There are yet two other lakes westward of Seneca, Keuka and
Canandaigua. This region was generally first peopled by the Puritans,
but others also came in, and at the outlet of Keuka is the town of
Penn Yan, so called from the Pennsylvanians and Yankees who settled
it, their descendants being the shrewd and thrifty race known as the
"New York Yankees." There are extensive vineyards on Keuka where are
made some of the best American clarets and champagnes, the centre of
that industry being Hammondsport, at the head of the lake. Beyond is
Canandaigua Lake, the town of Canandaigua standing at its northern end
upon a surface gently sloping towards its shores. The word means the
"place chosen for a village." The heads of all these lakes are in the
southern highlands, making the watershed, south of which the streams
are gathered into the Canisteo River, meaning "the board on the
water," which flows into the Chemung, the "big horn," and thence by
the Susquehanna down through Pennsylvania to the Chesapeake. The Erie
Railway, coming eastward by a wild and lonely route across the
Allegheny ranges, goes down the pretty Canisteo Valley to
Hornellsville, a purely railroad town of twelve thousand people, which
has grown up around the shops and stations. Below, the valley
broadens, and is picturesque between its high bordering ridges, the
stream meandering in wayward fashion over the almost flat intervale.
It passes Addison and the town with the unique name of Painted Post,
so called from an Indian monument inscribed in colors, and as the
Canisteo River broadens with the contribution of its swelling
tributaries, it reaches the active manufacturing city of Corning,
having ten thousand people, and here falls into the Chemung, which
comes up northward out of the Allegheny ranges in Pennsylvania to meet
it. The Chemung Valley is a broad and fertile section of flat and
highly cultivated bottom lands, having in its heart the city of
Elmira, with thirty-five thousand inhabitants and many industrial
establishments, making it a busy railroad centre. Here is the Elmira
Reformatory, the Elmira Female College, and the various "Water Cures,"
a species of remedial establishment flourishing throughout Western New
York, where there is apparently no limit to the efficacy or
bountifulness of the water-supply. The broad Chemung flows through
Elmira and beyond down its rich and wide-spreading valley, until at
Athens it loses itself in the swelling waters of the Susquehanna.