APPENDIX. 417 



CONFIGURATION OF THE COUNTRY LYING 

 SOUTH OF LAKE ERIE. 



I own my obligation to Professor Chester Dewey, df 

 Williams' College, Massachusetts, for the following in- 

 telligence on the natural formation of the region situated 

 to the southward of lake Erie* 



Almost all the distance from Buffalo to the head of 

 lake Erie, there is a regular swell of land, generally 

 about five miles from the shore, everywhere presenting 

 to the observing traveller, sufficient evidence of its hav- 

 ing formerly been the south boundary of the lake. The 

 land south of this ridge is generally lower for many miles 

 in some places it is nearly forty miles a dead-level, 

 except when it is interrupted by the channels or beds of 

 creeks, which are generally deep, with almost perpendi- 

 cular banks* The land on the north side of the ridge 

 gradually descends to the north about one mile generally, 

 where is a second, or what we call the north, ridge. This 

 is not so high nor so interrupted by mounds of sand as 

 the south ridge. The distance from this to the lake is 

 about four mile's, and the land a little descending towards 

 the lake. Though the present lake-store appears to have 

 been fixed for centuries, probably the southern ridge 

 was once the shore ; and for the following reasons : * The 

 south ridge is composed of the same materials as the pre- 

 sent shore. I have carefully viewed it from Coneaut 

 creek to Grand river, a distance of about 45 miles. 

 This day I have been viewing a newly dug well in the 

 town of Wrightsburgh. From the top of the ground, 

 the first three feet is a sandy loam ; then a coarse gravel ; 

 and then a layer of small stones of the same kind which 

 we find on the present lake-shore. These three layers 



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