252 The Parallel Drift-Hills of Western New York. 



height, aud in the tingles at which they rise from the intervening 

 Yalleys ; bnt however much they may differ in these respects, 

 they substantially agree in their general north and sonth direc- 

 tion. Their deviations from this line are slight. In the western 

 part of Wayne County, and in the northwestern i)art of Seneca, 

 they bear a few degrees west, and in eastern Wayne and Cayuga, 

 a few degrees east of north. 



While some of them may be traced two or three miles, attain- 

 ing altitudes of one hundred or two hundred feet above the 

 intervening valleys, the greater number are both shorter and 

 lower. The highest and longest ones are chiefly sitnated just 

 sonth of the northern out-crop of the Niagara limestone, though 

 some very high ones are found several miles further south, upon 

 the Salina. In general, however, the further we recede from 

 the Niagara outcrop, and the nearer we approach Cayuga and 

 Seneca lakes, the lower are the hills. There is no regularity in 

 their positions, for while some groups of them occupy several 

 square miles of territory, witli but narrow valleys intervening, 

 in other localities, swampy valleys occur, a mile or more in widlh 

 and several miles in length. In some instances, hills are litemlly 

 piled upon hills, so that one great ridge is lined along its sides 

 by a number of subordinate ridges. Many of them were origi- 

 nally very difiicult to cultivate, on account of their steep declivi- 

 ties, but this feature is far less noticeable now than it was 

 twenty-five years ago, for frequent plowing, and the washing of 

 rains and melting snow, have wrought great changes in them 

 since the forests Avere removed. This remark applies particu- 

 larly to the northern hills; but those situated further south — 

 several miles from the Niagara out-crop — have not improved in 

 the same ratio ; the reason of which will be apparent when we 

 consider their composition. Again, when hills have steep de- 

 clivities, these are, with very few exceptions, upon their east or 

 west sides or at their north ends ; they almost uniformly slope 

 to the south gradually. The exceptions occur in hills which 

 have undergone changes since the material of which they are 

 formed was first deposited. 



As already foreshadowed, the irregularity of the hills has its 

 l^arallel in that of the valleys. The smaller ones are shallow 

 depressions between low ridges which serve the puri)oses of drain- 



