The Indian Occupancy of the 

 Niagara Frontier. 



By Frederick Houghton. 



The Niagara Frontier Defined. 



"The Niagara Frontier" is used in this monograph to com- 

 prise the region bordering the Niagara River and the foot of 

 Lake Erie. It includes, in New York State, Erie County and 

 Niagara County; and, in Ontario, the eastern townships of 

 Lincoln and Welland Counties. In New York it extends south- 

 ward from Lake Ontario as far as Cattaraugus Creek, and in 

 Ontario from Lake Ontario to Lake Erie. 



The Physiography of the Region. 



The region is a rolling plain, bordered on the south-east by 

 hills which, in the southeastern corner of Erie County, rise to 

 the height of fifteen hundred feet above sea-level or about one 

 thousand feet above Lake Erie, (i). Extending south from 

 Lake Ontario is a rather flat plain elevated 50 feet above the 

 lake. This is interrupted on the south by the steep escarpment 

 of the Niagara and Clinton Limestones, which rises abruptly 

 for about 200 feet above the Ontario plain. This escarpment 

 extends like a wall east and west parallel to the shore of Lake 

 Ontario, entirely across the region. It is known locally as the 

 "Mountain Ridge" and will be so referred to in what follows. 



Extending southward for fourteen miles from the crest of 

 this escarpment is a flat plain ; on the eastern side of the Niag- 

 ara River forming the wide flat valley of Tonawanda Creek; on 



1. Concord Summit is 920 feet above Lake Erie; Sardinia, 891 feet. — 

 French, Gazetteer of the State of New York, P. 2jg. 



Lake Erie is 573 feet above the sea; Lake Ontario 246 feet above the sea; 

 the crest of "Mountain Ridge" at Lockport 600 feet; the "Ledge" on Transit 

 Road 700 feet. — Topographic Map of U. S. Geological Survey. 



