USA > New York > Monroe County > Rochester > Settlement in the West : sketches of Rochester with incidental notices of western New-York > Part 6
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" On the most favoured evenings the sky will be without
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SKETCHES OF ROCHESTER, ETC.
a cloud ; the temperature of the air pleasant ; not a breeze to ruffle a feather, and a dim transparent haze, tinged of a slight carmine by the sun's light, diffused through the whole atmo- sphere. At such a time, for some minutes both before and after the sun goes below the horizon, the rich hues of gold, and crimson, and scarlet that seem to float upward from the horizon to the zenith are beyond the power of language to describe. As the sun continues to sink, the streams of brilliance gradually blend and deepen in one mass of golden light, and the splendid reflections remain long after the light of an ordinary sunset would have disappeared. We have said that not every cloudless sunset exhibits this peculiar brilliance : when the air is very clear, the sun goes down in a yellow light, it is true, but it is comparatively pale and limited ; and when, as is sometimes the case in our Indian summers, the atmosphere is filled with the smoky vapour rising from a thousand burning prairies in the Far West, he sinks like an immense red ball without a single splendid emanating ray. It is our opinion that the peculiar state of the atmosphere necessary to produce these gorgeous sunsets in perfection is in some way depending on electrical causes ; since it very commonly happens, that after the brilliant re- flections of the setting sun have disappeared, the auroral lights make their appearance in the north; and usually, the more vivid the reflection, the more beautiful and distinct the aurora. This fact the numerous and splendid northern lights of last September, succeeding sunsets of unrivalled beauty, must have rendered apparent to every observer of these at- mospheric changes. Connected, however, with this state of the atmosphere, and co-operating with it, is another cause we think not less peculiar and efficient, and which we do not remember ever to have seen noticed in this connexion, and that is the influence of the great lakes acting as reflecting surfaces.
" Every one is acquainted with the fact that, when rays of light impinge or fall on a reflecting surface, as a common mirror, they slide off, so to speak, in a corresponding angle of elevation or depression, whatever it may be. The great American lakes may in this respect be considered as vast mirrors, spread horizontally upon the earth, and reflecting the rays of the sun that fall upon them, according to the optical laws that govern this phenomenon. The higher the sun is above the horizon, the less distance the reflected rays
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CLIMATE, SOIL, AND PRODUCTIONS.
would have to pass through the atmosphere, and, of course, the less would be the effect produced by them ; while at and near the time of setting, the rays striking horizontally on the water, the direction of the reflected rays must of course be so also, and therefore pass over or through the greatest possible amount of atmosphere previous to their final dispersion. It follows that objects on the earth's surface, if near the re- flecting body, require but little elevation to impress their irregularities on the reflecting light ; and hence any con- siderable eminences on the eastern shores of the great lakes would produce the effect of lessening or totally intercepting these rays at the moment the sun was in a position nearly or quite horizontal. The reflecting power of a surface of earth, though far from inconsiderable, is much less than that of water, and may, in part, account not only for the breaks in the line of radiance which exist in the west, but for the fact that the autumnal sunsets of the south are inferior in bril- liance to those of the north. We have been led to this train of thought at this time by a succession of most beautiful sunsets, which, commencing the last week in August, have continued through the months of September and October, with a few exceptions, in consequence of the atmospheric derangement attending the usual equinoctial gales.
" It will be seen, by a reference to a map of the United States, that from the residence of the writer (Otisco, Onon- daga Co., N. Y.), the lakes extend on a great circle from north to south of west, and, of course, embrace nearly the whole extent of the sun's declination as observed from this place. The atmosphere of the north, then, with the excep- tion of a few months, is open to the influence of reflected light from the lakes, and we are convinced that most of the resplendent richness of our autumnal sunsets may be traced to this source. The successive flashes of golden and scarlet light, that seem to rise, and blend, and deepen in the west as the sun approaches the horizon and sinks below it, can in no other way be so satisfactorily accounted for as by the sup- position that each lake, one after the other, lends its reflected light to the visible portion of the atmosphere, and thus, as one fades, another flings its mass of radiance across the heavens, and, acting on a medium prepared for its reception, prolongs the splendid phenomena.
