Genesee River

“ After a few years, the spreading fame of the fertility of the Genesee Valley attracted a large population, 371 and it became known as the garden spot of the then "West," so that out of this grew the flour-mills which have continued to be Rochester's chief industry. The Genesee River flows through with swift current, the Erie Canal being carried over on a massive stone aqueduct and the New York Central Railroad upon a wide bridge, and about a hundred yards beyond, the river plunges down the great Rochester Fall. ”

“ The high lands in the neighbourhood of the Genesee River are stony, and are not distinguished for their fertility, but the valleys are all extremely fruitful, and abound with rich timber.
The summers in this part of the country are by no means so hot as towards the Atlantic, and the winters are moderate; it is seldom, 330indeed, that the snow lies on the ground much longer than six or seven weeks ”

“ Within sight of the main road which crosses the summit dividing the waters of the Alleghany River from those running into the Genesee is to be seen a cluster of abundant streams which unite and cross the highway—a noisy torrent—rejoicing in being among the head-waters of the latter river, and the brightest product of overflowing springs. ”

“ Genishau at that time was a large Seneca town, thickly inhabited, lying on Genesee river, opposite what is now called the Free Ferry, adjoining Fall-Brook, and about south west of the present village of Geneseo, the county seat for the county of Livingston, in the state of New-York.
Those only who have travelled on foot the distance of five or six hundred miles, through an almost pathless wilderness, can form an idea of the fatigue and sufferings that I endured on that journey. ”

“ Beside this canal there is another called the Genesee valley canal from Rochester to Olean, 119 miles. The Genesee falls are very pretty, consisting of rapids through the city, and in the suburbs it plunges over a circular rock into a deep dell. The whole fall through the city is 268 feet; 97 at the cascade. There is another cataract farther down the river, which falls 106 feet. This is at Carthage, two miles below, and here is the port at which the lake steamboats stop. A rail road runs to this place. ”

“ The following diagram of this work has been drawn from a pen-sketch, forwarded by the Rev. Mr. Dewey, of Rochester.
The work occurs on an elevated point of land formed by the junction of a small stream, called Fordham’s brook, with Allen’s creek, a tributary of the Genesee river. Its position is about three miles north of the village of Le Roy, and some ten or twelve northeast of Batavia. The best view of the hill, as one of the natural features of the country, is obtained a short distance north of it, on the road from Bergen to Le Roy. ”

“ But the Niagara gorge is only one among a multitude of examples of erosion that might be quoted; and some of them far more striking to a geologist. On Oak Orchard Creek, and the Genesee River, between Rochester and Lake Ontario, are similar erosions, seven miles long. ”

“ The Americans, as I before observed, seem to be totally dead to the beauties of nature, and only to admire a spot of ground as it appears to be more or less calculated to enrich the occupier by its produce.
The Genesee River takes its name from a lofty hill in the Indian territory, near to which it passes, called by the Indians Genesee, a word signifying, in their language, a grand extensive prospect.
GENESEE RIVER. 329The flats bordering upon the Genesee River are amongst the richest lands that are to be met with in North America, to the east of the Ohio. ”

“ Over the famous Genesee road, as it was called, thousands of people went not only to the rich valley of the Genesee in western New York but also on to Ohio, and even to the prairies of the Mississippi river. Genesee street in Utica and Genesee street in Syracuse are parts of this road. ”

“ The river, in fact, cuts through the center of the city in a deep gorge, the banks of which vary in height from 50 to 200 ft. The Genesee Valley south of Rochester is a very fertile and beautiful stretch of country where the river flows between meadows that rise gradually to high hills. ”

“ Before the white man obstructed its channel with dams the Genesee was one continuous rapid from Red creek to the south line of the present Erie canal aqueduct. An Indian ford existed at a shallow place near the immediate line of the present race-dam, between the jail and the weigh-lock, but was never in such general use as the upper ford below Red creek where the river could be more easily crossed by footmen.
"The great trail coming west from Canandaigua on the present route of the Pittsford road divided a few rods east of Allen's creek. ”

“ From Mount Morris the banks of the Genesee are from two to four hundred feet in height, with narrow flats on one side of the river or the other, till you arrive at the tract called Gardow, or Cross Hills. Here you come to Mrs. Jemison's flats, which are two miles and a quarter long, and from eighty to one hundred and twenty rods wide, lying mostly on the west side of the river. ”

“ Towns were frequently moved from place to place, new trails worn and old ones abandoned to stray hunters and wild animals. Trails leading to or along the edge of water were usually permanent. Hardly a stream but bore its border line of trail upon either bank. From the shore of Lake Ontario to the headwaters of the Genesee, trails followed every curve of the river as closely as natural obstacles would permit, and branches led up the sides of tributary creeks. ”

“ While this barrier was unbroken, Lake Erie as extended would have covered all land that was not twenty-six feet higher than the present level of the river at old Schlosser landing, since the water there is sixteen feet below the level of Lake Erie. It is not difficult to trace this barrier on a good map. From old Fort Grey it stretches eastward a short distance past Batavia, and thence turns to the south through Wyoming into Cattaraugus County. In the latter county it forms the summit level of the Genesee Valley Canal. ”

“ The alluvial matter deposited by the Rhone at its entrance into the Lake of Geneva suffers perhaps no change when it once reaches the bottom. Layer after layer accumulates tranquilly, without disturbance from surface currents or other causes, so that the renovating effects of the stream have here every advantage. It is otherwise, however, where a delta gathers at the mouth of a river upon the sea-margin. There tides and currents are ever demolishing what the stream has piled up. ”

