WAYNE COUNTY. 
415 
The ridges about Clyde, and generally in the town of Galen, north of the canal, are nume¬ 
rous, long, narrow, low, and have a north and south direction. 
Ridges in Lyons are also long, narrow, and low; both sides and top are cultivated. 
The only exceptions to the northerly direction of the ridges were noticed in the town of 
Walworth, near Walworth corners, where there are two or three east and west ridges, upon 
one of which the village is situated. These form the highest land in this part of the county, 
between lake Ontario and the Erie canal. Also, in the town of Macedon, between the centre 
and the Erie canal, the country is broken, and the hills irregular. 
The lake shore in Wayne county is generally bold, and composed of a bank greatly vary¬ 
ing in height. About the mouth of Salmon creek it is ten feet high ; at Pultneyville, in the 
town of Williamson, about eight feet; at Sodus Point, from eighty to one hundred feet. 
The bank is composed of sand and gravel, with occasional layers of clay. Generally a beach 
of some width runs along the shore, varying from fine to coarse gravel, according to the state 
and direction of the winds; it is sometimes entirely swept away by the excited waves of the 
lake. 
In Wayne county, the Erie canal is carried along the valley of the Clyde, from both sides 
of which the country lakes a very gradual rise. Canandaigua, Crooked, Seneca, and Cayuga 
lakes discharge their waters northwardly into the stream which traverses this valley. The 
stream is known first as Mud creek, until joined by the Canandaigua outlet, when it becomes 
Clyde river, and so continues eastward as far as Montezuma, where it receives through the 
Seneca outlet the waters of Crooked, Seneca, and Cayuga lakes, and then continuing east 
through Cayuga into Onondaga, joins the outlet of Oneida lake, with which it forms the Os¬ 
wego river. The latter finally empties all the waters of the Clyde and Oneida valleys, in¬ 
cluding fifteen lakes, into Lake Ontario. 
It was suggested to me by Col. Elias Cook, of Sodus Point, that at a former period, and 
perhaps previous to the formation of the Cayuga marshes, the Seneca river discharged a 
part or the whole of its waters northwardly through the towns of Butler and Wolcott in 
Wayne county, along the Wolcott creek* into Port bay on Lake Ontario. An examination of 
the country renders this opinion very probable. The marsh extends past Crusoe lake, which 
is immediately north of the island of the same name, into the town of Butler, to within a 
short distance of Wolcott creek. Also, by the surveys of Col. Cook, it appears that the 
rock in Wolcott creek at Marble’s quarry (lot 165 in Butler), is only one foot above the level 
of the Montezuma marshes. This is a distance of about six miles, and the excavations would 
be through sand and gravel. The extensive water-worn surface of rock in the creek at Mar¬ 
ble’s quarry, indicates the passage of a much larger body of water than is now transmitted 
through this channel. At the village of Wolcott, we also notice a large gorge or gulf, pro¬ 
duced by the current of a great body of water along the course of the present stream. The 
creek at present falls over the eastern part of this gulf; and upon no occasion of freshet in 
the present stream, does the water extend to the other side of the gulf. 
Its proper name is Mill creek. 
