The History of Cayuga County 1789-1879 page 359
Town of Springport / Geological Formation

respectively five and three acres, thus furnishing a valuable water power. The rise of water in the larger one has been observed to vary from three-fourths to two and one-fourth inches per hour.

These springs, from their copiousness and remarkable situation, have given rise to various theories respecting their source. "While some," says Edward A. Thomas, "have surmised that they came from Owasco Lake, which is several hundred feet higher than Cayuga, others have assigned their origin to still stranger causes. Skillful geologists assert that the formation of rocks is such as to render it utterly impossible for a stream to pass underground from Owasco to Cayuga Lake. But from several places, from two to four miles east of Cayuga Lake, and about forty-five feet underground, large streams have been discovered, which were running from east to west." To the east of the principal plaster quarries are sinks, some of them covering an acre in area, and some apparently very old. The surface of some of them has been observed to subside several feet within a period of twenty-five years, while others have originated within twenty years. The original field notes of the survey of the Cayuga Reservation, state that a stream in the locality, but to the east of these sinks, disappeared in the rocks. No stream exists in the locality at present, but the presence of water-worn limestone rocks indicate its previous existence. The disappearance of this stream is made to account theoretically for these surface depressions, by the wearing away of salt rock underlying the plaster formation. Saline, sulphur and chalybeate springs also exist. There is a salt spring on the old Hope place, in Union Springs. Three or four wells have been sunk and a good brine obtained, but not of sufficient strength to compete with the salines at Syracuse. On the place of Alex. Howland, a little south of the salt spring, is an unfailing sulphur spring of considerable strength, the water of which has been used quite extensively for its supposed curative properties. A little south of the railroad depot in Union Springs is another sulphur spring of great strength. All the water come in contact with in the plaster quarries is strongly impregnated with sulphur, and many wells sunk in the village have been abandoned in consequence of the presence of sulphur and brine. Usually, however, no difficulty is experienced in obtaining water free from these elements from the shore, though all the water is strongly charged with lime. In the basement of Spencer's foundry is a chalybeate spring of considerable strength.

Upon the lake, between Yawger's Point and the main land, is a marsh covering some five acres, covered with a growth of hibiscus, (II. Moscheutos) whose large reddish blossoms present a gorgeous sight from midsummer to early fall. Though not confined to, it is often very abundant in brackish marshes and the vicinity of salt springs, and its presence there may be considered an indication of saline properties in that locality.

The soil of this town is a superior quality of sandy and gravelly loam, intermixed in places with clay, and this and the climate, whose severity in winter is modified by the warmth imparted by the waters of the lake, which rarely freezes, admirably adapt it to fruit culture, to which considerable attention is paid.

The Cayuga Lake Shore Railroad extends through the town, along the shore of the lake, and this, together with its facilities for lake transportation, render it easily accesible, and open up ready markets for its manufactures and farm products.

The area of the town in 1875, was 13,107 acres; of which 11,885 were improved; and 1,222 woodland. Its population was 2,179; of whom 1,908 were native; 271 foreign; 2,160 white; and 19 colored.

This town lies wholly within the reservation made by the Cayugas in 1789, when they ceded to the State their lands within its limits; and on lot 85, about one and one-half miles north of Union Springs, is the site of their principal village, variously named in the different dialects of the Iroquois, Goi-o-gouen, On-ne-io-te, and Gwa-u-gwah, from the original Huron word Oyngoua, signifying tobacco, and the seat of the mission of St. Joseph, established by Father Etienne de Carheil, a French Jesuit, November 6th, 1668. "The mural remains in the vicinity indicate," says John S. Clark, "that the village extended a mile back from the lake, and as far north as the stream north of the Richardson house; the relics indicating the most ancient residences are found on both sides of the railroad south of the Backus plaster mill, where there was an exten-

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