452 C. R. DRYER — FINGER LAKE REGION OF WESTERN NEW YORK 



connects the Canandaigua valley above Naples with the Canaseraga 

 valley above Dansville, is one of the unique and striking features of the 

 region. Four miles from the west end the Hemlock valley opens into 

 it from the north. It thus cuts across the heads of three of the principal 

 south-north valleys, and is similar to them except that its floor lies 

 500-600 feet higher. Its walls rise abruptly 500-650 feet, and it has 

 the appearance of a half-filled valley, an inference which is sustained 

 by the gravel pavement which lies a few feet below its surface. No deep 

 borings have been made in it. At Wayland, opposite the junction of 

 the Hemlock valley, a nearly isolated hill of Chemung sandstone 475 

 feet high projects into it from the south, and it is otherwise less regular 

 than the south-north valleys. An extensive swampy tract 4 miles long, 

 underlain by a deposit of marl, forms a divide from which a small 

 stream flows westward to the Canaseraga, and another flows eastward to 

 join the Cohocton-Chemung-Susquehanna drainage. At the junction of 

 the Canandaigua valley the Cohocton valley turns abruptly to the south 

 and contracts to one-half its former width. 



Conesus Valley 



The north-south portion of Conesus valley is 12 miles long and three- 

 fourths of a mile wide. Its upper end turns abruptly and, extending 

 westward 3 miles without contraction, joins the Canaseraga valley at 

 right angles. Conesus lake occupies the northern half of the valley, 

 having a length of 8 miles, a width of three-fourths of a mile, and an 

 area of 5 square miles. Its surface is 818 feet above tide. It is divided 

 midway by deltas whose points are only 900 feet apart. The northern 

 half projects beyond the plateau, and the valley slopes are gentle, 200 

 feet high, and heavily drift-covered. This part of the lake has a smooth 

 floor and a depth along the middle line between 35 and 45 feet. The 

 southern half has bolder shores which rise 300-400 feet in a mile and a 

 maximum depth varying in ten cross-sections from 52 to 62 feet. At 

 the head of the valley the walls rise 500-600 feet, and the floor rises from 

 lake level to a divide 120 feet above the lake. The divide seems to be 

 a dam of smooth till, without any suggestion of morainic topography, 

 and slopes westward 400 feet in two miles to the floor of the Canaseraga 

 valley. No shale appears in the ravines for at least 200 feet down, or 

 to a level below the bottom of the lake. Conesus outlet flows through 

 a drift gorge 100 feet deep to the Genesee river near Avon. 



Hemlock Valley 



Hemlock valley extends in an almost straight north-south line 16 

 miles. Its southern end is blocked by a moraine similar to those of the 



