Westward from Syracuse the country is full of lakes. Otisco Lake,--the
"Bitter-nut Hickory,"--is an oval four miles long, embosomed in hills.
To the northwest of Otisco is Skaneateles Lake--the "Long Water"--the
most picturesque of all, set among most imposing hills, which,
notwithstanding the lake is elevated eight hundred and sixty feet,
still rise twelve hundred feet above its surface, giving the waters
the deeply blue tinge of an Italian scene. This lovely lake is sixteen
miles long, and in no place more than a mile and a half wide, its
outlet having a fine cataract. To the westward is Owasco Lake--"the
bridge on the water floating"--eleven miles long and a mile wide,
walled in by rocky bluffs, yet having its shores diversified by
meadows and farm land. About two miles northward, on its outlet, is
the busy manufacturing city of Auburn, with thirty thousand people,
which was the home of William H. Seward, Governor and Senator from New
York, who was President Lincoln's Secretary of State during the Civil
War. Its most extensive establishment is the Auburn Prison, covering
about eighteen acres, enclosed by walls four feet thick and twelve to
thirty-five feet high, there being imprisoned usually about twelve
hundred convicts. The surface of the city is varied by hills, making
handsome villa sites, and the Owasco Lake outlet flows down a series
of rapids, falling one hundred and sixty feet, and utilized by no less
than nine dams to turn the wheels of many mills. Captain Hardenburgh
was the first settler here in 1793, the original name being
"Hardenburgh's Corners." On Fort Hill, one of the highest elevations,
the top of which is supposed to be an eminence originally raised by
the ancient Mound-Builders, and was an Iroquois fortification, is the
Cemetery where are interred the remains of William H. Seward, who died
in 1872.
After crossing a rich grazing country, farther to the westward is
Cayuga Lake--the name meaning "Where they take canoes out"--stretching
from the level plain of Central New York southward into the highlands,
making the watershed between the affluents of the St. Lawrence and the
Susquehanna. Progressing southward along the long and narrow lake, the
hills are found to grow steadily higher, and they reach an elevation
of several hundred feet above its surface. The bordering rocky
buttresses rise up as columns and walls, with accurately-squared
corners, their perpendicular stratification making the flagstone
layers that have been loosened by the frost stand on edge and
separately, seeming almost ready to topple over, while heaps of broken
fragments are strewn at their bases, which, being pulverized by the
action of frost and water into small particles, produce a smooth and
narrow beach. At the head of the lake the deep valley is prolonged
farther southward between even higher enclosing ridges, the Cayuga
Inlet winding through it. Here, about a mile from the lake, is a
flourishing town of twelve thousand people, reproducing the name of
the Ionian Island that was the fabled kingdom of Ulysses--Ithaca. It
is the centre of a grazing region, producing cheese, butter and wool,
and its water-power has given some manufacturing activity, but it is
chiefly known to fame from the surrounding galaxy of waterfalls and
the possession of Cornell University.
Cayuga Lake, at its head, has a rugged verge, and in the glens and
gorges descending four to five hundred feet from the hills to the lake
and its prolonged southern valley, are some of nature's most beautiful
sanctuaries. Fall Creek has eight cataracts within a mile, all of them
charming. It comes tumbling down the Triphammer Fall into a basin,
then over one cascade after another until it plunges down a foaming
precipice and finally goes over the Ithaca Fall, one hundred and sixty
feet high and about as wide. Alongside the lake, near the outlet of
this brook, are remarkable formations,--Tower Rock, a perfect columnar
structure forty feet high, and Castle Rock, a massive wall with a
grand arched doorway opened through it--both strange freaks of nature.
The ravine of Cascadilla Creek to the southward is also filled with
cascades, and on an elevated plateau between the two gorges is Cornell
University. The most noted waterfall of Cayuga is the Taghanic--the
original Indian word meaning "Water enough." A stream flows in from
the western hills a short distance north of Ithaca, and the fall is
two hundred and fifteen feet high and some distance back in the ridge.
Its interesting features are the great height, the very deep ravine
and its sharply-defined outlines, and the splendid views; and its
admirers regard it as a worthy rival of the much-praised Swiss
Staubbach. The water breaks over a cleanly-cut table-rock, falls
perpendicularly, and excepting in freshets, it changes into clouds of
spray before reaching the bottom. The rocky enclosing walls rise four
hundred feet high around it, being regularly squared as if laid by
human hands, and this is the highest American waterfall east of the
Rockies.
High above Ithaca, standing upon the brow of the ridge making its
eastern border, are the imposing buildings of Cornell University,
devoted to the free education of both sexes in all branches of
knowledge, the spreading college campus elevated four hundred feet
above the lake. Here are educated eighteen hundred students, who have
about one hundred and eighty instructors. The College of Forestry,
established in 1898, is the only one in the country. The University
has munificent endowments, becoming constantly more valuable, as lands
of steadily increasing worth are among the holdings, the aggregate
being estimated at $8,000,000. At the edge of Ithaca is the mansion
which was the home of Ezra Cornell the founder, who amassed a fortune
mainly in telegraphy, he then being at the head of the Western Union
Company. To his generosity was added the proceeds of the ample school
lands of New York State, the gift of the Federal Government, which he
selected with scrupulous care, and these gave the University its
start. He died in 1874. Others gave supplementary gifts. John McGraw
of Ithaca gave McGraw College, the central building on the campus, two
hundred feet long, with a tower rising one hundred and twenty feet,
containing the great University bell with full chimes, and having a
view forty miles northward along the lake and almost half as far
southward through the deep valley. This structure is flanked by the
North and South University buildings, each one hundred and sixty-five
feet long, all three substantially constructed of dark blue stone with
light gray limestone trimmings. There are also the Sibley Building,
and the magnificent Cascadilla Hall, nearly two hundred feet long,
which is a residence for instructors and students. The Sage College
for females and other handsome buildings adorn the campus, including
an armory, for everything is taught, and a battery of mounted cannon
guards the approach to the grounds.