this county, and known as the Triangle tract, was sold by Robert Morris, to Messrs. Le Roy, Bayard and McEvers.

The first settlement in the county was at Batavia, about the commencement of the present century. The Holland Land Company erected their land office here in 1801. In October, 1804, the settlement contained from twenty to thirty houses, 'mostly built of logs. It was at that time very sickly. The fertility of its soil and its adaptation to the culture of grain, caused a rapid immigration, and it was organized as a county, in 1802. It then comprised, however, the present counties of Allegany, Chautauque, Niagara, Erie, Cattaraugus, Orleans, Wyoming, and the western portions of Monroe and Livingston.

VILLAGES. BATAVIA village, the county seat, was incorporated in 1823. It is laid out in a plat, two miles square, and has over 300 buildings, a female seminary, the office of the Holland Land Company, and a number of manufactories.

Le Roy, in the town of Le Roy, is a thriving village, situated on Allen's Creek, and incorporated in 1834. The village lots are spacious, and the dwellings are generally built of stone, presenting a very neat appearance. The rapid growth of this village is due to the hydraulic power of the creek, which has three considerable falls.

The first fall at the village, is eighteen feet, the second about a mile below, twenty-seven feet, and the third within two miles, eighty feet, affording great facilities for manufacturing purposes. A number of sites are occupied by flour, oil, and other mills.

It is a remarkable fact that much of the water of this creek disappears before it reaches the highest fall, which is supposed to supply the Caledonia spring in the adjoining town, in Livingston county. It has about 2000 inhabit-ants. Here is a flourishing female seminary..

Alexander is a village of some importance, in the town of the same name. It has an incorporated classical school. Population, 500.

Mountains. PP. Highlands of St. Lawrence county.

Rivers. I. St. Lawrence. a. Oswegatchie. b. Indian.

c. Grasse. d. Racket. e. St. Regis. f. Deer. g. East branch Oswegatchie. h. West branch Oswegatchie.

Lakes. k. Black.

Falls. On the St. Regis, in Brasher, Hopkinton and Parishville. On the Racket, at Potsdam, Colton and St. Regis. On the Grasse, at Canton and Pierrepont. On the Oswegatchie, at Canton and Rossie.

Forts. Ogdensburgh.

Battle Fields. Ogdensburgh.

Villages. CANTON. Ogdensburgh. Rossie. Brasher's falls. Potsdam. Gouverneur. Waddington. Massena. Norfolk.

BOUNDARIES. North by the river St. Lawrence; East by Franklin county; South by Hamilton and Herkimer; and West by Lewis and Jefferson counties, and the St. Lawrence river.

SURFACE. The surface of this county is agreeably diversified. Along the bank of the St. Lawrence river, for a distance of seventy-five miles in length, and from thirty to forty in breadth, the county consists of gentle swells, broad valleys, or extensive plains. Farther south it rises into hills, and finally assumes a mountainous character, in the southeast, where are situated the Highlands of the St. Lawrence.

RIVERS. The principal streams of the county besides the St. Lawrence, are the St. Regis, Racket, Grasse, Indian, Oswegatchie and Deer rivers, which by their long and circuitous courses and numerous tributaries, abundantly water it. A natural canal, six miles long, connects the Oswegatchie and Grasse rivers, in the town of Canton.

FALLS. Most of these streams have numerous falls or rapids, furnishing a large amount of water power.

LAKES. Black Lake is the only one of importance. There are many extensive marshes.

CLIMATE. The climate is less variable than in most counties of the state. The air is clear, and the seasons uniform, compensating for the severe cold of winter, and contributing to the health of its inhabitants.

GEOLOGY AND MINERALS. That portion of the county lying along the St. Lawrence, for a width of ten or fifteen miles, belongs to the tertiary, or rather the alluvial formation, consisting of clay and gravel; this is succeeded, at a distance of fifteen or twenty miles from the river, by a belt of Potsdam sandstone, running nearly parallel to the St. Lawrence, and varying in width from five to ten miles; the remainder of the county belongs wholly to the primary formation, and consists of hypersthene, gneiss, granite and primitive limestone.

