Valley of the Genesee—Indian misgivings—Mill yard—Effort to obtain
their land—Council at Big Tree—Coming of the Wadsworths—Indian villages
—Refusal to sell—Discussion between Red Jacket and Thomas Morris—
Breaking up of the Council.
The valley of the Genesee was a favorite resort of
the Indian. His trail led along its banks and
brought him at short intervals to Indian villages,
or the head-quarters of Indian chiefs. Its flats
were broad and beautiful, and were bordered on either
side by hills that rose gradually to their summit,
where they stretched out into extensive table lands.
These hills, as we ascend the valley gradually become
higher and higher, until we are brought into the vicinity
of mountain elevations, where the scenery becomes
very romantic, and the country much broken. The
valley itself is almost of uniform width from its
commencement, a few miles south of the city of Rochester,
to the pleasant and thriving village of Mount Morris.
Here these flats which are quite extensive and exceedingly
rich and beautiful, appear to leave the river and
follow its tributary, the Canaseraga, to a point about
sixteen miles above; diminishing somewhat in width
as they ascend, until they come near the present village
of Dansville, where the hills again recede and forming
a large basin, enclose it on the south, presenting
the appearance of a magnificent amphitheater.
The Canaseraga is here joined by two streams, Stony
Brook and Mill Creek, which flow down from the highlands
beyond, over precipices, and through gorges deep and
wild, where rugged cliffs defying all attempts at culture,
rise abruptly at times, from one to three hundred feet
on either side. The Indian’s trail conducted
him to these wilds, which still remain the most unchanged
of all his ancient haunts. Here are solitudes
seldom visited by man, where are treasured sublimities
that enchain the mind, and inspire a feeling of devotion
in the heart of the beholder. Here the Indian,
undisturbed by other sights or sounds, may yet listen
to the voice of the waterfall as it sounded in the
ear of his fathers, or to the gentle murmur of the
stream discoursing now, as it did to them, in passing
hurriedly over its rocky bed. [Footnote: Who
would ever suspect that a railroad would stride across
any of these deep chasms? How presumptuous.]
Beyond this point the Canaseraga itself, as it flows
from its source among the hills bordering on Pennsylvania,
passes often through deep ravines, narrow defiles,
and overhanging cliffs. The same is true also
of the Genesee river above Mount Morris. Its
course is marked by scenery rarely surpassed in sublimity
and grandeur. [Footnote: The High Banks, as they
are called, near Mt. Morris, and a similar formation,
together with the falls, near Portage, have attracted
the attention, and are often visited by the tourist.—J.
N. H.]
