xx THE CAYUGA FLORA. 



by President Dwight in his tour through Western New York, 1822. ' 

 Greenhalgh in his Journey "from Albany to ye Indians westward," 

 1677, says of the Cayugas : "they have abundance of come," which 

 implies of course cleared fields near their villages, at the foot of Cayu- 

 ga Lake. But the universal testimony is that the forests became very 

 much denser and more tangled near the head of the lake and through- 

 out the country south. The Cayugas made frequent excursions 

 through this country southward to the Susquehanna, and they are 

 spoken of in Hiawatha's decrees as the people whose "habitation was 

 the dark forest," their county being much more densely wooded 

 than Onondaga. John Bartram, a Pennsylvania Quaker and most ex- 

 cellent botanist, a keen observer and the most delightful of letter- 

 writers, made a journey to Onondaga in 1743, passing up the Susque- 

 hanna to Owego Creek. He then passed through the forest probably 

 traversing the east part of Tompkins Co., and the western part of 

 Cortland Co. He at first passed "over fine, level, rich land" with 

 "oak, birch, beech, ash, spruce, linden, elm, hepatica, and maiden- 

 hair in abundance." Then he struck "swampy laud, then thickets, 

 and 011 the hills, spruce and white pine." Reaching level ground — 

 perhaps near the present site of Cortland — he found it "full of tall tim- 

 ber of sugar-maple, birch, linden, ash, beech, and shrubs of opulus, 

 green-maple, hornbeam, hamamelis, Solanum, gooseberries and red 

 currants." He describes the tops of the trees as so thick and inter- 

 lacing that it is " impossible to see which way the wind drives or the 

 clouds set." He next reached the dividing ridge where he found 

 chestnut and cherry in addition to the other trees ; and toward Onon- 

 daga they found many " oaks, hickories, plums and apple-trees full of 

 fruit." 



This corresponds well with the present distribution of species, so 

 far as the hardwoods are concerned. From Dr. Parker and other resi- 

 dents of Ithaca, whose recollections reach back to 1830 or 1835, we 

 know that the tracts of white-pine now wholly cleared away, were ex- 

 tensive and well-defined. There was a heavy growth of it in Enfield 

 stretching up for a long distance between the lakes. It descended in- 

 to the Neguaena valley near Buttermilk Falls, covered the top of 

 South Hill, extended back in several well defined tracts through Dan- 

 by and Newfield and occupied portions of Negucena and other val- 

 leys. The pine was particularly heavy about Summit Marsh. There 

 were also large tracts in the upper part of Cascadilla valley, on Tur- 

 key Hill, and the pine-land extended north in narrow belts from 

 this region, penetrating the tracts of elm and maple of that region. 

 About Ithaca on the hills were " openings" of oak and hickory and 

 on both shores of the lake, these with other hardwoods prevailed. 

 In the valley near Ithaca, near Buttermilk Falls, and on both shores 

 of the lake there were apple-orchards, and cleared fields, culti- 

 vated by the Indians. On the bank near the Fleming school- 

 house was an Indian town called Coreorganel, destroyed by Sulli- 

 van's army in 1779, and about the site Indian apple-trees existed 



■Dwight's Travels, 1822, Vol. IV, p. 58. 



