456 Lake Seneca. 
ing through northern Pennsylvania with its numerous tributaries 
is brought, together with the bituminous coal from the Blossburg 
basin, and the agricultural products of an extensive country lying 
in this and the adjoining state. 
On the west side at Dresden, the Crooked lake canal enters, 
through which is brought lumber and the products of a fertile 
country bordering upon and south of the Crooked lake, the sur- 
face of whose water lies high enough to flovi' into Lake Superior. 
Some very great change has taken place since the Lake Seneca was 
formed, either the water has subsided very much, or the land at 
various points in its vicinity has been raised. Near the point 
where the waters of the crooked lake connect with it, I observe a 
gravelly and sandy beach more than 50 feet above .its surface; 
similar appearances finely displayed I have observed on the west 
side of the lake, some miles high up in the lofty banks, flanking 
the Miniseta; the whole hills consisting of alternate layers of 
sand and clay, with broad bands of beech gravel. The gravel 
contains many pebbles of argillaceous slate, of which the rocks 
in this vicinity are composed, and which at this day appears 
largely in the composition of the gravel, that now lies undulating 
on the shore. The various depositions in the bank are almost as 
regular as though they had been laid by the hand of man, and 
frequently the alternations are so rapid they scarcely exceed an 
inch in thickness; a single deposit of ferruginous sand has a wavy 
appearance over an irregular deposit of red clay. A siliceous 
deposit has also taken place since the lake has rolled its pebbles 
upon the beach, as I have found frequent specimens of slate peb- 
bles entirely enclosed in a covering of flint, the pebble entirely 
smooth and worn. In some places springs impregnated with 
lime, in flowing from the banks, have passed over deposits of 
sand, gravel, and pebbles, moulding them into large and hard 
masses of conglomerate, forming confused heaps; or displaced 
from their position, they lie scattered upon the beach. In ex- 
cavations made at various points, 16 and 20 feet in depth 
back from its immediate border, the remains of trees have been 
exhumed, still measurably retaining their form; indicative of a 
change which has taken place, leaving the records as legibly 
written in the sloping bank and winding beach, as though penned 
by the hand of the historian; all but the years! they have glided 
unperceived away, no mortal now can count them! Before the red 
man drew his bow, or launched his canoe on the broad lake, these 
mighty changes were made; so that not even a tradition or an 
emblem touched on the rock with an arrow's point can number 
the untold ages that have passed away. 
West Dresden, Sep. 1848. 