" We have for years noticed these appearances, and marked the fact that, in the early part of September, the
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SKETCHES OF ROCHESTER, ETC.
sunsets are generally of unusual brilliancy, and more pro- longed than at other or later periods. 'They are at this season, as they are at all others, accompanied by pencils or streamers of the richest light, which, diverging from the position of the sun, appear above the horizon, and are some- times so well defined that they can be distinctly traced nearly to the zenith. At other seasons of the year, clouds just be- low the horizon at sunset produce a somewhat similar result in the formation of brushes of light ; and elevated ranges of mountains, by intercepting and dividing the rays, whether direct or reflected, effect the same appearances ; but in this case there are no elevated mountains, and on the most splendid of these evenings the sky is always perfectly cloud- less. We have marked the uniformity in the relative posi- tion of these pencils at the same season of the year for a great number of years ; and this uniformity, while it proves the permanence of their cause, has led us to trace their origin to the peculiar configuration of the country bordering on the great lakes.
" At the time of year these pencils are beginning to be the most distinct, a line drawn from this point to the sun would bear at sunset about twenty-five degrees north of west, passing over the west end of Lake Ontario, the greatest diameter of Lake Huron, and across a considerable portion of Lake Superior. At this time, or about the first of Sep- tember, the streamers or pencils exhibit somewhat the ap- pearance shown in the following engraving :
B
1
2 34 5 to 13
B
A
" Here A represents the place of the sun, some two or three degrees below the horizon B B. Fig. 1 denotes the
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CLIMATE, SOIL, AND PRODUCTIONS.
reflections from Lake Erie. 2, the comparatively dark space caused by the peninsula between Lake Erie and Lake St. Clair. 3 represents the reflected rays from St. Clair. 4, the non-reflecting peninsula between the St. Clair and Lake Huron ; and 5 to 13, the reflection from Lake Huron, broken into pencils by the elevated lands on the southeastern margin of the lake.
" From considerations connected with the figure of the earth, the relative position of the sun and the lakes, the nature of reflecting surfaces, and the hills that it has been ascer- tained border Lake Huron on the east, it appears clear to us, that the broken line of these hills acts the part of clouds or mountains in other circumstances, in intercepting and divi- ding into pencils the broad mass of light reflected from the Huron, and thus creating those beautiful streamers that ap- pear in the north of west, and with which, as it were, the commencement of autumn and the Indian summer is marked. Farther to the south appears distinctly the break occasioned by the land that intervenes between the Lakes Huron and St. Clair, and this, as well as the one between the latter lake and Erie, is rendered more striking by the brilliant pencil streaming across the heavens from the St. Clair. The re- flected light of this body of water, insulated as it is by the shaded spaces in the sky, and separated from the glowing masses to the north and the south, is, throughout the season, one of the most striking and best defined objects in the west.
" From the middle of September to the early part of Oc- tober, during which time the sun sets nearly in the west from this place, the appearance of the reflected rays is somewhat like the representation below.
B
1 234 5 to 13
B
A
6
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SKETCHES OF ROCHESTER, ETC.
" Here the letters and figures represent the same objects as in the former cut, and show that the cause of the pencils must be permanent, or such a change in their inclination would not take place with the declination of the sun. The reflections from Erie at this time rise in a broad unbroken mass a little south of west, while that from St. Clair occu- pies the centre, and the maze of pencils from Huron begin to blend and show nearly as one body. As the sun returns still farther south, the light from Erie occupies a still more prominent place ; the column of light from the St. Clair in- clines still more to the right ; the breaks from the isthmuses of Erie and Huron become less distinct ; the reflections from the Huron are melted into an unbroken mass, the interrup- tion from the hills being lost in the oblique position of the pencils ; and the sun has scarcely time to leave this exten- sive line of reflection, before all these streamers and breaks are abruptly melted into the rich dark crimson that floats up from the Michigan or the mighty Superior. At the close of October or the first of November, the splendour of the heav- ens, though sensibly diminished, is at times very great, and the outline of the reflections presents the following appear- ance.
