THE MUSEUM. 



A Monthly Magazine Devoted to Research in Natural Science. 



Vol. II. 



ALBION, N. Y., MARCH 15, 1896. 



No. 



Notes from the Mohawk's Country 



p. M. VAN EPPS. 



(III.) 



A LACUSTRINE SWAMP. 



'Where harilly a human foot could pass. 

 On the quaking turf of the green morass," 



— Longjelluw. 



Due north from the Mohawk river 

 about si.\ miles, and lying near the 

 western border of Saratoga County is 

 a swampy tract locally known as "Con- 

 salus' Vlaie," so named from the orig- 

 inal purchaser of the tract Joseph Con- 

 salus or Gonzalez who settled here in 

 1770. This swamp, or "vlaie" as the 

 Dutch settlers called it, embraces a 

 tract of from si.x to eight-hundred 

 acres in e.xtent, and is the peat filled 

 bed of a pleistocene lake, and althongh 

 now completely overgrown, yet prob- 

 ably at the period of the occupancy of 

 this region by the Mohawks some open 

 water yet remained, as traces of anci- 

 ent camping sites have been noticed on 

 or near the borders of this former lake. 



Numerous swampy areas of this 

 character are to be met with in north- 

 ern New York, of which many were 

 doubtless in former time sheets of 

 open water. Some were wholly or 

 partially drained by the gradual 

 erosion and lowering of their outlets, 

 while others have been filled by the 

 slow washing in of detritus b}- surface 

 waters and streams, and by the growth 

 of sphagnum and other allied water- 

 growing plants which encroaching on 



the lake from every side eventually 

 bridged all remaining open water, un- 

 til in lieu of a lake we find a morass, 

 swamp or vlaie. The central portion 

 of such lakes being generally the last 

 to become filled or overgrown, often 

 remain for a long time as treacherous 

 quaking bogs, in which many animals 

 become entrapped and perish. 



The economic products obtained 

 from such swamps in this latitude con- 

 sist principally of peat, bog-iron ore 

 (limonite) and shell marl. But little 

 is done however in the way of procur- 

 ing these, as the e.xpense of drainage 

 often exceeds the commercial value of 

 the products obtained. Many years 

 ago a company was formed to explore 

 and drain the Consalus vlaie, a few 

 drainage ditches were excavated at 

 great e.xpense; some little quantity of 

 peat was taken out and dried, and the 

 experiment was made of burning this 

 peat in the locomotives of the New 

 York Central Railroad at Schenectady; 

 but the works were soon abandoned, 

 and the ditches have been allowed to 

 fill with silt and vegetable growth. It 

 is possible that in the future an ele- 

 ment of some commercial value may 

 be obtained from swamps of this char- 

 acter, in the supply of diatomaceous 

 earth whicn is known to exist in such 

 areas, also phosphatic nodules are 

 supposed to abound on the floors of 

 these filled lakes. 



Regarding the Indian occupation of 



