The Flora of the Cayuga Lake Basin 437 



SPRINGS 



In many places throughout the basin, springs occur, and many of these are of con- 

 siderable size. Since the water flowing from these springs frequently passes for a 

 considerable distance through glacial drift, the springs are usually strongly calcareous, 

 producing small marl meadows where the water flows away. The largest springs 

 of this sort are found west of Newfield ; at Spencer Lake ; at Dryden Lake ; at Mud 

 Creek, Freeville; along Beaver Brook, Cortland (" Chicago" Springs) ; and about the 

 marl ponds at Junius. 



Thick strata of rock salt underlie central New York. At Syracuse the salt beds are 

 near the surface, but they dip toward the south so that at Ithaca these same beds lie 

 about 670 meters (2200 feet) below the level of the lake, or about 1042 meters (3420 

 feet) below the higher plateau to the southward. A number of salt wells have been 

 sunk in the valley near the lake shore, and thriving salt factories are in operation in 

 Ithaca, near Renwick, and on Myers Point. The escaping salt water has produced 

 interesting local brackish marshes in which several saline plants have sprung up 

 recently, though at a long distance from previously known stations. In the northern 

 part of the basin, on the Ontario plain, several natural salt springs are found. Those 

 in the vicinity of Montezuma were used by the Indians as a local source of salt and 

 were known to early travelers. A deer lick also was located in this region. The 

 salt water flowing from these springs has rendered the meadows and creeks in their 

 vicinity decidedly brackish. A few miles farther west, near the road between the 

 villages of Savannah and Spring Lake and directly west of Howland Island, is a 

 small salt pond surrounded by a brackish meadow. South of this point, near the site 

 of a former pond in the Montezuma Marshes known as Black Lake, and also on the 

 shore of Cayuga Lake at a point opposite the village of Cayuga, are other smaller 

 marshes containing salt. The effect of these springs on the vegetation is plainly 

 evident locally, where the brackish marshes harbor many salt-loving plants common 

 on the coast but rarely found inland. A more subtle effect is produced by these 

 springs, and probably also by other smaller or submerged salt springs, on the general 

 vegetation of the marshes on the Ontario plain and in the lake valley, where the 

 occasional presence of brackish-marsh or coastal plants suggests a trace of salt, 

 though a trace too small to be otherwise detected. 



At a point a short distance north of Ledyard is a large sulphur spring, and other 

 smaller springs containing sulphur are found in Six Mile Creek ravine and Enfield 

 Glen. The sulphur springs seem to have produced no effect upon the flora. 



Many of the springs through the basin are impregnated with salts of reputed 

 medicinal value, and near these, in the early days, sanatoriums were located. Noted 

 establishments of this sort were at Slaterville Springs, Dryden Springs, and Union 

 Springs. These springs seem to have had no effect on the vegetation. 



BOG FORMATIONS 



Crossing the lake basin and in general comprising its southern limit is a glacial 

 moraine of notable development. Although inconspicuous where it crosses the uplands 

 between valleys, it gives rise on the valley floors to very characteristic " tumbled-up " 

 morainic topography of the knob-and-kettle type, with numerous interspersed bogs 

 and small ponds. The moraine crosses the Inlet Valley from west to east at the 

 source of the inlet drainage, and swings off across the divide, turning toward the 

 northeast. It is not so markedly developed in the Six Mile Creek valley, though it 

 does show conspicuous ridges at White Church and northward. In the Slaterville 

 valley it is massive, but is obscured by gravel fill on the east. It reappears near 

 Dryden Lake and is well developed in the Freeville and McLean regions, again 

 reappearing outside the limits of this flora in northern Cortland County. 



In the morainic region just mentioned, as well as among the drumlins on the 



