hickory, hemlock, pine, black and white ash, &c. The southern part of the county is more heavily wooded than the northern.

PURSUITS. Agricultu. e is the principal pursuit, and the attention of the farmers is divided between the culture of grain and the rearing of ca tle. The county, however, may properly be ranked among the grain counties.

Manufactures receive some attention, particularly those of flour, lumber, leather, fulled cloths, iron, and distilled liquors. There is but one harbor on the lake, and very little commerce, nor are there any mines of importance.

THE STAPLE PRODUCTIONS of the county are wheat, oats, corn, potatoes and lumber; a considerable quantity of butter and cheese are also produced.

SCHOOLS. There are in the county 134 public schools, taught, during the year 1846, an average period of eight months. In these schools, 9841 children received instruction, at an expense for tuition of $11,226. The district libraries contained 16,895 volumes.

There were in the county the same year, sixteen private schools, with 313 pupils; three academies and one female seminary, with 330 students.

RELIGIOUS DENOMINATIONS. Methodists, Baptists, Presbyterians, Unitarians, Universalists, Episcopalians, Congregationalists, Friends, and Dutch Reformed.

There are forty-one churches, and fifty-nine clergymen, of all denominations, in the county.

HISTORY. This county was first settled by emigrants from New England. It was all included in the grant to Massachusetts; the towns of Barre, Carlton, Gaines, Ridgeway, Shelby, and Yates were comprised in the Holland Land Company's purchase; whilst Murray, Clarendon, and Kendall, belonged to the Pulteney estate.

Murray, the oldest town in the county, was organized in 1808, In a settlement so recent, there is of course little of historical interest.

In Ridgeway and its vicinity are remains of Indian fortifications.

VILLAGES. ALBION, a village in the town of Barre, is the seat of justice for the county. It is pleasantly situated upon the canal, near the centre of the county.

A flourishing female seminary is here located, and an incorporated academy. It is surrounded by a rich and fertile country, and is a neat and thriving village. Population, 1600.

Holley is a pleasant village in the town of Murray. It has some manufactures. A short distance east of the village, is the Holley embankment, one of the largest on the canal, elevated seventy-six feet above the creek. Population 400.

Medina, a thriving village in the town of Murray, was incorporated in 1832. It has some manufactures. Population, 1200. Knowlesville, in the same town, is a growing village. Population, 600.

Gaines, in the town of the same name, has an incorporated academy. Population, 700.

BOUNDARIES.

c. Catharine's. d.

North by Steuben and Tompkins; East by Tompkins and Tioga; South by the state of Pennsylvania and West by Steuben county.

SURFACE. This county forms part of the great table land extending from the counties of Ulster and Greene, to the vicinity of Lake Erie. Its mean elevation is about 1600 feet above tide water, but the northern portion declines gradually toward Seneca Lake, whose waters are but 456 feet above the level of the ocean. The streams which pass through the county divide this otherwise level surface into ridges, their banks being very high and precipitous.

RIVERS. The Chemung or Tioga river is the principal stream of the county. The other streams are, Cayuta Creek, forming part of the eastern boundary, Wynkoop, Baldwin's and Newtown Creeks, tributaries of the Chemung, and Catharine's Creek, an inlet of Seneca Lake.

LAKES. Cayuta Lake, in the northeastern part, is the only pond of importance in the county. Seneca Lake forms a portion of the northern boundary.

CANALS. The Chemung canal connects the village of Elmira with Seneca Lake.

RAILROADS. The route of the New York and Erie railroad is laid out through this county.

CLIMATE. The climate, like that of the table land generally, is cool, but salubrious. The vicinity of Seneca Lake exerts some influence in modifying it.

GEOLOGY AND MINERALS. The basis rock is secondary graywacke slate, sometimes mingled with shale, at others compact, and forming fine building stone. It is covered with a fine, close grained sandstone. In the northern part of the county are beds of limestone. The surface rocks belong to the Chemung sandstone, except a small tract around Seneca Lake, where the Helderberg limestone makes its appearance.

The mineral productions of Chemung county are few, and generally unimportant. There is some marl, in various parts of the county, and gypsum in Catharines and Catlin.

VEGETABLE PRODUCTIONS. The soil is generally fertile; the pine plains in the towns of Big Flats and Elmira, which were formerly deemed worthless, are found by the application of plaster, to yield abundant crops. The timber of the county is white pine, hemlock, spruce, oak, maple, elm, beech, ash, linden,

&c. The maple is very abundant, and yields large quantities of sugar.

