104 Geology mid Topography of Western Neio York. 



of this stream seems to be in very good keeping with that of the 

 gorge, through which it enters the river, and was given in com- 

 memoration of a tragic scene once enacted at this place.* 



When the passes by which this inland sea communicated with 

 the Atlantic, became contracted and shoaled, by the progressive 

 elevation of the continent, it approximated to the condition of a 

 lake. The same process which took place when this limestone 

 reef emerged, was repeated, but in a new place. The tides and 

 waves began to spend their force on obstructions at a lower level ; 

 and when the plain, on which Lewiston is situated, emerged, it 

 is probable the change was nearly effected. 



We there find indications of an ancient shore, composed of 

 rounded beach gravel, elevated a few feet above the general level 

 of the surrounding surface, and having a direction parallel to the 

 present shore of Lake Ontario. It is generally supposed — and the 

 geologist assigned to this district, in the survey now going on, 

 favors the opinionf — that Lake Ontario once had a greater eleva- 



* The following brief account of that bloody exploit, as related by Farmer's- 

 Brolher, a celebrated Seneca Chief, who himself headed the attacking pai-ty, is 

 extracted from Thatcher's Indian Biography, and may be interesting to some of. 

 the readers of this journal who have not seen that work. " There, with a party 

 of Indians, he lay in ambush, patieTitly awaiting the approach of a guard that 

 accompanied the English teams employed between the Falls of Niagara and the 

 garrison," (Fort Niagara,) " which had there lately surrendered to Sir William 

 Johnson. The place selected for that purpose is now known by the name of the 

 Devil's Hole, and is three and a half miles below the famous cataract upon the 

 American side of the strait. The mind can scarcely conceive a more dismal 

 looking den. A large ravine, occasioned by the falling in of the perpendicular 

 bank, made dark by the spreading branches of the birch and cedar, which had ta- 

 ken root below, and the low murmurings of the rapids in the chasm, added to the 

 solemn thunder of the cataract itself, conspire to render the scene truly awful. 

 The English party were not aware of the dreadful fate that awaited them. Un- 

 conscious of danger, the drivers were gaily whistling to their dull ox-teams. Far- 

 mer's-Brother and his band, on their arrival at this spot, rushed from the thicket 

 thai had concealed them, and commenced a horrid butchery. So unexpected was 

 such an event, and so completely were the English disarmed of their presence of 

 mind, that but a feeble resistance was made. The guard, the teamsters, the oxen 

 and the waggons, were precipitated into the gulf. But two of them escaped ; a 

 Mr. Stedman, who lived at Schlosser, above the falls, being mounted on a fleet 

 horse, made good his retreat ; and one of the soldiers, who was caught on a pro- 

 jecting root of a cedar, which sustained him until assured, by the distant yell of 

 the savages, that they had quitted the ground. It is the rivulet, pouring itself 

 down this precipice, whose name is the only monument that records the massacre. 

 It is said to have been literally colored with the blood of the vanquished." 



t Mr. James Hall : see New York Geological Report, 1838, p. 310, and onward. 