The Potsdam sandstone forms one of the finest building materials in the world. Specular iron ore is found in this county in immense quantities, and is largely manufactured. The magnetic and bog iron ores are also quite abundant. Graphite or black lead is found in several localities. Lead exists in vast quantities in the neighborhood of Rossie. Zinc and copper occur frequently. Marble, serpentine, and other forms of carbonate of lime are deposited in various parts of the county; steatite or soapstone is plentiful. The other principal minerals are phosphate of lime, sulphate of barytes, quartz crystals, Brucite, talc, pyroxene, hornblende, asbestus, feldspar, albite, Labradorite, mica, spinel, tourmaline, zircon, Babingtonite and sphene.

SOIL AND VEGETABLE PRODUCTIONS. The greater portion of the land is of excellent quality. The soil consists of a dark vegetable mould, often underlaid with lime and marl, and is very productive of grasses, grains, &c. Much of the county is yet covered with dense forests of oak, beech, maple, basswood, butternut, ash, elm, hemlock, white and Norway pine. In the marshes white cedar, tamarack and black ash, are the principal trees. From the maple, large quantities of sugar are manufactured.

PURSUITS. The people are chiefly engaged in agriculture. Great numbers of cattle are reared, and much attention paid to the products of the dairy. They are becoming interested in manufactures, which at present are mostly limited to flour, lumber, fulled cloths, potash and leather.

Commerce. The commerce of the county is increasing in value and importance. Ogdensburgh is the principal port. The shipping of the Oswegatchie district amounted, in 1845, to about 1500 tons.

STAPLE PRODUCTIONS. Butter, cheese, potatoes, oats, corn, peas, wheat, sugar, wool, potash and lumber.

SCHOOLS. There were 402 common schools in the county in 1846, taught an average period of seven months each, and attended by 22,263 children. The teachers were paid $22,023. The libraries contained 33,191 volumes.

The number of select schools was twenty-three, with 303 scholars; of academies, four, with 346 students.

RELIGIOUS DENOMINATIONS. Presbyterians, Methodists, Congregationalists, Baptists, Episcopalians, Universalists and Roman Catholics. Total number of churches, seventy-five; of clergymen, 125.

HISTORY. The French erected a fort at Oswegatchie, in this county before 1740, which they named Fort Presentation. This fort was captured by General Amherst, in 1760.

The first permanent settlement in the county seems to have been made in 1796, by Judge Nathan Ford, at Oswegatchie. At that time the Oswegatchie Indians had a village near his settlement, and attempted several times to drive him away, but without success. The next settlement was made at Canton, by

Mr. Stillman Foot, in 1799. These were soon succeeded by others, mostly from New England, and a line of settlements was speedily formed along the river. Much of the land in the county is held by the Messrs. Van Rensselaer, Gouverneur Morris and other wealthy capitalists.

During the late war with Great Britain, some interesting incidents occurred in this county. On the second of October, 1812, the British, in retaliation for the destruction of a large quantity of their stores at Gananoque, Canada, by Captain Forsyth, commenced a heavy cannonade upon Ogdensburgh, from their batteries at Prescott, a Canadian village, on the opposite bank of the St. Lawrence. They continued the cannonade for two days, and on Sunday, the fourth of October, attempted to storm the town.

For this purpose, about 1000 men were embarked in forty boats; as they approached the American shore, General Brown ordered his troops to fire upon them. They did so, and for two hours the British attempted to land, but the galling fire of the Americans was too severe to be endured, and at length they were compelled to retreat to Prescott, with the loss of three boats and a number of men. The American force engaged in this contest, was only about 400 men.

On the twenty-first of February, 1813, the British again attacked Ogdensburgh with a large force, and, though encountering the most determined resistance, succeeded in driving out the American troops, and capturing the village.

Two schooners, two gunboats and the soldiers' barracks were destroyed, and the enemy returned to Canada. The army of General Wilkinson embarked for the campaign of the autumn of 1813, from Morristown, in this county. Since the war, the increase of population in this county has been exceedingly rapid. Its population has nearly quadrupled in twenty-five years; and from its extraordinary facilities for manufactures, mining and agriculture, its future growth must necessarily be rapid.

In 1838, this county and the Canada shore opposite, was the scene of some of the exploits of the Canada Patriots, (so called.) The battle of Prescott was fought at Windmill Point, nearly opposite Ogdensburgh, and several of the citizens of New York, who had aided" the Patriots," were taken prisoners and executed, and others banished to Van Dieman's Land.

ANTIQUITIES. In the town of Gouverneur, is an ancient Indian fortification, consisting of an embankment, enclosing three acres, and containing some remains of rude sculpture.

VILLAGES. CANTON village is the county seat. It is situated on Grasse river, and contains besides the county buildings, an