ILLUSTRATIONS. 51 



there shall be occasion, wherein due regard is to be had to the advice of dis- 

 tant members. 



That at the end of every year collections be made and printed, of such exper- 

 iments, discoveries, SmproTements, &c. as may be thought of public advantage; 

 and that every member have a copy sent him. 



That the business and duty of the secretary be, to receive all letters intended 

 for the society, and lay them before the president and members at their meet- 

 ings ; to abstract, correct, and methodize such papers, &c. as require it ; and as 

 he shall be directed to do by the president, after they have been considered, 

 debated, and digested in the society ; to enter copies thereof in the society'* 

 books, and make out copies for distant members ; to answer their letters by 

 direction of the president, and keep records of all material transactions of the 

 society, tfc. 



Benjamin Franklin, the writer of this proposal, offers himself to serve the 

 society as their secretary, till they shall be provided with one more capable. 



Philadelphia, May 14, 1743." 



NOTE 7. 



The appearance of the lands belonging to the Holland Company, particularly 

 from Bataviato Lake Erie, furnishes strong indications of the recession of that 

 lake. Near Vendeventer's tavern, in Niagara county, about twenty-two miles 

 from the lake, there is a perpendicular descent whfch is said to extend from the 

 Genesee river to Black Rock j between it and the Stone Ridge, which runs from 

 theGenesee river to Lewiston, there is an immense valley, twenty miles across 

 called Tonewanto Valley. The precipice at Vandeventer's is from one hun- 

 dred to two hundred feet, composed principally of limestone and flint ; combined 

 like those on Bird Island, at the outlet of the lake, and bearing every mark of 

 the attrition and abrasion of the waves. The rocks are scooped out by the water 

 On digging a cellar here, a great collection of lakesand, and another of gravel, 

 were found. Might not Lake Erie have formerly covered the Tonewanto 

 Valley and formed an immense bay, when the Niagara falls were at Queenstown p 

 and on the recession of the cataract, might not Lake Erie have retreated from 

 the valley ? perhaps the stone ridge was the boundary between Lake Erie and 

 Ontario ? or might not Lake Erie have formerly discharged itself by the Tone- 

 wanto Valley into the Genesee river ? it is, however, believed by some that 

 this lake formerly discharged itself by the Ctiicaga creek, and illinoi? and 

 rive'rt, into the Gnlf ef Mexico, before the supposed barrier 



