160 [Assembly 



the planting of a vineyard. The water is deep, said to have been 

 sounded 400 feet. It has a deep green color when seen from the 

 bank, but when lifted in a glass vessel, is perfectly transparent. 

 Trees and limbs of trees, when fallen into the water, become incrust- 

 ed; those which have a horizontal position, are white; those vertical, 

 green. I raised a limb from the deep water, and brought it home 

 with me, it resembles corals, and is a deep green color. A bubble on 

 this lake, when floated over a white horizontal strata within three 

 inches of the surface of the lake in bright sunshine, gives a four 

 pointed star as the figure of its focus. I brought a bottle of the 

 water of this lake home with me. 



Wood, which has been taken from the lake for fuel, gives out a 

 strong odour of sulphur when burnt. The banks below the water 

 are nearly perpendicular, ragged, and of startling aspect. On one 

 side of the lake are deep sinks, some of which terminate in open 

 chasms. The banks are formed of sulphate of lime. A few years, 

 since the lake rose suddenly several feet, and receded as rapidly, 

 and continued to ebb and flow for some time, with a loud noise. 



The lake is of volcanic origin, as it has sunk down from the dis- 

 placing the lower strata. It is in the northern edge of the hills which 

 border the long level of the Erie canal which extends 70 miles with- 

 out a lock. These hills divide a trio of water courses; the tributaries 

 of the Mohawk run east; of the Susquehannah south, and of the St. 

 liftwrence, north. The electric and galvanic energies of the ocean 

 here act upon itself in its triune arteries that here meet at their ex- 

 tremities, and thus an immense saline deposit has been formed; th^ 

 brines of Onondaga are thus accumulated. 



Near Kirkville, a mile or more from the Cratean lakes, calcareous 

 tubes, or cylinders, of various sizes are exhumed in plowing. These 

 are formed by the incrusting of trees; the wood subsequently decay- 

 ing leaves the outside a rock petrefaction, or rather a concretion. 

 The surface of the ground below the lower lake is covered with po- 

 rous stone in rough and angular pieces, resembling pummice stone, 

 ^d some of it equally light. 



In this level section of country are inexhaustible beds of black al- 

 luvial earth and white marl, and sufficient in quantity to enrich every 

 acre of poor land in this great commonwealth. This black alluvial earth 

 is worth more for Long Island land or any dry land than leached 



