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1. Wells, 1805.

2. Lake Pleasant, 1812.

3. Hope, 1815.

4. Morehouse, 1835.

TOWNS.

5. Arietta, 1837.

6. Long Lake, 1838.
7. Gilman, 1839.

Mountains. EE. Kayaderosseras. GG. Chateaugay. HH. Clinton range. JJ. Au Sable range.

Rivers. a. Sacandaga. b. Oxbow. c. Moose. d. Indian. f. West
Canada Creek.

Lakes. h. Teralt. j. Long. k. Oxbow. 1. Piseco.
Villages. PISECO. Lake Pleasant.

n. Pleasant.

BOUNDARIES. North by St. Lawrence and Franklin counties; East by Essex Warren and Saratoga; South by Fulton and Herkimer, and West by Herkimer, counties.

SURFACE. The surface of this county is mountainous, four chains of mountains traversing it, viz: the Kayaderosseras, Clinton, Chateaugay and Au Sable ranges. Much of it is covered with dense forests and lakes, presenting to the eye an appearance very similar, probably, to that of New England, two hundred years ago. The hills are generally susceptible of cultivation, the soil being strong and productive, and considerable tracts as arable and fertile as the timber lands of the west.

RIVERS. The principal streams which drain the county are the Racket, Indian, Sacandaga, Oxbow, Moose and Beaver rivers, and West Canada creek.

LAKES AND PONDS. These are almost innumerable, and in the purity of their waters, the picturesque and majestic scenery which surrounds them, the abundance of trout and other fish which they afford, are equal to any in the world.

Long, Indian, Racket, Transparent, Clinch, Crotchet, Pleasant, Round, Piseco, Elm, Oxbow, Beaver and Squaw lakes, are the principal. The forests abound with deer and other game, not excepting panthers, bears, catamounts and wolves.

CLIMATE. From its elevation, as well as the density of its forests, the climate is cold, and the winters long.

GEOLOGY AND MINERALS. The county belongs almost entirely to the great northeastern primitive formation; and its rocks are mainly granite, gneiss and hypersthene.

Iron has been discovered, and probably the other metals and minerals of a primitive country exist. The ore of iron discovered is the magnetic, and of excellent quality.

VEGETABLE PRODUCTIONS. The timber is principally beech, maple, black birch, butternut and elm; the lower range of hills

produces pines of gigantic growth. Portions of the county are well adapted to the culture of grain.

PURSUITS. The inhabitants are mostly devoted to agricultural pursuits and fishing. The county possesses much land suitable for grazing.

The manufactures are principally domestic.

STAPLE PRODUCTIONS. Butter, cheese, lumber, corn, oats, buckwheat and potatoes.

SCHOOLS. There are twenty-six schools in the county, attended by 690 children. The number of months in which schools were taught, during the year 1846, was five, and the amount paid for teacher's wages $677. The number of volumes in the district libraries was 1043.

There is one private school in the county.

RELIGIOUS DENOMINATIONS. Baptists and Methodists. There are three churches and three clergymen, of all denominations, in the county.

HISTORY. Very little can be said of the early history of this county. The first settlers probably removed from the counties of Montgomery and Fulton, into the wilderness. The first town was organized in 1805. In some sections of the county considerable bodies of Welch emigrants have located themselves.

VILLAGES. PISECO, on the Piseco lake, in Arietta, has been designated as the county seat. It is a small but pleasant village.

Lake Pleasant, on the lake of the game name, is a small vil→ lage. It is a favorite resort for sportsmen and anglers.

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Rivers. N. Genesee River. c. Allen's Creek. d. Seneca. f. Cattaraugus. g. Nunskoy. n. Cayuga.

Falls. s. Portage Falls.

Lakes. i. Silver.

Villages. WARSAW. Attica. Genesee Falls. Perry.

BOUNDARIES. North by Genesee; East by Livingston; South by Allegany and Cattaraugus; and West by Erie.

This sum is exclusive of the three towns of Eagle, Pike and Genesee Falls, added in 1846, from Allegany county.

SURFACE. This county occupies, for the most part, the second of those elevated tableaux, or plains, which stretch from Lake Ontario to the southern border of the state, and which are divided from each other by steep and almost perpendicular precipices. The table land on which most of Wyoming cou y lies, commences with the ledge, which runs through the southern towns of Genesee county, and over which the waters of Allen's creek are precipitated in Le Roy, and rises wit an ascent not exceeding ten or twelve feet to the mile, to the ledge over which the Genesee river falls, at Portageville.