The soil of the uplands is better adapted to grass than grain, but the valleys yield abundantly the various grains, peas, beans and hops.

PURSUITS. The people of the county are mostly devoted to agriculture; attention being paid to grazing in the uplands, and to the growing of grain in the more fertile valleys.

Manufactures are also increasing in importance. Flour, lumber, cloth, iron and leather, are the principal articles.

The opening of a navigable communication between the Hudson and Susquehanna, through the Seneca Lake and Erie canal, by means of the Chemung canal, has opened a market to the inhabitants of Chemung county, and been productive of extensive inland commerce.

The Corning and Blossburg railroad, which pours a portion of the mineral wealth of Pennsylvania into New York, has also been of great advantage to the county.

STAPLE PRODUCTIONS. Oats, wheat, corn, buckwheat, butter, and cheese.

SCHOOLS. There are in the county 128 schools, maintained during the year 1846, an average period of seven months, affording instruction to 7962 children, at an expense for tuition of $10,336. The district libraries contained 12,197 volumes.

There were in the county, the same year, twenty-four unincorporated private schools, with 283 scholars, and one academy and one female seminary, with 134 pupils.

RELIGIOUS DENOMINATIONS. Methodists, Presbyterians, Baptists, Episcopalians, and Friends. There are twenty-six churches, and forty-one clergymen, of all denominations.

HISTORY. The first white settlers in this county located in Elmira, Southport and Big Flats, between 1786 and 1792, having become acquainted with the country while engaged in General Sullivan's expedition, in 1779. They were mostly from Pennsylvania, and from Orange county in this state. Catlin, Catharines, and Veteran, were settled soon after, by emigrants from Connecticut; Erin by Dutch and Scotch emigrants from New Jersey and Delaware county; and Chemung by emigrants from Lancaster county, Pennsylvania. During General Sullivan's campaign in 1779, of which we have spoken in the historical sketch of the state, he encountered the enemy's force, consisting of somewhat more than 1000 Indians and tories, under Brant and Colonels Butler and Johnson, at Elmira, in this county. The battle which ensued, called "the battle of the Chemung," was a severe and bloody one. It terminated in the defeat of the enemy, and the destruction of their towns. The land in this

county was sold to the settlers, in 1788, at eighteen cents per

acre.

VILLAGES, &C. ELMIRA, the county seat, is admirably situated for the purposes of trade, being in the midst of a fertile valley of considerable extent, and connected with Pennsylvania and Maryland, by means of the Susquehanna river, and with almost every part of New York, by the Chemung canal. It is also on the route of the New York and Erie railroad, and from its commercial facilities, must eventually become a place of considerable importance. The first settler in the town was Colonel John Hendy, a veteran who had served under General Sullivan. He united, in a remarkable degree, extraordinary courage and great physical power, and in his conflicts with the Indians, often exhibited both. Population, 3300.

In 1790, a treaty was negotiated at this place between the Indian tribes and the United States. Over 1000 Indians were present, and among them most of the principal chiefs. In 1797, Elmira was visited by Louis Phillippe, the present king of the French, accompanied by the Duke de Nemours, and the Duke de Berri. They had travelled on foot from Canandaigua to Elmira, a distance of seventy miles. Mr. Tower, whom they visited, fitted up an ark or flat boat, on board which he conveyed them to Harrisburg.

The village has an incorporated academy and female seminary, both in a prosperous condition. There is also a mechanics' association, which has a commodious hall and a public library.

It is largely engaged in the manufacture and exportation of lumber, ten million feet of marketable planks and boards being exported annually.

Chemung, the earliest organized town in the county, has a hilly and broken surface, but much of it is fertile. In the south part of the town, is a mound called "Spanish hill," which but for its extent might be considered a work of art. It is elevated 110 feet above and near the river's brink, and has upon its summit vestiges of fortifications which display much skill and judgment. The entrenchments are regular and command the bed of the river. By whom they were constructed is unknown.

Catharines, one of the early settled towns, was named after Catharine Montour, the wife of an Indian sachem. This extraordinary woman was a native of Canada, a half breed, and had been carried into the Seneca country when only ten years of age, and adopted by one of its families. She possessed a good address and had great influence with her tribe, frequently accompanying the chiefs to Philadelphia and other places where treaties were made. Her town, consisting of thirty houses and