The northwestern boundary of the State of New York is formed by Lake
Ontario, of which the St. Lawrence River is the outlet, flowing
northeastward into Canada. Ontario is the smallest and the lowest in
level of the group of Great Lakes, its name given by the Indians
meaning the "beautiful water." It is about one hundred and eighty
miles long, and its surface is two hundred and thirty-one feet above
tide, but it is fully five hundred feet deep, so that it has more
depth below the ocean level than the lake surface is above. It has a
marked feature along its southern shore, where a narrow elevation
known as the "Lake Ridge" extends nearly parallel with the edge of the
lake, and from four to eight miles distant. The height of this ridge
usually exceeds one hundred and sixty feet above the lake level, and
in some places is nearly two hundred feet, and it is, throughout, from
five to twenty feet above the immediate surface of the land, there
being a width at the summit of some thirty feet, from which the ground
slopes away on both sides. This ridge is regarded as an ancient
shore-line formed by the waters of the lake, and the chief public
highway on the southern side of the lake is laid for many miles along
its summit. The main tributaries of Ontario from New York are the
Black, Oswego and Genesee Rivers. The Black River gathers various
streams draining the western slopes of the Adirondacks, and its name
comes from the dark amber hue of the waters. It flows northwest
through a forest-covered region, pours down Lyons Falls, a fine
cataract of seventy feet, passes the manufacturing towns of Lowville
and Watertown, and finally discharges by the broadened estuary of
Black River Bay into the east end of Lake Ontario. From Rome, on the
Mohawk, a canal is constructed northward to the Black River.
Westward from Rome the land is an almost level plain, rising into the
Onondaga highlands to the southward. Cazenovia Lake, among these
hills, sends its outlet northward over the plain to Oneida Lake. There
are various little lakelets between, but the ground is impregnated
with sulphur, so that their waters are bitter, and one is consequently
named Lake Sodom. Oneida is a large lake, twenty-three miles long and
several miles broad, with low and marshy shores. In the fertile dairy
region to the southeastward is located the "Inspiration Community" of
Oneida, founded in 1847 by John Humphrey Noyes, a Vermont preacher. In
1834, when twenty-three years old, he experienced what he called a
"second conversion," and announced himself a "perfectionist." He
preached his new faith and finally established the Oneida Community
for its demonstration, with about three hundred members. They maintain
the perfect equality of women with men in all social and business
relations, and have become quite wealthy as manufacturers, farmers and
dairymen. The outlet of Oneida Lake, and in fact the outlet streams of
all the lakes of Central New York, discharge into Oswego River, which
flows northward into Lake Ontario. Oswego means "the small water
flowing into that which is large," and the port at its mouth, noted
for its flour and starch-mills, has about twenty-five thousand people,
and is the largest city on the New York shore of Lake Ontario. This
was an early French settlement in the seventeenth century, when the
river was known by them as the "river of the Onondagas."
The great plain south of Lake Ontario, which is believed to have been
itself formerly a lake bed, rises into highlands farther southward,
and the noted group of lakes of Central New York are scattered in the
valleys which are deeply fissured into these highlands. Most of these
lakes are long and narrow, and they nestle in almost parallel valleys,
their waters occupying the bottoms of deep ravines. These lakes
present much fine scenery, and their shores are among the most
attractive parts of New York. They display vineyards and fruit
orchards and extensive pastures, and their present names are the
original titles given them by the Iroquois, many of whom still live on
reservations near them. Southwest of Oneida is Onondaga Lake, and
farther west Skaneateles and Owasco. Then beyond is the larger Cayuga
Lake, and to the westward Seneca, the largest of the group, sixty
miles long, elevated two hundred feet above Lake Ontario, and of great
depth, estimated to exceed six hundred feet. This lake was never known
to be frozen over but once, and that was late in March many years ago;
steamboats traverse it every day in the year. Cayuga Lake is of
similar character, but of slightly less size and elevation, and in
some places is so deep as to be almost unfathomable. These parallel
lakes are separated by an elevated ridge only a few miles wide, and
their great depth, descending much below the level of Ontario, into
which they discharge, gives evidence to the geologists that their
waters originally drained to the southward. Westward of Seneca is
Keuka or the Crooked Lake, the Indian name meaning "the lake of the
Bended Elbow." It is a pretty sheet of water, having an angle in its
centre, from which starts out another long and narrow branch, so that
its spreading arms make it look much like the aboriginal
signification. It is elevated two hundred and seventy-seven feet
above the level of Seneca Lake, which is only seven miles away.
Beyond Keuka is Canandaigua Lake, the westernmost of the group.