The Genesee Valley 99 



and in a succession of rapids, until it discharges into the valley 

 at Scjuawkie Hill, the writer's home, and then goes on in a 

 more peaceful way to Lake Ontario. The Genesee river gorge 

 is one of the most romantic, most interesting, most heautiful 

 canoe trips in, — well, in the world, let him who can, dispute it. 

 At times many of the rapids are quite formidable enough to 

 open your eyes and close your mouth, and to make your scalp 

 lock stand on end; but you would not have missed it for a 

 thousand. 



The Genesee Valley was once u])on a time a great lake, 

 some forty miles long, and two to three miles wide. 



The northern barrier of this lake, near Rochester, New 

 York, finally gave way, and the lake l)ecame a valley, with the 

 river cutting through tlie centuries of deposit, and accumulated 

 wash of the great Alleghany watershed. This deposit is over 

 a hundred feet deep, and accounts for the remarkable fertility 

 of the soil. The valley was, according to Indian tradition, 

 never wooded. This theory is confirmed by the earliest history 

 of the countrj', and is one of the strongest proofs of the lake 

 theory. 



The hills on either side of the valley grow higher and higher 

 as you go from north to south, until they are over one thousand 

 feet high. These hills are cut and seamed by ditches, gullies and 

 ravines without number. They make most formidable barriers 

 in following the chase, and in addition to the usually well tim- 

 ber-fenced i)astures, require of the hunter that he shoukl be the 

 stoutest, the most courageous, and altogether the best all- 

 round animal that is to be found in the e(]uine race. Besides 

 being a good timber jumper, he must be schooled to all sorts 

 and conditions of ditches; to clamber down into ravines as 

 sure-footed as a goat, and out again as if crawling up the side 

 of a mansard roof. 



These gullies and ravines afford Reynard most secluded 

 retreats. They are a veritable haven of refuge. It is quite 



