438 Karl M. Wiegand and Arthur J. Eames 



Ontario plain, many peat bogs and small ponds have formed, generally through the 

 damming of drainage valleys or the formation of undrained pockets due to the 

 irregular accumulation of glacial debris; or in some cases by the slumping-off of 

 debris from the various sides of an ice block, causing the formation of a ridge 

 around a central pond. Thus, on the watershed of the Inlet Valley are found 

 Spencer Lake and Summit Marsh; near the source of Buttermilk Creek are Michi- 

 gan Hollow Swamp and the Danby Fir Tree Swamp; in the Six Mile Creek valley 

 are Slaterville Swamp and minor boggy places in the hills east and north of Slater- 

 ville; and in Cascadilla Valley is Ellis Hollow Swamp. Several of these swamps 

 are apparently flat overflow areas of the glacial drainage. In the hills north of the 

 Ellis Hollow valley is the Ringwood Swamp region, the result of irregular glacial 

 dumping. Bogs of the same origin, but developed on a larger scale, are found in 

 the Freeville-McLean region, which therefore is one of the most noted botanical 

 collecting grounds in the basin. Here are found Dryden Lake and adjoining bogs, 

 Woodwardia Bog, Freeville Bog, Fir Tree Swamp, Malloryville Bog, McLean 

 Bogs, Beaver Brook swamps, Chicago Bog, Cortland marl ponds, and several 

 miles farther north, near the source of Fall Creek, Lake Como (Locke Pond). In 

 the valley south of the lake, boggy areas are scattered from North Spencer to Ithaca. 

 The largest of these are Larch Meadow and Fleming Meadow, which in recent years 

 have lost much of their earlier interest through drainage. 



Along the lake shore the topography is not adapted to bog formation, but beyond 

 the northern end of the lake the low flat land intersected by drumlins is particularly 

 suited to bogs and marshes. On the Ontario plain, at the western edge of the basin 

 and lying almost beyond its borders, are the Junius bogs, one of the most interesting 

 bog regions in central New York. The Junius bogs lie about six miles north of 

 Geneva, in a sandy area partly, at least, of morainic origin. There are in this 

 locality three or four extensive acid bogs, the southernmost of which contains a small 

 open pond, locally known as Pout Pond, surrounded by a floating heath. North of 

 these bogs and separated from them by a highway is a series of small marl ponds 

 bordered by extensive quaking marl bogs. Several of the rarest plants in the flora, 

 and many others of exceptional occurrence, are found here, and for this reason, and 

 also because of the general richness of the local flora, the whole region is of the 

 greatest interest to the botanist. The Junius ponds afford an unusual opportunity for 

 contrasting side by side the floras of acid and calcareous bogs. Farther north, in 

 the township of Savannah, is an extensive tamarack swamp two or three miles in 

 length bordering Crusoe Lake. Eastward from there, in the township of Conquest, 

 is Duck Lake, the center of an extensive bog region in which tamarack and spruce 

 usually render passage difficult, while arbor vitae forms dense thickets along the 

 borders. Here are Miller Bog, the Duck Lake bogs, Featherbed Bog, and the bog 

 surrounding Mud Pond. On the extreme northern edge of the region and almost 

 beyond the limits of this flora is Westbury Bog, located in the northeastern cor- 

 ner of the township of Butler. These bogs in the northern section of the basin 

 have furnished a number of species not reported in Dudley's Flora. Southeast of 

 Duck Lake is Slayton Pond, a small and very muddy pool of water surrounded by an 

 extreme development of floating moor which is composed mainly of Decodon and 

 sedges and on which walking is nearly or quite impossible. 



UNDERLYING ROCKS . 



In many regions the soils are dependent largely or entirely on the character of the 

 rocks found beneath the surface. In the Cayuga Lake Basin, however, the soils are 

 almost entirely glacial, or more rarely are due to stream action. Nevertheless the 

 material of which the glacial drift is composed seems in many cases not to have been 

 transported to a great distance, and hence the underlying rocks often have an indirect 

 relation to the soil. It therefore seems desirable to include here a few words descrip- 



