SURFACE. This county occupies, for the most part, the second of those elevated tableaux, or plains, which stretch from Lake Ontario to the southern border of the state, and which are divided from each other by steep and almost perpendicular precipices. The table land on which most of Wyoming cou my lies, commences with the ledge, which runs through the southern towns of Genesee county, and over which the waters of Allen's creek are precipitated in Le Roy, and rises with an ascent not exceeding ten or twelve feet to the mile, to the ledge over which the Genesee river falls, at Portageville.

There are no mountain ridges in the county, and the declivity of the land is but just sufficient to drain it.

RIVERS. The Genesee river forms the southeastern boundary of the county, for a distance of nearly twenty miles, and in its fall over the ledge, at Genesee falls, furnishes a valuable hydraulic power.

The other principal streams of the county are Allen's creek, (named from the ferocious villain known, for many years, in this region, as Indian Allen,) Tonawanda, Cayuga, Seneca, Wiskoy, and Nunskoy creeks.

LAKE. Silver lake, lying partly in Perry and partly in Castile, is a beautiful little sheet of water, five eighths of a mile wide, and three miles long, elevated several hundred feet above the Genesee river.

The CLIMATE is generally salubrious. The prevailing diseases are of a bilious type.

GEOLOGY AND MINERALS. The county lies almost entirely within the bounds of the Erie group. In the north the Ludlowville shales predominate. In the south the Chemung sandstone is the prevailing rock.

Carbonate of lime, crystallized in fantastic and sometimes beautiful forms,* sulphate of lime, or gypsum, and iron pyrites are abundant. There is some sulphate of barytes, and small seams of anthracite, but, as might be expected in the geological formation of this section, in too small quantities to be of any practical value.

The fossils are mainly vegetable, consisting mostly of fucoides, or mosses. There are also, in some portions of the county, fossil shells, but not in great variety.

SOIL AND VEGETABLE PRODUCTIONS. The soil is generally fertile, particularly along the Genesee valley. The forest trees of this county are, in the north part, the beech, maple, hemlock and elm, with some oak. In the southern portion, pine, basswood and ash.

The principal crops are oats, wheat, potatoes, corn, flax, barley, peas and buckwheat.

*

Among the most singular of these forms are masses, weighing from ten to three hundred pounds, bearing a striking resemblance, in form, to the turtle. Their homogeneous structure, and some peculiarities in their form, preclude the supposition that they are fossil animal remains.

PURSUITS. Agriculture is the principal pursuit. The eastern

and northern towns are largely engaged in the culture of grain, particularly wheat and oats. The southern towns are better adapted to grazing.

Manufactures are increasing in the county, but as yet are in their infancy. Flour, leather, lumber, pot and pearl ashes, and woollen goods are the principal articles. The entire value of the goods manufactured in the county, in 1845, was estimated at $412,000.

There are no mines or quarries, of importance, in the county. The Genesee river canal, affords a convenient mode of transportation for the produce of the eastern towns of the county. STAPLE PRODUCTIONS. Oats, wheat, potatoes, butter, cheese, wool, beef, pork and lumber.

SCHOOLS. There were, in 1846, 198 district schools, in this county. The average amount of instruction given in these was eight months. 20,479 volumes were reported in the district school libraries; and $12,946 was the amount paid for the instruction of 11,517 children.

There were also eight private and select schools, with 220 pupils, in the county, and three incorporated seminaries, with 132 students.

RELIGIOUS DENOMINATIONS. Baptists, Methodists, Presbyterians, Congregationalists, Universalists, Episcopalians, Roman Catholics and Dutch Reformed. There are in the county fiftyfour churches and sixty-four clergymen, of all denominations.

HISTORY. The first settler in this county was Mr. Elizur Webster, who removed from New England, and settled in the present town of Warsaw, in 1803. His daughter, (now the wife of Hon. A. W. Young of this county,) was the first child born in the county. Many of the early settlers were from Washington and the adjacent counties in Vermont. These generally settled in the vicinity of Warsaw.

As a part of the Genesee valley, its fertility attracted a host of emigrants to its borders, and though the youngest county in the state in its organization, it occupies a middle rank in population. Much of the land was formerly owned by the Holland Land Company, but it has, within a few years been very generally purchased by actual settlers.

The Gardeau tract, or flats, was a tract of about 10,000 acres, lying on the Genesee river, partly in the town of Castile, which the Indians reserved in a treaty with Robert Morris, in 1797, as a gift to the Seneca white woman, Mary Jemison.*

Wyoming county formed part of Genesee county, till 1841, when it was organized as a separate county, and, in 1846, the towns of Eagle and Pike, and that portion of Portage lying west of Genesee river, wer taken from Allegany county and annexed to it. The last town received the name of Genesee Falls.

VILLAGES, &C. WARSAW, the county seat, in the town of the same name, was settled by emigrants from New England, who were highly intelligent and religious, and to this day it is characterized by the intelligence and morality of its inhabitants. It is situated in the midst of a fine agricultural district, and has some manufactures. The first church edifice erected west of the Genesee river, was standing in Warsaw a few years since. Popu a ion 200.

Perry is a thriving and busy town, considerably engaged in manufactures. Tere ar two villages in the town, Perry and Perry Centre. 'I here is an academy at Perry, of some note, and a number of manufacturing establishments. Population 1200. At Perry Centre a literary institution, called the Perry Centre Institute, has recently been established.

Middlebury has a flourishing academy, incorporated in 1817, located in the village of Wyoming, which is situate in a pleasant valley, and has a population of about 600.

Genesee Falls, in the town of the same name, formerly called Por geville, is situated at the falls of the Genesee river, one of the ost romantic and interesting locations in western New York. In the space of two niles there are three distinct falls, of 60, 90, and 110 feet, each possessing beauties of a character peculiar to itself. The banks of the river tower up in stupendous perpendicular walls, more than 400 feet in height, and are crowned with gigantic evergreens, which, from their venerable appearance, seem to have maintained their position for ages.

Notwithstanding the immense depth to which the bed of the river has been worn, its turns are short and graceful, giving the admiring visitor new, though limited views, at every stage of his progress.

In June, 1817, a land slide of about fifteen acres took place from the side of a hill in this town, into the river, which for some time completely dammed it, leaving a perpendicular bank more than 100 feet in height.

The hydraulic power furnished by the falls of the Genesee, is improved to a considerable extent. Population 800.

STATISTICAL TABLES.

Agricultural and Horticultural Products,

Peas. Beans. Potatoes. Turnips. Flax.

208,254 624,039 183,274 120,978
101,140

172,713 331,425 75,019 1,032

104,562 40,148 241,205 597,508 70,803

22,464 114,911

114,570 37,998

25,823 6,601

29,246 4,266

2,653 1,092

415,035

12,812 32,182

12,237 1,276 259,364

25,075 101,344

3,783

550 467,582 30,152 30,110

863