There are no mountain ridges in the county, and the declivity of the land is but just sufficient to drain it.

RIVERS. The Genesee river forms the southeastern boundary of the county, for a distance of nearly twenty miles, and in its fall over the ledge, at Genesee falls, furnishes a valuable hydraulic power.

The other principal streams of the county are Allen's creek, (named from the ferocious villain known, for many years, in this region, as Indian Allen,) Tonawanda, Cayuga, Seneca, Wiskoy, and Nunskoy creeks.

LAKE. Silver lake, 'ying partly in Perry and partly in Castile, is a beautiful little sheet of water, five eighths of a mile wide, and three miles long, elevated several hundred feet above the Genesee river.

The CLIMATE is generally salubrious. The prevailing diseases are of a bilious type.

GEOLOGY AND MINERALS. The county lies almost entirely within the bounds of the Erie group. In the north the Ludlowville shales predominate. In the south the Chemung sandstone is the prevailing rock.

Carbonate of lime, crystallized in fantastic and sometimes beautiful forms.* sulphate of lime, or gypsum, and iron pyrites are abundant. There is some sulphate of barytes, and small seams of anthracite, but, as might be expected in the geological formation of this section, in too small quantities to be of any practical value.

The fossils are mainly vegetable, consisting mostly of fucoides, or mosses. There are also, in some portions of the county, fossil shells, but not in great variety.

SOIL AND VEGETABLE PRODUCTIONS. The soil is generally fertile, particularly along the Genesee valley. The forest trees of this county are, in the north part, the beech, maple, hemlock and elm, with some oak. In the southern portion, pine, basswood and ash.

The principal crops are oats, wheat, potatoes, corn, flax, barley, peas and buckwheat.

Among the most singular of these forms are masses, weighing from ten to three hundred pounds, bearing a striking resemblance, in form, to the turtle. Their homogeneous structure, and some peculiarities in their form, preclude the sup. position that they are fossil animal remains.

PURSUITS. Agriculture is the principal pursuit. The eastern and northern towns are largely engaged in the culture of grain, particularly wheat and oats. The southern towns are better adapted to grazing.

Manufactures are increasing in the county, but as yet are in their infancy. Flour, leather, lumber, pot and pearl ashes, and woollen goods are the principal articles. The entire value of the goods manufactured in the county, in 1845, was estimated at $412,000.

There are no mines or quarries, of importance, in the county. The Genesee river canal, affords a convenient mode of transportation for the produce of the eastern towns of the county. STAPLE PRODUCTIONS. Oats, wheat, potatoes, butter, cheese, wool, beef, pork and lumber.

SCHOOLS. There were, in 1846, 198 district schools, in this county. The average amount of instruction given in these was eight months. 20,479 volumes were reported in the district school libraries; and $12,946 was the amount paid for the instructi of 11,517 children.

There were also eight private and select schools, with 220 pupils, in the county, and three incorporated seminaries, with 132 students.

RELIGIOUS! ENO INATIONS. Baptists, Methodists, Presbyterians, Co gregationalists, Universalists, Episcopalians, Roman Catholics and Dutch Reformed. There are in the county fiftyfour churches and sixty-four clergymen, of all denominations.

HISTORY. The first settler in this county was Mr. Elizur Webster, who removed from New England, and settled in the present town of Warsaw, in 1803. His daughter, (now the wife of Hon. A. W. Young of this county,) was the first child born in the county. Many of the early settlers were from Washington and the adjacent counties in Vermont. These generally settled in the vicinity of Warsaw.

As a part of the Genesee valley, its fertility attracted a host of emigrants to its borders, and though the youngest county in the state in its organization, it occupies a middle rank in population.

Much of the land was formerly owned by the Holland Land Company, but it has, within a few years been very generally purchased by actual settlers.

The Gardeau tract, or flats, was a tract of about 10,000 acres, lying on the Genesee river, partly in the town of Castile, which the Indians reserved in a treaty with Robert Morris, in 1797, as a gift to the Seneca white woman, Mary Jemison.*

This extraordinary woman was a native of Ireland, and was taken prisoner by the Indians, when a child twelve or thirteen years of age. She was adopted by an Indian family, and embraced the Indian faith, habits and customs. She was

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