B
1
234
to
13
B
A
" The figures and letters are still the same; and, taken in connexion with the southern declination of the sun, shows, as before, the fixed nature of the causes, and their relative po- sition to the observer. Lake Erie now fills up the foreground in the direction of the sun ; St. Clair is still distinct, and separated from Erie and Huron ; the hills which in early autumn were between us and the sun, and broke up the light thrown from the Huron into such beautiful pencils, are now
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CLIMATE, SOIL, AND PRODUCTIONS.
to the northward of any light reflected to us, if, indeed, they are not beyond the line of rays from the lake ; and the streamers from this source disappear from the heavens, not to return until, with another year and a renewed atmosphere, the sun is again found in the same position. Were there any elevated ranges on the peninsula of Michigan, we might reasonably expect that the reflected light from that body of water would be broken, as is the case from Lake Huron. But Michigan is too level to offer in its outline any such in- terruption ; hence the pencils must fade away with the dis- appearance of the sun from the line of the Huron, St. Clair, and Erie. It is possible, too, that, as the season advances, the atmosphere loses its proper reflecting condition, and renders it impossible for reflected light to produce the effects of Sep- tember or October. The electric change denoted by the fact that, in the region of the lakes, thunder rarely occurs after these phenomena become visible, and that these are usually accompanied or followed by the aurora, would seem to render such a supposition probable.
" We have thrown out these hints, for we consider them nothing more, in the hope of directing the notice of other and more competent observers to the facts stated, and, if possible, thereby gaining a satisfactory solution of the splendid phe- nomena connected with our autumnal sunsets (should the foregoing not be considered as such), or should further ob- servations show that any of the above premises or inferences have been founded in error."
With the facts before us respecting the climate as well as productions of Western New-York, we may not wonder at that enthusiastic admiration which led Gouverneur Morris to exclaim, in a letter to a British friend who urged him to reside in Britain :
"Compare the uninterrupted warmth and splendour of America, from the first of May to the last of September, and her autumn, truly celestial, with your shivering June, July, and August ; sometimes warm, but often wet ; your uncertain September, your gloomy October, and damnable November. Compare these things, and then say how a man who prizes the charms of nature can think of making the exchange. If you were to pass one autumn with us, you would not give it for the best six months to be found in any other country, unless, indeed, you should get tired of fine weather."
GEOLOGY OF ROCHESTER AND ITS VICINITY.
FEW tracts of equal size present more interesting subjects of geological research than are contained within the City of Rochester.
The boulders, the diluvium, the petrifactions, would alone furnish themes for exciting research, coupled with the vari- ous remnants of the mastodon which were lately upturned from the spot where they were probably deposited by the deluge that swept across this land. The cataracts of the Genesee, eclipsed only by the mightier flow of the Niagara- the Ridge-Road,* with geological features that furnished De Witt Clinton some data illustrative of the antiquities of human art-present attractions for the most superficial observer The appearances corroborative of the prolific theory concern. ing the ancient height of Lake Ontario, the excellent view of the structure of the earth through the depth of the ravine form- ed by the Genesee river ; and the extraordinary POLISHED ROCKS, with surface silently demonstrating that their lustre resulted from the action of overwhelming floods across this region in long-gone ages-are amply sufficient to excite the enthusiasm of those whose minds have expanded in contem- plating the deep-reaching theories by which geology warns us to mark the changes which this world has undergone since issuing from the hand of the Almighty Architect.
Imperfect indeed would be the account of Rochester which should fail to present the prominent features of its geological character. The connexion of the city with lake, river, ridge, and quarry, attaches vast interest to facts de- monstrative of the past condition as well as present state of the waters, the diluvium, and the minerals by which we are surrounded. Therefore is it that, in these brief sketches, efforts are made to acquaint the stranger with information on those subjects, touching which the intelligent citizen of Ro- chester must be supposed to have some knowledge.
* See articles headed " Ridge-Road."
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GEOLOGICAL SKETCHES.
The Rev. CHESTER DEWEY, whose reputation as a geolo- gist requires no endorsement here, promptly complied with our suggestions in preparing some statements imbodying much information that may be interesting even to those most conversant with the important subjects of his remarks. His brief outline of the GEOLOGY OF ROCHESTER should be passed unheeded by no one who is desirous of familiarizing himself with the prominent features of the city.
