Ko. 112.J 455 



from the primitive forest, so that the wealth of the virgin soil 

 has not 3'et bf-en exhausted, and in some towns the agricultural 

 products, as dependent upon this primitive fertility, have by no 

 means come up to the maximum yield. This is especially true 

 of some tovrns lying north of the Ridge road, and a section south 

 of the mountain ridge, bordering on the Tonawanda creek. 



For many years after the canal was cut and settlements had 

 been made along its line and on the Ridge road, the country north* 

 was undervalued and therefore unsought and unsettled, except 

 very sparsely. 



The county is naturally divided into three great plateaux run- 

 ning east and west. The first terrace extends from Lake Ontario 

 to the ridge road, rising so gradually as to seem to be almost a 

 dead level. This plain is about thirty-two miles long and; on an 

 average, about seven miles wide. Overshadowed, as it was, by a 

 vast growth of forest trees rising from marsh and mire, the whole 

 plateaux seemed unfit for cultivation, and was significantly called 

 the Black nortli ; but at the present day this dismal appellation 

 ill befiis the country, for in fertility and moral beauty and agri- 

 cultural wealth it stands unrivalled. It is a bautiful net-work 

 of orchards and glebe, wood-lands and meadows, with fine farm 

 houses and cottages over it all. Systematic draining has redeem- 

 ed it and made it em])hatically a jileasant land. 



The second terrace is, on an average, about t]:irty feet liigher 

 than tlie first, and extends south fri'm tlie Ridge road to the 

 mountain ridgj running nearly across the county from oast to 

 west, liaving an average breadtli of about two miles, Init dimin- 

 ishing t<jwar(]s the west till The ridge and mountain meet in the 

 eastern i>art of the town "f Lewiston. T\\v upper terrace is about 

 two hui'dred feet higher than the second at its northern limit, or 

 the mountain, slopiii'^ grarlually southward to TonawafKla creek, 

 distance about eight miles. The soil of the county is mainly 

 clay and loam, fre(|uently mixed with sand. In lertility it is not 

 excelled by any other portion of western Nfw-York. 



Niagara formerly constituted part of Genesee county, from 

 which it was taken in March, 1808 j Erie county was subse- 



