Two distinct different Tracts of Country

When we proceed to a more exact Detail of this Country, so as to examine it in its Parts, we must observe, that as the Country in general is divided into different Stages, so the general Face of it contained in this Map is divided into Two distinct and very different Tracts of Country, viz. Into that Part which lies W. and S.W. of Hudson's [Hudson] River, and that which is E. and N.E. of Hudson's [Hudson] River and Lake Champlain. This specific Difference will be marked in the Descriptions which I shall give of each Part. It will be sufficient here to say, that the Mountains of the Western Division, beginning from an immense high Tract of Land lying in the Angle formed by the Mohawks [Mohawk] and Hudson's [Hudson] Rivers, go off from Hudson's [Hudson] River in one general Trending in parallel Lines and in uniform Ranges of Ridges South Westerly to West Florida and Louisiana. The Mountains of the other Division on the East Side of the River run in like uniform Ranges, but in a Direction almost due North and South parallel to the River, and end in steep Ridges and bluff Heads at or near the Coast on Long Island Sound: And in the Latitude 45 or thereabouts, turning Eastward run away to the Gulf of St. Lawrence. The Hudson's [Hudson] River, and the Lakes George and Champlain, and the River Sorel form the very peculiar Line of this Division of the Country. The Bed of the Hudson's [Hudson] River (as if it were a great deep Chasm formed in the Body of the Country by its being split down to the Level of the Sea) is a strait deep Channel running (to speak generally) North and South betwixt Two Tracts of very high Land, and admits, amidst and through high Mountains, the Flow of the Tide more than 180 Miles up it. Where it lies thus (180 Miles from the Ocean) on a Level with the Flow of the Tide, the Rivers which have their Sources in the high Lands on each Side of it, the Delaware and Susquehanna Rivers particularly, which are very great Rivers, run tumbling with a precipitate Course over Rifts and Falls for many hundred Miles S. and S.E. before they reach the same Level; even the Connecticut River on the east of it & parallel to it runs with many a Swift and over many Falls above 100 Miles South before it reaches the same Level.