the top of the embankment, and the other in the ditch,- soiae
twelve-feet distant. .There are'Scarcely any'tracer remaining
of the fortification described by MqAuley as being iii the
northeast part of Auburn, from the fact that the ground uptfn.
which it stood has beeri under1 cultivation for many years,
(See page 19%-et. seq.);;
ACCOUNT QF FORT HILL, LE R O t .^
The following letter is from Frederick Follet, Esq., of
Batavia, who visited the ancient förtificatioiïbè describes/ ip
the fall of; 184£.
- The ground known as Fort hill, is situated about three
miles north of the village of Ee Roy, and tenfottivelye miles
northeast-from Batavia,-»the. capitalvof Genesee county, The
better view of Fort bill, is1 had to the north- of it, about a
quarter of a mile, on the-roa^l leading from Bergen,• to Le
' Roy. From this point o f observation it .heeds|little '-aicböf
the imagination tO'Uonèèive that it was erected as a fortific^
tion by p large and powerful arfny, looking for a pérmahént
and almost inaccessible-bulwark’of-defence. From the
treof tfre hill, in the northwesterly, course, ■ the country lies
quite flat— immediately n®$h, and inclining.1 to-the.-ëast, the
land is also lével for one hundred rods, when it rises Pearly -
as high as the hill, and continues lor -several miles quite elevated.
In approaching the hill fropa the north it «stands very
prominently before* you, risjhg rather abruptly, though h o f
perpendicularly, to the height of eighty or ninety^feef, £x- ^
tending about forty rqds oil a lipe east and west, the coftfertf
being round or'truncated, and continuing to* the south on thé
west side for some sixty rods, and on the east side/for about
half a mile* maintaining about, the same élevatióh at the-sides
as in front; beyond which distance the line of the hill is that
.of the land around. 1
Fort; hill., however, is not a work of art* "f he. geoiogioal
character of it shows it- to - be the^ result of natural causes^
Nevertheless, there are undoubted evidences of its once having
been uescirted to asafortification, and of its having constituted
a valuable point of defence to a rude and half civilized
people; u ;
It is probable that .|t a period of time very far distant, the.
ground about Fort hill Was, for some considerable distance
around, entirely of the same level, and that by the action of
water, a change took place, whieh Brought about the present
condition. -The low land immediately in front to the north,
«is'only the remains .of a Water course-, which was made up of
a stream coming down the .gorge of the west side, and the
present Abends, creek, which «flows through a portion of the
gorge of the east'side,' the stream of the west having been
a branch of that of the east side. Through the west gorge
now flows,.-in a wet season, a moderate stream, coming from
the lands above the gorge, afrd having 4n interrupted fall of
some forty or fifty.feet; while Allen’s creek occuptes-a portion
of the eastern gorge, much broader, at the extremity of
which,.some -half a mile from the hill, there is a beautiful fall
'of eighty feet perpendicularly. The structure of the hill bears
out this construction; it being composed of the same rock—
with -the exception of the upper strata—as the falls. At the
falfe the upper strata of rock, and: that which forms the bed
©f .the creek for some’two miles or-more east, is tfre comjfe-
rms limestone; underlaying which wee.hydraulic and Onon-
daga limestones. The two latter« are only seen at Fort hill,
covered by a,few feet of soil and several small masses of stone,
a part out of place, among which are a few o f Medina sand-
done. "The strata are, therefore,- continuous from the falls,
and at some-former "-periods, extended over the gorges, and
• formed m regular and nearly level surface, the action of water
having, removed, which has-left the broad and conspicuous
point of - Fort 'hill, as memorable monuments of the earlier
condition of “the country. «■
-When Fprt hilLwas-used as a fortification., the summit was
entrenched: -i Forty years ago, an entrenchment ten feet deep
62