So mew of the Port of Ensfare) va_Bake Eres

1415

Comel from the Original Rudraving Pub in the Port Folio 1815.

armed brig, pierced for 16 six pounders. From this lake large boats proceed by the River St Lawrence, nearly to Montreal, a large, populous and commercial city in Canada, where considerable quantities of produce and lumber from this State and Vermont, are sold, and shipping take in cargoes for Europe and the West Indies. From this lake, also, by Oswego and Onondago rivers, Oneida lake, Wood Creek, and Mohawk river, navigation is extended to the Atlantic Ocean, only with the interruption of 16 miles by land from Schenectady to Albany. Navigation is continued from this lake, with the intervention of two carrying places not exceeding the distance of 23 miles, by lake Erie, to the waters of the Ohio and Mississippi rivers.

Lake Erie, by which this country is partly bounded on the northwest, is nearly 300 miles in length, and nearly 40 miles in breadth. It is navigated by some sloops, and from hence there is carrying place of 14 miles to Le Beuf, in Pennsylvania, near the head waters of French Creek, which is navigable by boats to Alleghany river, and from thence to the Ohio; and by this route quantities of salt, which is transported from the Military Lands, are conveyed to Pittsburgh. This communication was used by the French before the taking of Fort Pitt from them by the English in 1758, and it is probable that by it, goods could be transported from New York and Albany to the Ohio, at less expense than by any other. There are also communications from the waters of this lake to the Ohio, by the Muskingum and Scioto rivers. Navigation is interrupted from lake Erie to Lake Ontario by a carrying place of 9 miles at the falls of Niagara.

Seneca lake is situated on the Eastern line of this country, and is 35 miles in length, and from 2 to 4 miles wide. It stretches in a direction nearly from south to north, forming a handsome sheet of wholesome water, of great depth, and never freezes over in winter; and in summer, a bottle being let down under the surface, is filled with cool and pure water. It is navigated by a sloop and perriauger, besides boats, and by its outlet boats proceed by Seneca and Onondago rivers to Schenectady. From this lake also, boats proceed by Seneca and Oswego river into lake Ontario, and from thence to Montreal, &c. From the head of this lake, there is a

Carrying place of 22 miles by land, to Newtown, on Tioga river, to which place considerable quantities of produce are transported, and from whence they are floated to markets on the Susquehanna river.

Crooked lake is situated 8 miles west from Seneca lake, is 20 miles long, and 2 or 3 miles wide. From this lake there is a carrying place of 7 miles to the Conhocton river, where it is boatable in spring and in fall to the Susquehanna. A considerable part of the lands adjoining it are reported to be of the best quality. Canandarqua lake is situated 20 miles west from Seneca lake, is nearly 20 miles in length, and 2 miles in breadth.

Chataughqua lake is situated near lake Erie, and is nearly 15 miles in length. The lands near this lake are very rich.

Mud lake, Honeyoy, Hemlock and Canesus lakes are situated from 10 to 35 miles west from Seneca lake, are from 6 to 10 miles long, and from them are easy carrying plates by land to the boatable waters of Susquehanna.

The climate appears to be subject to changes, which is probably caused by the neighbourhood of the immense bodies of water contained in the lakes by which this Country is partly bounded. These lakes also are probably the cause of the mildness of the climate in summer and winter; for the air passing over extensive bodies of water which are of nearly the same degree of coldness in summer as in winter, and freeze not in winter, is more uniform in its temperature than it would be if it passed over land. The northerly and westerly winds which occasion an extraordinary coldness in winter, spring and fall, on the East side of the Alleghany mountains, by blowing from the high and cold tract of country composed of those mountains, are tempered in this country by passing over the extensive bodies of water which are situated on the northern and western bounds; and the south wind does not produce those frequent changes in winter which are injurious to the raising of grain in the easterly parts of the states.—Whilst the neighbourhood of these lakes also renders the air in summer cool and temperate; and the nights, very few excepted, are so cool as to admit of sleeping under blankets. The heat of summer in this country is accordingly more temperate than in the eastern parts of

the states, which are situated even in a more northerly latitude; and the frosts in winter are remarked as less violent than in the middle states.

In most parts the climate is healthy, particularly as a newly settled country, of which an inconsiderable part is yet improved; though in the neighbourhood of marshes and stagnated waters the inhabitants are subject to agues and other bilious complaints. Once in three or four years, as is the case in most countries, it has been sickly in many parts. The fall of 1801, was probably as sickly a season as any one since the earliest settlement; which is imputed to an uncommon wetness of the weather, occasioning much stagnated water. The prevailing sickness, which was the bilious fever, proved however not very mortal to the sick; and the number of deaths was most probably not more than one for every two hundred inhabitants.

Trees usually put forth leaves, the earliest sorts in the first week of May, and oak and other later sorts near the 25th of that month. Corn is planted from the 15th to the 25th and by some near the 1st of May. Rye begins to ripen, and hay is begun to be cut near the 4th of July, and near the 20th July wheat harvest is begun. Water commonly begins to be frozen near the first week of October, and snow usually falls near the 20th of November; but cattle are sometimes kept in pasture until January, and on the flats of Genesee, nearly the whole winter. Snow commonly lies about nine inches deep. In the beginning of the year 1800, snow fell in most places about three feet deep, but there is no other instance knowr of so great a fall of it. The continuation of snow, besides its usefulness to grain, renders sleighs common and convenient for the transportation of produce to market, a pair of horses travelling, with thirty bushels, at the rate of 35 or 40 miles in a day. winters usually break up about the middle of March.

The

The cheapness and fertility of land in this country, together with its easy communications with different markets, and the temperateness, and healthiness of the climate in general, are advantages, not possessed in an equal degree in other new settlements, which render this country an object worthy of attention to those who wish their estates in a few years to increase in extent