66 2 
APPENDIX. 
( B. ) 
Ridge Road of Lake Erie. 
I have been furnished, by the Hon. G. W. Patterson, of Westfield, Chautauque county, with the 
following elevations of the Ridge road extending along Lake Erie. The elevation of the Ridge road, 
where crossed by the New-York and Erie railroad, is one hundred and ninety feet above Lake Erie. 
At Westfield village, the elevation is one hundred and eighty-seven feet above Lake Erie, showing a 
difference of three feet between these two points, distant about fifteen miles. Mr. Patterson thinks that 
one hundred and ninety feet may be considered about the average elevation. 
( c. ) 
Modern action of rivers in deepening their channels. 
Under this head, many important facts have been omitted; and from some recent observations, I am 
satisfied that the operation of the present streams is far more effectual in deepening their channels, than 
even the most sanguine supporters of the power of existing causes would advocate. 
Since this Report has passed through the press, I have had an opportunity of examining the Lebanon 
reservoir, in Madison county, (constructed for supplying the Chenango canal,) which, during the month 
of April, 1843, broke through the dam, and passing down a ravine, joined the Chenango valley. 
The surface occupied by this reservoir was about ninety acres, with an average depth of about 
twenty-five feet. The dam at the outlet is of gravel, built very strong, and flagged upon the inner side 
with stones. During the thawing of the snow, the reservoir became filled; and the wasteweir being 
defective, it soon commenced undermining it, and the whole was removed in about an hour. The 
water then excavated a channel to the bottom of the dam, about thirty feet deep, through which it flowed 
off rapidly into a broad valley below. The force of the water here appears to have been inconsiderable; 
the materials of the dam lie spread over the bottom of the valley very uniformly, and the trees are still 
standing as before. About one quarter of a mile below the dam, the valley contracts, and the small 
stream flows in a gravelly channel with steep sloping banks. It is here that we first perceive the effects 
of this moving body of water, in uprooting and breaking the largest trees. These falling across the 
channel, formed with the earth and shrubs, temporary dams, until the accumulating force of the water 
carried all before it, prostrating hundreds of the largest trees. The gorge gradually narrows, and its bed 
and banks become rocky. These have been swept clean for many rods, where before they were covered 
with gravel and clay. For about a quarter of a mile before opening into the valley of the Chenango, the 
banks are of rock, and from thirty to fifty feet high. Between these banks, in a channel of fifty or 
sixty feet wide, this body of water bore its accumulated detritus, trees and timber. From the great 
pressure, owing in part to obstructions by the formation of temporary dams, the channel was both 
widened and deepened. Persons living in the vicinity, have estimated that the channel for a considerable 