“ The Allegheny flows westward and afterwards southward to the Ohio; the west branch of the Susquehanna goes eastward to break through the entire Allegheny chain in seeking the Atlantic; and the smaller stream, the Genesee, flows northward through New York between two long Allegheny ridges, the chief affluent of Lake Ontario. The Genesee passes through a valley of great beauty and gives water-power to many mills, a canal also being constructed to improve its navigation. ”

“ This immense water-power, with the traffic facilities of canal and railway, have made the city, so that there 372 is a population of a hundred and forty thousand around the Genesee Falls, and manufactures of flour, beer, clothing, leather and other articles, valued at $75,000,000 annually. ”

“ In outline the lake is like a dolphin just about to dive. At the dolphin's snout lies Geneva, and here the river Rhone flows out of the lake to run to Lyons and debouch into the Mediterranean immediately to the west of the great port of Marseilles.
Geneva is one of the finest, cleanest, and most charming towns in the world. Between its northern and southern halves the water of the lake, deep blue and clear as crystal, is drawn off into the Rhone as into a funnel. There the current is strong, and the river is divided into two by a long island. ”

“ No longer has the wily boatman, as he steers his lateen-sailed lochère, any excuse for telling his occasional passenger (as he used to tell James Fenimore Cooper) that the water is bottomless. Every fish that swims in it is known and every bird that floats on its broad bosom.
A lake is by no means a lazy body of water and Leman, or Lake Geneva, as it is often called, is not so much a lake as it is a swollen river. If the Rhône is an artery, the lake is a sort of aneurism; there is a current from one end to the other which keeps it constantly changing. ”

“ At Glens Falls there is a fall of about 50 ft.; and just below this, at Sandy Hill, the river again turns abruptly, and for the rest of its course to New York Bay flows almost due south. There are numerous falls and rapids between Glens Falls and Troy which are used as a source of power and are the seats of busy manufacturing plants. Several large tributaries join this part of the river, including Batten Kill, Fish Creek, Hoosic river and the Mohawk, which is the largest of all the tributaries to the Hudson, and contributes more water than the main river itself. ”

“ The reason why the Lake of Geneva is of a crescent form is, that that is the shape of the space in the bottom of the valley which it fills. There are two ranges of mountains running in a curved direction almost parallel to each other, and the space between them, for a certain distance, is filled with water, owing to the spreading out of the waters of the Rhone in flowing through. Thus the lake is produced by the valley, and takes its form from it. ”

“ Though the lower Mohawk Valley was sparsely settled early in the eighteenth century, white men did not build their cabins along the Iroquois Trail to the westward until nearly a century later, when the old Genesee Road was opened. ”

“ Erie Canal, looking East from Genesee Street Bridge, Utica
The men who took the contracts for digging short sections of the canal were mainly farmers who had gained good properties and who were living along the line. In those days, if any one had visited the men at work, he47 would not have seen crowds of foreign laborers living in huts, but men born and reared in the country round about. It was little more than twenty years since the Genesee road had been built through central New York, and there was still much forest. ”

“ The country around Geneva rises from the lake, and spreads out in wide, rolling distances, bordered on every side by the great mountains. The air was full of the smell of new-mown hay, while over all hung the bending sky, full of sunshine. Thus with every sense keen with delight, we sat on high and took in the full glory of the scene, as we swept on towards the Alps.
As we advance the mountains close in around us, till we cannot see where we are to find a passage through them. For the last half of the way the construction of the road has been a difficult task of engineering ”

“ At the Genessee Falls, as at Niagara, the descent to the lake is between the walls of a tremendous ravine, the grandeur of which seems to have had no terror for the souls of manufacturers. The thriving village of Rochester stands round the lip of the fall; and if you talk to the inhabitants of the beauty of the cascade, they stop your mouth, and strike calculation dumb, with the number of sledge-hammers, nail-cutters, mill-stones, and cotton-jennies, it carries ”

“ On the declivity-stop of the first of these ridges, stands the village of Geneva, the buildings of which are thus displayed in an amphitheatric manner above the clear expanse of the lake. The substratum of these ridges is an argillaceous, compact soil of the eldest formation. Some parts of it are a stiff clay, and yield septaria; but there is no considerable portion of it, which has been examined, wholly destitute of primitive boulders and pebbles. Little doubt can remain but that it is the result of the broken-down slaty rock mixed with the extraneous and far-fetched primitive masses. ”

“ Double Pond, low sunk in the green forest slope, a perfect circle bisected by a wooded ridge; Geneva Lake, dotted with islands and beautiful with shining orange-groves;—always among the lawns and glades, the forest-slopes and aisles of pines, with sough of wind and song of bird, and fragrant wild perfumes. Always with bright "bits" of life between the long, grand silences—a group of men faring on foot across the pine level ”

“ Two things catch the eye about Geneva. In the first place it is on a lake, and in the second place it is always brimful of International Unions, Leagues, Congresses and Conferences. The lake is navigated in the season by a fleet of sizeable steamers, and one of these, a two-hundred tonner, used to call every morning of the season at the little pier outside my house to take me to business, and brought me back again every evening. By the pier rests an old, old man whose only duty in life it is to catch the hawser as it is thrown from the incoming liner. ”

“ I've been at it for three hours, I reckon, without knowing, till I got the last stone away, whether I'd be in time or find daylight on the other side."
"And is that what cut your hands?" asked Lieutenant Murray. "Why, they're a sight! For heaven's sake, what have you been doing?"
"I found a 'cave-in' of rock and gravel right at the end of that tunnel," answered Genesee, nodding the way they had just come, and drawing their notice to fresh earth and broken stone thrown to the side. "I had no tools here, nothing but that," and he motioned toward a mallet-like thing of stone. ”