HISTORY OF STEUBEN COUNTY, NEW YORK. 



55 



Spring Creek takes its rise two miles north of Bath, while 

 the head-waters of Mud Creek and Five-Mile Creek are in 

 Yates County, some twenty miles north. In the northern 

 part of the town of Prattsburgh Flint Creek rises, near the 

 head of Twelve-Mile Creek, and the waters of the Cana- 

 seraga rise far south of those of the Conhocton. 



ELEVATIONS. 



The following elevations have been determined princi- 

 pally by actual surveys: Crooked Lake, 718 feet above 

 tide-water ; Corning, 925 ; village of Bath, 1090 ; Hor- 

 nellsville, 1150; Arkport, 1194; summit between Mud 

 Lake and Bath, 1579 ; summit between Bath and Ark- 

 port, 1840 ; summit between Arkport and Angelica, 2062; 

 Troupsburgh Hills, 2500. 



LAKES. 



The lakes are marked characteristics of the topographi- 

 cal features of Western and Central New York. The most 

 of them discharge their waters into Lake Ontario through 

 the Oswego River. The Canandaigua, the Crooked, Seneca, 

 Cayuga, Owasco, Skaneateles, Onondaga, and Oneida, hav- 

 ing; their head-waters far in the Southern Tier, drain all the 

 intervening territory to the north. All of them lie in val- 

 leys of excavation far down through the rocks which under- 

 lie the soil, — the Oneida through the gray sandstone which 

 forms its bottom, covered with drift; the Skaneateles 

 throudi more than three hundred feet of the Hamilton 

 group, with the Tully limestone outcropping on both 

 shores ; the Cayuga and Seneca Lakes through the Marcel- 

 lus shales and the superincumbent Hamilton and Tully 

 limestones, the latter ranging from four hundred and twenty 

 to six hundred and thirty feet in depth. 



The Crooked Lake (now called Keuka) is a beautiful 

 sheet of water, which extends from Penn Yan, in the county 

 of Yates, to Hammondsport, a distance of about twenty 

 miles, with a branch to Branchport seven miles. This 

 lake exhibits an excavation of more than three hundred 

 feet in depth through the shales and grits of the Erie 

 group. The waters are fed by springs, supplied with water 

 by the rain falling on the surface of the surrounding country, 

 which, passing through the seams and fissures of the rocks, 

 rushes into the basin below the surface of the lake. No 

 streams of any considerable magnitude flow into it except 

 Cold Spring brook at Hammondsport and Lazallier Creek 

 at Branchport. The lake abounds with white fish, trout, 

 and perch of fine quality, of which numbers are taken 

 annually to grace the tables of those who take the trouble 

 to seek them in their proper season. During the summer 

 months the transportation of agricultural products and ar- 

 ticles of commerce employs many boats, aside from one or 

 two beautiful steamboats, which make daily trips between 

 Hammondsport and Penn Yan and intermediate places. 

 Lake Keuka lies two hundred and seventy-one feet above 

 the waters of the Seneca; its outlet discharges one hundred 

 and forty-four thousand and sixty-five gallons of water per 

 minute, with a current of one hundred and thirty-two feet 

 per minute. The outlet runs from Penn Yan to Dresden, 

 a distance of seven miles. Boats pass to and from Seneca 

 Lake by means of the Crooked Lake Canal, thence to the 



Erie Canal, afl'ording a direct and cheap transportation to 

 the sea-board for all the products of the surrounding 

 country. The valley of Lake Keuka drains the lands of 

 Urbana, partly of Wayne, and of Pulteney, in Steuben 

 County. The hills on the west shore rise some three hun- 

 dred to four hundred feet above the waters, and on the east 

 shore two hundred to three hundred feet. Bluif Point is 

 a marked and picturesque promontory, standing between 

 the branches of the lake and showing itself conspicuously 

 above the surrounding scenery. Its elevation is more 

 abrupt and its altitude considerably greater than the high- 

 lands on either side of the lake. 



Lake Waneta, elevated above Keuka some two hundred 

 feet, and distant but two and a half miles, in the town of 

 Wayne, is the summit of a different grade, and the tribu- 

 tary of waters which flow south into the Chesapeake. An 

 excavation of a few feet at the Wayne Hotel would pass 

 the water into Lake Keuka, and thence into Lake Ontario. 

 Yet the natural drainage is the Conhocton. This lake is 

 nearly three miles long and about half a mile wide. It 

 abounds in fish, such as pickerel, perch, white fish, and 

 trout of the finest quality. It discharges its waters south- 

 ward into Mud Lake, near Wayne Four Corners, its chief 

 tributary being a small stream which enters it from the 

 north at Wayne Hotel ; otherwise it is fed by springs. 



Mud Lake, aside from the waters of Lake Waneta, is 

 fed by the Tobahanna Creek, and the creek running from 

 Pine Grove through Tyrone to the lake. This lake is 

 about two miles long and half a mile wide, abounding 

 in excellent fish. The outlet is called Mud Creek, and 

 enters the Conhocton at Savona. In its course are several 

 small lakes, singularly deep, partly grown and filled up with 

 veo-etable mould and tufa. In the eastern part of the town 

 of Bath there is a succession of them, which aff"ords a 

 study for the geologist and natural philosopher, how they 

 were excavated amidst the surrounding hills to- their ex- 

 treme depth, how detached each from the other, and yet 

 exhibiting a chain of causes and efl'ects identical through- 

 out. 



In the southeast part of the town of Prattsburgh lies 

 Duck Lake, now about half a mile long and a quarter of a 

 mile wide, but evidently in years gone by more than twice 

 that size. The marsh surrounding this lake has been 

 gradually encroaching upon its limits for years. This 

 marsh extends more than half a mile eastward and south- 

 ward, and is filling up gradually with decayed organic 

 remains. Duck Lake is filling up with drift and mould ; 

 its waters are full of decayed vegetable matter held in 

 suspension ; they abound in fish ; depth, six to ten feet. 

 The creeks running into Duck Lake are the Scutt Creek, 

 which rises in the vicinity of Scuttville, passing westward 

 through the marsh into the lake, and the Waldo Creek, 

 which rises in Pulteney and runs southwest, entering the 

 northern extremity of the lake through the lands of Charles 

 Waldo. This lake discharges its waters through a narrow 

 and crooked outlet of some forty rods in length into Five- 

 Mile Creek. This lake and outlet have been declared by 

 statute law a public highway, for the benefit of those who 

 are disposed to use it, to float lumber down the Five-Mile 

 Creek to saw-mills or to market below. 



