80 - NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



side of the railroad the cleared portions become good farming 

 land, but, on the south side, nothing but a coarse marsh grass 

 takes the place of the woods. At a depth of 4 feet the bottom of 

 the peat is not reached, and apparently the quality is good. De- 

 composed wood is one of the important constituents in this peat, 

 as is the case in most of the peat deposits in New York State, 



Near Knapp station, a few miles east of this marsh, is another 

 '' cedar swamp," but, though many excavations were made, there 

 was only one case where the material found might be called peat. 

 The depth of the organic matter was not more than 2 feet and con- 

 sisted of a brown or black muck underlain by sand. In one place 

 a few clumps of sphagnum about 3 feet across were seen, which 

 are probably the remnants of a once luxuriant growth of this 

 plant. 



Though the bottom of the peat deposit at Madrid was not 

 reached, it is probable that, like the swamp at Knapp station it 

 is only a shallow deposit, as the country 'is comparatively level, 

 and the rocks are in many cases well exposed near the streams. 



Montezuma marshes. North of Cayuga lake is a great tract of 

 swampy land, which has been covered with water for the greater 

 part of many years, and is known as the Montezuma marshes. 

 The extreme length from the foot of Cayuga lake to Howland 

 island is about 15 miles, and its greatest breadth is about 3 or 4 

 miles. 



In many ways this is one of the most peculiar swamps in 

 the State, for, though it is at the foot of the lake, it is essentially 

 a delta swamp. After the subsidence of Lake Iroquois, when 

 the waters of Cayuga lake covered the entire area now occupied 

 by the marsh, the Clyde and Seneca rivers flowed directly into 

 Cayuga lake. Gradually the sediment brought by these streams 

 made the water shallower, so that the aquatic plants sprang 

 up, and these in turn have in many places been replaced by 

 marsh grasses. The filling process has not depended entirely 

 on these streams for its supplies, for under a great part of the 

 swamp, a thick deposit of shell marl of remarkable purity is 



