Nearly 6000 pupils have been educated in it, many of whom have afterwards become teachers in various parts of the Union.

Its former and present principals, have won for themselves the highest reputation as instructors. It has twenty-four teachers and other officers, and more than 200 pupils.

The Troy Academy is also an excellent institution.

The Lyceum of Natural History has a fine library and cabinet, and is well conducted. The Young Men's Association possess a large and well selected library, a cabinet and reading room, and sustain a course of lectures annually.

The city is connected with Schenectady, Saratoga, and East Albany, by railroads, and by means of the last with the great Western Railroad to Boston. Excellent McAdamized roads have also been constructed to Albany and to Bennington; the Erie and Champlain canals, here forming the Junction canal, bring immense quantities of lumber and produce to the city, and receive in return manufactured goods.

The commerce of the city is quite large. Three large and seven or eight smaller steamboats, about sixty sloops and schooners, and twenty-five or thirty barges, are owned here, and employed in transporting produce and manufactured articles to New York. There are also several lines of packets plying to other ports, together with a large number of packet and freight boats, on the Erie and Champlain canals. Population 25,000.

The village of West Troy, on the west bank of the Hudson, though in another county, may almost be considered a suburb

of Troy, with which it is connected by a fine bridge and two ferries.

Lansingburgh, in the town of the same name, is three miles north of Troy. It was settled before that city, and was for a considerable period the more important village. It has extensive manufactories. By means of a lock, in the state dam across the Hudson, sloops ascend the river to the village. The Lansingburgh Academy was one of the first institutions of the kind established in the state. The village is one of the oldest in the state, having been organized in 1771, and incorporated in 1787. Population 3500.

Scaghticoke Point, in the town of Scaghticoke, is a thriving manufacturing village; cotton, linen, and hemp goods, powder, and powder kegs, are largely manufactured here. Popula

tion 1400.

Greenbush is a thriving village in the town of the same name, opposite the city of Albany. The great Western railroad, and the Troy and Greenbush railroad terminate here. The United States barracks, erected in 1814, were on an eminence about a mile southeast of the village. They were very extensive, having been intended for the accommodation of 5000 troops, but are now in ruins. Population 1200.

Hoosick Falls, in the town of Hoosick, is a thriving manufacturing village. Population 500.

Nassau and Berlin, in the towns of the same names, are villages of some importance.

Schodac Landing, in the town of Schodac, is a thriving village.

Mountains. m. Kaatsbergs. n. Mount Independence.

Rivers. II. Unadilla. G. Susquehanna. b. Butternut creek. c. Otsdewa. d. Otego. e. Otsego. f. Cherry Valley. g. Schenevas. h. Elk.

Lakes. i. Summit. j. Canaderaga or Schuyler. k. Otsego.
Battle Fields. Cherry Valley.

Villages. COOPERSTOWN. Cherry Valley.

BOUNDARIES. North by Oneida, Herkimer and Montgomery counties; East by Schoharie and Delaware; South by Delaware; and West by Madison and Chenango counties.

SURFACE. The surface is greatly diversified by mountains, hills, valleys and plains. The Kaatsbergs extend along its eastern border, connecting, a little above Cherry Valley village, with Mount Independence, whose summit, more than 2000 feet above tide water, affords a noble prospect, opening, in some directions, nearly 100 miles in extent.

At this elevation, a narrow table land runs along the northern confines of the county, forming the western continuation of the Kaatsbergs, and decliens gradually toward the south, divided, however, by the streams, into numerous high ridges and deep valleys.

There are six principal valleys thus formed, viz. Cherry Valley, the valley of the Elk creek, that of Schenevas creek, the valleys of the Otego and Butternut creeks, and of the Unadilla river. The direction of these valleys is generally south-southwesterly.

RIVERS. This county is well watered. The Susquehanna, which forms nearly half its southern boundary, is the principal stream. It takes its rise in Summit lake, whose waters also discharge, in seasons of flood, into the Mohawk. Its course through the county is placid, the descent, in the distance of forty-five miles, probably not exceeding five feet to the mile.

The Unadilla, a branch of the Susquehannah, washes the eastern border of the county. The Cherry Valley creek, on whose banks such deeds of blood were committed, in the early settlement of the county, is also a tributary of the Susquehanna, as are the Schenevas, Otego, Otsdewa, and Butternut creeks.

LAKES. Otsego lake is nine miles long, and from one to three wide. The hills which encircle it are elevated from 400 to 500 feet above its surface. This lake is 1188 feet above tide water. The purity of its waters, and the rich and varied scenery which surrounds it render it an attractive summer resort.

Canaderaga, or Schuyler's lake, is a beautiful sheet of water, five miles long, and from one to two wide.

Summit lake is the source of the Susquehanna. It is a

small body of water, but has an altitude, above tide water, of 1346 feet.

Cromhorn pond, on the Cromhorn mountain, in Maryland, is three miles circumference, and is one of the highest ponds in the

state.

CLIMATE. Owing to the elevation of this county the climate is cooler than in some other portions of the state. The diversity of its surface insures a perfect drainage, and renders it highly salubrious.

GEOLOGY AND MINERALS. This county belongs to the transition system. It is underlaid with clay slate, over which is graywacke slate, sandstone, and in the north limestone.

In Cherry Valley and Springfield, gray marble of good quality is found. It is susceptible of a high polish, and abounds with animal fossils. Magnesia is one of its constituents. The graywacke also furnishes an excellent building material. There are some sulphur springs in the county; that at Richfield is highly impreg nated, and often visited for its medicinal qualities.

SOIL AND VEGETABLE PRODUCTIONS. The soil is very fertile. The timber of this section is principally oak, white pine, hemlock, beech and maple. Oats, corn, barley, wheat, hops and potatoes are the principal crops.

PURSUITS. Agriculture, particularly the rearing of cattle, horses and sheep, and manufactures are the principal pursuits. There are no mines, but some extensive marble quarries near Cherry Valley.

The Susquehanna is the only navigable stream in the county, and is mainly used for the transportation of lumber, of which considerable quantities are sent to market annually.

The manufactures of the county are numerous, and increasing in quantity and value with great rapidity. The most important are flour, lumber, cotton and woollen goods, (including prints,) leather, iron, &c. In 1845, they exceeded $1,100,000 in value.

STAPLE PRODUCTIONS. Wool, beef, pork, butter, cheese, and lumber, are the principal productions.

SCHOOLS. There were in the county, in 1846, 316 district school-houses, in which schools were taught an average period of eight months; 16,859 scholars were instructed during the year, at an expense for tuition of about $19,385. The district libraries contained 31,366 volumes.

There were the same year, in the county, thrity-nine private schools, with 652 pupils, and three academies with 223 students.

RELIGIOUS DENOMINATIONS. Baptists, Methodists, Presbyterians, Episcopalians, Congregationalists, Friends, Universalists, and Unitarians. There were, in 1845, eighty-eight churches of all denominations, and ninety-eight clergymen.