We may be pardoned for introducing here a passage from an essayist whose conceptions of the science of geology, beautifully expressed, are measurably exemplified by the earth and waters in and around our city. Let those who underrate the use, and dignity, and interesting character of geological research, mark well the assertions of this extract, and notice the exemplifications of their truth afforded even by the limited inquiries connected with the geology of Rochester.
" It seems to be a very common opinion," says an essay- ist in the American Quarterly Review, " that the study of geology is dull, dry, and unattractive to all but the initiated inquirer, who has contrived to get enthusiastic in a kind of knowledge which, to the generality of men, presents a lower- ing and repulsive aspect." * * * " We hear constantly of the sublime discoveries made by astronomy ; of the glo- rious mechanism which the anatomist with palpable distinct- ness places before our eyes ; and of the charms of that pleasing science which unrobes to our sight the internal economy and rich garniture of the vegetable world. The former is concerned with other worlds and the laws which bind them together, the latter with the countless forms of being which enliven the surface of our own ; while geology, without yielding to these in the high and noble character of its inquiries, SHOWS US THE WORLDS WHICH HAVE BEEN, and traces THE TERRIBLE REVOLUTIONS OF NATURE which from time to time have ' rolled them together as a scroll,' leaving behind a few dumb but eloquent memorials to convey to coming ages the story of their existence. Like the ghosts of the guilty dead which passed before the eyes of Dante in the infernal regions, the shadowy forms, not of men, but of ages, pass and repass in measured procession before the steady gaze of the geologist, while he marks their character and reads their history. GEOLOGY CARRIES US BACK TO TIIE VERY RUDIMENTS of our earthly habitation, while its scat- tered materials are yet destitute of form or consistence, and
6*
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SKETCHES OF ROCHESTER, ETC.
thence traces it upward through its successive approaches to order and beauty." *
* * " Such are the scenes contin- ually presented to the view of the geological inquirer ; and we can hardly conceive that they should lose any of their interest with those whose minds are open to the majesty and wonder of Nature's works."
GEOLOGY OF ROCHESTER, ETC.
The rocks of this vicinity form a part of that extended series which stretches from the primitive at Little Falls on the Mohawk to the shores of Lake Erie. This whole series across the state belongs to the transition class. Here the cataracts of the Genesee have exposed the rocks for some hundred feet in depth. A finer view of the structure of the earth to this depth cannot be desired.
The strata are laid over each other with great care, as if the supraposition of them had been a matter of the special attention of the GREAT ARCHITECT.
The varieties of the rocks and minerals are not very great, but they are very interesting.
At the Ontario steamboat-landing (below the Lower Falls), the waters of the Genesee are on a level with Lake Ontario. The river is at that point 330 feet below Lake Erie, 266 feet below the Erie Canal in Rochester, and 240 feet above the tidewater of the Hudson. The rocks may be classed under the following heads :-
1. RED SANDSTONE .- At the level of the Genesee at the Ontario steamboat-landing lies a stratum of sandstone, whose depth below the water is unknown, and whose extent upward is one hundred and twenty feet. This is the salif- erous rock of Professor Eaton, because he believed it was the reservoir of the salt-springs in this section. A few years ago salt was manufactured from the waters of a spring in Greece, a few miles northwest from the city, and from another near the banks of Irondequoit Creek, a few miles northeast of the city. Both these springs were in this rock. The sandstone is here the lowest rock, and is of great ex- tent, reaching from Niagara river to the neighbourhood of Utica along the southern shore of Lake Ontario. Its colour is a dark reddish brown, containing portions which are gray. It is separated into layers of different depths by parts of a soft slaty structure, which rapidly disintegrate. This rock,
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GEOLOGICAL SKETCHES.
according to Professor Eaton, lies next above the millstone grit, and is also near the transition graywacke. It is, doubtless, the old red sandstone of the English geologists, and lies far under the coal formation. If it is not the old red sandstone, it must belong to a still older part of the tran- sition series. In some minds this is probable, because it is thought to be below the old red sandstone, which lies in place under the coal in Pennsylvania and Ohio, and because the strata dip so much to the south and west both here and in the states just mentioned. From various surveys it is found that the coal at Pittsburgh is above Ohio River 329 feet ; above Lake Erie, 543 ; above Canal at Rochester, 617 ;
above sandstone at Rochester, 761; above Lake Ontario, 883.
