54 



HISTORY OF STEUBEN COUNTY, NEW YORK. 



CHAPTER XIIL 



Phjrsical Features of the County — Geographical Situation — Topog- 

 raphy — Geology. 



GEOGRAPHICAL SITUATION. 



The county of Steuben is situated upon the southern 

 border of the State, in the tier of counties adjoining the 

 Pennsylvania line. It lies chiefly upon the southern slope 

 of the great dividing ridge or water-shed which separates 

 the waters of Lake Ontario from those of the Susquehafina, 

 and, on account of this geographical situation, is among the 

 most elevated sections of the State. The highest summits 

 in the county are about two thousand five hundred feet 

 above tide. 



The county contains an area of fourteen hundred and 

 twenty-five square miles, or about eight hundred and 

 thirty-five thousand acres. It is centrally distant from 

 Albany one hundred and eighty-eight miles, and is bounded 

 north by Ontario and Yates Counties, east by Schuyler and 

 Chemung, west by Allegany and Livingston, and south by 

 Pennsylvania. 



TOPOGRAPHY. 



The physical features of Steuben County present a bold 

 outline of irregular hills and deep, intricate valleys, through 

 which pass rivers and creeks. The north and west parts of 

 the county occupy the summit, from whence the slope is to 

 the southeastern extremity of the county, where the Che- 

 mung passes the line and flows towards Elmira. The slope 

 towards that point is from the north, the west, and the 

 southwest, where the head- waters of the Conhocton, Canis- 

 teo, and Tioga rise, all of them converging to a junction 

 above Corning, and passing into the Chemung. The 

 streams, aside from the rivers which flow down this slope, 

 are creeks of different sizes; their valleys are bounded by 

 hills from two to eight hundred feet high, at some places a 

 few rods in width, and at others a mile or more. From a 

 circle of hills, all these waters flow down to the narrow 

 valley of the Chemung, some eight hundred feet below 

 their source. But the deep valley of Crooked Lake breaks 

 in upon this general phase of Steuben as an exception. It 

 extends far towards the centre of the county, and carries to 

 the north the waters of three or four towns. It is a deep 

 excavation of some eighteen miles within the county, break- 

 ing into the summit of separation between the waters of 

 the Chesapeake and those of the St. Lawrence, the same 

 as the Seneca and Cayuga Lakes farther east. 



VALLEYS. 



The valleys are ocular evidence of the action of water. 

 The general surface of Steuben County, without that action, 

 would have been the average elevation of the hills. The 

 waters, in their several courses towards the ocean, have ex- 

 cavated channels, which from year to year have deepened 

 and widened, until they present the features of hill and 

 valley everywhere existing throughout the county. In 

 various places walls of shale, with superincumbent sand- 

 stone, have been broken through, forming deep and wide 

 valleys. 



In the town of Campbell, and partly in Hornby, Mead's 



Creek has excavated a valley to the Conhocton, deep and 

 tortuous, through the hills, — through Wayne, Bradford, 

 and Savona, to the valley of Mud Creek, extending north- 

 ward to the head of Little Lake, and thence to Lake 

 Keuka. The valley of Crooked Lake (or Lake Keuka) is 

 the deepest, exposing the broken rock to the depth of from 

 th^ee to four hundred feet, and the debris therefrom along 

 its shores. This valley extends from Bellona, in Ontario 

 County, to Branchport ; from Penn Yan to Hammondsport, 

 and thence to Bath. The valley of the Conhocton is the 

 widest, and the excavation of the hills more uniform than 

 that of any other, except, perhaps, the Canisteo. It 

 stretches from Livingston County, where it is scarcely per- 

 ceptible, to Chemung County, with branching valleys on 

 either side made by tributary streams. Next of importance 

 is that of the Canisteo River, receiving its slightest inden- 

 tations in Allegany, and reaching the level of the Conhocton 

 and Tioga at Painted Post. This valley is narrow and 

 crooked, except at the mouth of Bennett's Creek, where 

 the flats are wide and the hills retiring, and at the mouth 

 of the Tuscarora Creek, at Addison. This valley develops 

 much of the debris of the grits and shales through which 

 the waters have forced a passage. The valley of the Tioga 

 passes from Pennsylvania northward through Lindley and 

 Erwin to the Canisteo ; in its course it is intersected by the 

 Glendening and the Cowanesque, the latter extending up- 

 wards to Troupsburgh. 



HILLS. 



In the south part of the county, the highest lands ex- 

 tend from the western line of the town of Lindley through 

 southern Addison (now Tuscarora), through southern Wood- 

 hull ; thence northwest, through the northeast part of 

 Troupsburgh, to the south line of Jasper ; thence westward 

 to Greenwood, and southwest to the south part of West 

 L^nion, where the source of Bennett's Creek is eight hun- 

 dred feet above its junction with the Canisteo, and the sur- 

 rounding hills from three to four hundred feet higher. 



Between the Canisteo and the Conhocton Bivers the sum- 

 mit of highlands commences in the town of Dansville, 

 passes near South Dansville post-office; thence, through 

 Fremont and Howard, to the west of Howard Flats ; thence 

 south to the south line of the town of Howard, following 

 the south line eastward to the town of Cameron ; thence 

 southeast, through Thurston and the northeastern part of 

 Addison, to Erwin. 



The summit highlands north of the Conhocton River is 

 the dividing ridge between the waters which flow into the 

 Chesapeake and those which flow into the St. Lawrence. 

 It commences in the town of Wayne, north of the Wayne 

 Hotel, and follows the highlands, between Little and 

 Crooked Lakes, to Mount Washington ; thence westward 

 to the south line of the town of Wheeler ; thence north, 

 through the eastern lots of Wheeler, to the southeast cor- 

 ner of the town of Prattsburgh ; thence, through Western 

 Pulteney, north to the county line ; thence west to North 

 Cohocton, where the ridge curves into Livingston County ; 

 and thence, through Wayland, to South Dansville, to the 

 summit between the Canisteo and Conhocton Rivers. 



The waters running north to the St. Lawrence interlock 

 with those running south to the Chesapeake Bay. Cold 



