The vast advantages derived from the navigable lakes, river, and creeks, which intersect and run through every part of this tract of country, affording a water communication from the northern parts of the grant by the Genesee river one way, orby the Seneca river another way into the great lake Ontario, and from thence by Cataraqui,to Quebec, orby the said Seneca riyer,the Oneida lake, and Wood creek, to Schenectady on the Mohawk river, with • only a short land carriage, and from thence to Albany,with a portage of 16 miles ; affording also a water communication from almost every township of the southern part of the grant, by means of the different branches of the Tioga river, which joining the Susquehanna affords an outlet to produce, through an immense extent of country on e-very hand, to Northumberland, and all tlie towns upon the

WESTERN NEW-YORK. 1113

great branch of this river, down to Maryland and Virginia : and (with a portage of 12 miles) even to Philadelphia with small boats ; and when 'the unprovements are made in the Susquehannah, and the projected canal cut between the Schuylkill and that river ; there will be an uninterrupted good water communication for boats of 10 or 15 tons from the interior parts of the Genesee country, all the way to Philadelphia. 12. But above all, the uncommon benefits these lands derive from the vicinity to the thick settled countries in New-York and New-England governments on the one hand, and Northumberland county in Pennsylvania on the other, from all which quarters, from the great advantages that are held out, there must be an overflow of emigrants every year, until these lands are fully settled : which expectation is already completely evinced, from the rapid population that has taken place on the east boundaries of the grant upon the Tioga river, and between the Seneca and Cayuga lakes, up to lake Ontario,* where, in the course of three or four years, above 800 families have fixed themselves in this fertile country, most of \vhom having emigrated from the eastern states of New-England, New-York and Pennsylvania, have all the advantages which are to be derived from a perfect knowledge of the country, and from that kind of education and local resource, which soon renders the situation of a new settler comfortable and happy, enabling them, at the same time, to assist new comers, who may be less acquainted with the nature of the country.