6 Dr. Bigsby'b Sketch (J' the Topography 



mentioned (twenty-four miles across), is either so flat, or so 

 various and frequent in its changes of level, that I was unable 

 to perceive in it any sensible rise. The distance, however, is 

 considerable, a much greater elevation might have taken place 

 without my detecting it when unaided by instruments. 



The country bordering this lake on the south is the granary 

 of the United States, and possesses the ordinary features of 

 eminently agricultural districts. Its undulations, except on 

 the east, are only sufficient for drainage, and do not often de- 

 serve to be called hills. It contains some very large morasses ; 

 and fifteen to twenty-five miles south of the lake there are 

 twelve pretty large collections of water, but still of a size vastly 

 inferior to the Canadian chain. The names of the largest are 

 Onsida, Cayuga, and Seneca. They are much admired for 

 their rural scenery. Handsome towns and villages are scat- 

 tered along their banks, and decked vessels and steamboats 

 navigate their waters. The line of heights on the south, divi- 

 ding the tributary streams of this lake from those of Erie, and 

 of the rivers Ohio, Alleghany, Susquehanna, and Hudson, is 

 very capricious in its course ; and, occasionally entering the 

 state of Pennsylvania, leaves Lake Ontario ninety miles to the 

 north, as at the Genesee and Black rivers ; but it approaches 

 to within a few miles of that lake in the swamps above the 

 heights of Queenston on the river Niagara. 



Mr. Darby, in his Tour from New York to Detroit (p. 224), 

 has traced the course of this line fi-om west to east. It is only 

 distinguishable by the direction of its water-shed. Respecting 

 its elevation above Lake Ontario I have no data. 



The steep ridge on the south, of uniform but moderate height, 

 which to a spectator on the lake is so striking an object, skirt- 

 ing its shores from Bui'lington Bay to Niagara river, and which, 

 from thence easterly, disappears under a low belt of woods, 

 rising again about the Genesee to be continued for sixty miles 

 down the lake side, has been named the " Parallel Ridge." — ■ 

 Governor Clinton of New York* has given the best descrip- 

 ton of it, as it occurs from the Genesee to Niagara, in the fol- 

 lowing paragraphs. — It runs " in a direction from east to west. 

 Its general altitude above the neighbouring land is thirty feet, 

 and its width varies considerably ; in some places it is not more 

 than forty yards. Its elevation above the level of Lake Ontario 

 is perhaps 160 feet, to which it descends by a gradual slope, and 

 its distance from that water is between six and ten miles. 



" There is every reason to believe that this remarkable 

 ridge was the ancient boundary of this great lake. The gravel 



• Address to the Historical SoLJctj of New York. 



with 