The dip* would carry the sandstone far below the coal at Pittsburgh. Leaving this point to be settled by geologists, it should be remarked that the sandstone forms a wall for the banks of the river from the top of the Lower Falls, often precipitous or even overhanging the bed of waters, often retiring, and covered towards the bottom with the ac- cumulated debris of past days. Fucoides and other vege- table remains are found in the sandstone in great abundance, from about twelve to twenty-five feet below the upper sur- face. Splendid specimens of fucoides are obtained on split- ting open the strata.
A part of this stone easily disintegrates, and seems to be a red marly slate ; none of it can endure the action of water and frost. The aqueduct of the Erie Canal across the Gen- esee River was built of this rock ; its arches have been for some years in a crumbling state, and cannot long withstand the action of those powers. (A new aqueduct is now in progress.)
A stratum of gray sandstone, about four feet thick, called by Professor Eaton gray-band, lies directly upon the red sandstone. It forms a beautiful stripe in the banks of the river. At the Lower Falls the waters are precipitated di- rectly over this rock eighty-four feet, into the chasm where the river assumes the lake level. It appears to differ little
* All the strata, while they appear to lie in horizontal layers, have an inclination or dip to the south. This is commonly more than one foot in a hundred, and less than one in eighty. In some cases it is con- siderably greater. The dip may be taken at about one foot in eighty- seven.
-
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SKETCHES OF ROCHESTER, ETC.
from the other sandstone except in colour, and portions of the same colour are diffused throughout the red. Both often slightly effervesce with acids. The gray seems to disinte- grate with rather more ease than the thick blocks of the other. It extends with the red sandstone several hundred miles, as stated by Prof. Eaton in his geological survey of the canal rocks, and is so similar in its character that it must be arranged with it. Both are somewhat argillaceous.
Fine particles of mica often occur in the sandstone, bright and glistening ; but the quantity of mica in this part of the rock seems to be very small.
The sandstone becomes more elevated as you descend the river from the Ontario steamboat-landing (at the north bound- ary of the city of Rochester), and soon the whole banks are of this rock. The distance from that landing to the junction of the Genesee with Lake Ontario is about five miles. Parts of the sandstone seem to rise into considerable elevations back from the river, so as to appear nearly as high as the rocks at the Upper Falls. West of Rochester the sandstone is still higher. About thirteen miles west, in Ogden, the canal is for a short distance upon the sandstone. This was remarked by Professor Eaton, and is clearly the fact. It does not, however, indicate any singular elevation of the sandstone ; for the canal is there near the Ridge- Road, along which this rock is much higher than at the steamboat-landing in Rochester. This is the true solution (as suggested by Mr. Hall, one of the state geologists) of the apparent rise of the red sandstone in Ogden.
2. MOUNTAIN LIMESTONE .- This is an extensive rock in Europe, and is composed of a varying series of slate, lime- stone, sandstone, graywacke, marly slate, and shale. It em- braces the great beds of transition limestone, often semi- crystalline, and affording beautiful marble. It contains also abundance of encrinites, madrepores, productus, &c., and, in some parts of it, multitudes of trilobites. It rises often into mountain masses. It lies under and supports the great coal formation generally. On the Continent of Europe in some places it is wanting, and the coalfields are separated from the primitive rocks only by a thick stratum of sand- stone. In our series is a similar mixture and alternation of slate, limestone, graywacke, shale, and sandstone, or quartz- ose limestone, and the same kind of petrifactions is abun- dant. It seems also to underlie the coal of the south and west.
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GEOLOGICAL SKETCHES.
Professor Eaton has distinguished several of the strata in this great formation by particular names, which make the rocks a matter of easy reference. His ferriferous slate, ar- gillaceous iron ore, ferriferous sandrock, calciferous slate, or second graywacke, or lias, geodiferous limerock and cor- nutiferous limerock, seem to correspond to the various parts of the mountain limestone. They evidently alternate, and a part gradually pass into each other. This will be apparent in the examination of them.
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