374 REED-WRIGHT— THE VERTEBRATES OF [October i, 



of the streams of each system are very close, in a few instances 

 with actual water connection. 



The close relation existing between the Finger Lakes and the 

 Susquehanna system is most marked in the tributaries of Cayuga 

 Lake. Sixmile and Wilseyville creeks arise about three miles apart 

 with a considerable elevation intervening, but within the upper three 

 miles of their respective courses, they approach within three fifths 

 of a mile of each other at precisely the same level with no high 

 land between. Buttermilk creek arises one fourth of a mile from 

 Michigan creek and three tenths of a mile from Danby Creek, all 

 at an elevation of i,ioo feet. Taughannock Creek arises in the 

 same marsh with a tributary of Cayuta Lake at an elevation of 

 1,300 feet. The inlet of Cayuga Lake arises one and one half 

 miles from Spencer Creek at the same elevation and in the same 

 stretch of marshy area. The west branch of the Lilet at its source 

 is one fifth of a mile from Cantor creek in Pony Hollow. Sixmile 

 Creek and the west branch of the Owego Creek rise in the same 

 marsh at an altitude of 1,280 feet. The west branch of the Owego 

 Creek also comes into close relation with Fall Creek through the 

 tributaries of Dryden Lake. 



These examples serve to show not only the possibility of recent 

 connections but in the case of several streams of the two systems 

 an actual connection at the present time. The sources of Sixmile 

 and Wilseyville creeks are so close that they are connected for lim- 

 ited periods during flood times. Professor R. S. Tarr has expressed 

 to us the belief that before the region was settled and the dense 

 virgin forests cleared away, many of the streams of the Cayuga and 

 Susquehanna systems, with present close relations, were actually 

 connected in the heavily wooded swamps. 



The outlet of the Finger Lakes is the Seneca River, which con- 

 stitutes the principal component of the Oswego system. The stream 

 itself is about fifty miles long and according to the U. S. Geological 

 Survey has a drop of only twenty feet which accounts for its slug- 

 gish, meandering and marshy course. It receives the drainage of a 

 little more than three thousand square miles of territory. 



