Queenstown; and that on the receding of the cascade, Lake Erie receded from the valley, leaving the Tonnewanta Creek; and perhaps the stone ridge was the boundary between Lakes Erie and Ontario. Some suppose that Lake Erie formerly discharged itself by the Tonnewanta Valley into the Genesee River.

Between the house and the slope we collected some fossil shells and petrifactions, which are not to be found in the lakes, as well as of snakes and horns, imbedded in lime-stone. We also saw flint or silex, in calcareous or lime-stone, as at Bird Island. The same appearances exist at Cherry Valley, which country, like this, experiences a dearth of water. In the village of Buffalo, the whole village is supplied by hogsheads from a great spring, as tea water was formerly distributed from New York.

Vandewater supposes that the canal from Lake Erie ought to be on the south side of this precipice, not on the north side by the Tonnewanta Creek. Lobelia cardinalis, the cardinal flower, grows in marshy ground, a beautiful scarlet flower, on a plant about two feet high, the flower on the top of a conical form.

The road from here to Batavia, eighteen miles, is bad; it runs through swampy ground, and is sand with bogs. A dead level country, stagnant water, no appearance of stone, and every indication of an alluvial country. There is no free circulation of air, and the country must be insalubrious, although at Richardson's tavern, seven miles from Vandewater's, where we stopped to bait, they say they have lived in good health for five years. The country abounds with meadow larks, robins, blue jays, and various kinds of woodpeckers.

Five miles from Vandewater's we crossed Murder or

Sulphur Creek, a small stream with a saw-mill. It is so called from sulphur springs, and from the circumstance of a crazy man, who had gone from the United States to Canada, being sent back under the care of some Indians, who tomahawked him here in his crazy fits. The county line of Genesee commences three miles west of Genesee. Richardson lives in the town of Batavia.

We arrived at Batavia about six o'clock, eleven miles from Richardson's, having traveled thirty-two miles today. We put up at Keyes' tavern, a good house, and in the evening we were visited by Joseph Ellicott, Stevens, Brisban, Col. Rumsey, and Judge Jones.

The latitude of Batavia is 43° north. It contains a Court-house, built by the Holland Land Company for $10,000; a Post-office, and fifty houses, and several stores and taverns. A republican newspaper, called the Cornucopia, is published here. Tonnewanta Creek runs in front of the town, and has on its waters an excellent grist and saw-mill. We crossed this stream by a bridge, four miles back. It is a considerable turn, and as wide as Canandaigua outlet, at its confluence with Mud Creek. The office of the Holland Land Company is kept here, and three attornies already occupy this village. The situation of this village, with a mill dam in front, and surrounded by marshes, must be unhealthy, although the inhabitants deny the fact. This is invariably the case; the commodore asked an old woman on the miasmatic banks of the Seneca River, whether the place was healthy. Very much so," says she, "we have only a disease called typhus."

The ridge, properly speaking, is the ground where the Ridge Road runs. The elevation back of it, and the elevation north of Vandewater's, are not ridges, but slopes,

1

because Mr. Ellicott says there is a descent only on one side. But a slope contains a gradual descent like an inclined plane, and here the descent is perpendicular, and precipitous in many places. The face of the country is a flat plain, and when you descend from the slope or ridge at Vandewater's you stand on another plain, which runs across the Tonne wanta Valley, until you come to the ridge or slope back of the Ridge Road; and then you again descend on a plain, until you come to the ridge on which the ground is inclined greatly to Lake Ontario. The level country is the cause of the scarcity of water, together with the great quantity of calcareous stone, the fissures of which absorb the water. Mr. Ellicott says that the Oak Orchard Creek is the most considerable stream in the country. The upper slope that passes by Vandewater's tavern, forms the falls of the Genesee River. (See its course traced on the map by Benjamin Ellicott.) The distance between the slopes varies from 12 to 20 miles. North of the Ridge Road, he says, there are no fortifications; between it and the lower slope there are several, and in other parts of the country they are numerous. Two important inferences may be drawn from this striking fact:

1. That the ridge was the ancient boundary of Lake Ontario.

2. The great antiquity of the fortifications. They must have been erected before the retreat of the Lake.

The outlet of Lake Ontario ought to be examined, in order to ascertain the breaking of the waters by the St. Lawrence. The Thousand Islands there must have been then formed. The bay of Lake Erie which run up into the Tonnewanta Valley, covered, of course, the country between the slopes, and formed the Genesee Flats.

As the antiquity and great population of the Aborigines are undoubted, Gen. North inquires whether the sudden retreat of the lakes may not have produced a wide-spreading pestilence, which may have depopulated this country.

If, as Volney fancifully suggests, Lake Ontario was the crater of a volcano, all these speculations are visionary; but they are probably better founded than his. I saw no traces of basalt on the borders of the lake-nothing to indicate the existence of a volcano.

In the tavern there was an advertisement of William Wadsworth, dated Geneseo. He proposes to let out halfblooded merino rams, to be delivered on the first of September, each ram to be put to fifty ewes, and no more, before the 1st of October, and to be returned on the 1st of June, unsheared. All the ram progeny to be returned, and he is to have all the ewe lambs except two (from each ram), for each of which he is to pay eight shillings cash, on the 1st September, 1811. He charges nothing for the use of the rams.

August 7th. After breakfast we visited Mr. Ellicott, who keeps the office of the Holland Land Company. He has five clerks, a salary of $2,000, and a commission of five per cent. on his sales. The management and method of his office are admirable. He has a large map in which is laid down every lot, and a memorandum book giving the character and value of it, to which he can refer instantly. The whole bespeaks great intelligence and talents for business. The sales of the Company are made by contracts only, on credit of ten years,-two without

interest.

In Ellicott's garden there grew capers and cammomile, and the largest poppies I ever saw. We examined, at his

house, a clock made by his father, Joseph Ellicott, a selftaught man, who was brought up a mill-wright. On one side was a clock which designated the second, the minute, the day, the month, and the year. On another an orrery, working out the revolutions of the planets and their satellites. On another a musical machinery, which can play twenty-four tunes. The mechanical execution was admirable, and so also were the mahogany case and the painting of the faces of the machine, and strange to tell, they were both made by persons who took up the business without any previous instruction.

The Court-house erected by the Company is, perhaps, the best in the Western District. The Court-room has a gallery for the audience, and the building also contains an hotel.

A quarter of an acre lot in the best part of the village sells for $160, and lots of forty acres, in more retired parts, for $600.

Who has the preemptive right to the Indian reservations in the Holland Land Company's territories? Mr. Ellicott says the Company, not the State.

Six miles from Batavia we stopped to water at Chequaga Creek, at Marvin's tavern.

Eleven miles from Batavia we passed Allen's Creek, a considerable stream, which runs into the Genesee River; on it are mills. In the bottom of this stream is found a black inflammable stone, of which I have specimen. Is this black stone connected with a coal mine? Is it not schistic or slate?

We took a collation at Ganson's tavern, twelve miles from Batavia, in the town of Caledonia, which is divided from Batavia by the transit line, which runs a little to the