viii THE CAYUGA FLORA. 



peach" successfully. The lake waters are above the average in purity 

 excepting at the extreme northern and southern extremities, as was 

 demonstrated a few years since by analyses made by my friend Pro- 

 fessor Breneman. 



Proceeding southward from the gently sloping shores near Cayuga 

 Bridge the banks become gradually bolder, until in the vicinity of 

 Levanna the first cliffs appear on the eastern shore. Between Willets 

 and Kings Ferry these reach their culmination in the " High Cliffs ;" 

 but stretches of lofty, precipitous, or more or less broken declivities 

 occur on both shores until within a few miles of the southern extrem- 

 ity- At intervals especially near the mouth of some stream are low 

 half-sandy points which yield many rare plants. Near Ithaca, and 

 about two miles from the lake, the great valley forks, the main por- 

 tion continuing to the right of South Hill, a preglacial valley of ero- 

 sion extending southwardly to Waverly in the Susquehanna valley. 

 The other portion on the left of South Hill is similar to the first and 

 forms the present Six Mile Creek and White Church valleys, and 

 opens into the Susquehanna at Owego. These deep valleys penetrate 

 and cut through the great dividing ridge between the St. Lawrence 

 or Great Lake hydrographic system to which our streams and smaller 

 lakes are tributary, and the Susquehanna system, and are parallel to 

 similar valleys east and west of us. The head waters of the streams 

 occupying them, i. e. , the summits between the two systems are 

 usually very near the crossing of the dividing ridge. The points of 

 greatest elevation in our whole region, the most precipiticus, as well 

 well as botanically the most interesting of our inland declivities, and 

 the watershed marshes, springs and ponds being in fairly close con- 

 tiguity, as the following statements will show. 



The subjoined stations with elevations above mean tide, recorded in 

 the current reports of the N. Y. State Survey by the numbers preced- 

 ing each, are upon this dividing ridge southwest of us, and include the 

 highest points yet measured in that direction : 



No. 405, Urbana sta., Steuben Co., west of Hammondsport, 1940 feet. 



" 401, Hornby sta., " " " " " 2045 " 



" 394, Sproul sta., Schuyler Co., west of Watkius, 2091 " 



" 226, Orange sta., " " southwest of Watkins, 2033 " 



" 428, Couch sta., " " southwest of Cayuta L. 1679 " 



" 403, Newfield sta., Tompkins Co., Saxon Hill. 2095 " 



Cayuta Lake, one of our watershed lakes, lies only about two miles 



southwest of Saxon Hill. The latter point can be readily discerned 



from the University Campus, as the highest elevation of the farther 



rim of blue hills, and lies a few points south of west. This rim of hills 



is the dividing ridge above spoken of. It trends eastward, crossing 



1 In the Sullivan campaign against the Six Nations in 1779, Col. 

 Butler destroyed an Indian town on the present site of Aurora called 

 Chonodote or Peach-tree Town, together with "about 1500 peach trees 

 besides apple trees and other fruit trees." Even as late as 1845, 

 Schoolcraft found "within the boundaries of Aurora, the remains of 

 an apple orchard, which was ruthlessly cut down by a detachment of 

 Sullivan's army," Notes on the Iroquois, p. 57. The apple trees and 

 probably the peach trees were introduced by the Jesuits. 



