1883.] NATURAL SCIENCES OF PHILADELPHIA. 25 T 



NOTES ON GLACIAL ACTION IN NORTHERN NEW YORK AND CANADA. 

 BY JOSEPH WILLCOX. 



In a former communication I have noted some results from 

 glacial action in northern New York and Canada. I have recently 

 observed some other matters connected with the same action, in 

 that region, viz., in Lewis, Jefferson and St. Lawrence Counties 

 in New York, and in Canada, for a distance of one hundred and 

 twenty-five miles north of the St. Lawrence River. 



In this territory all the original soil appears to have been 

 removed by glacial action, and that which now remains there has 

 been deposited b^' the receding glacier. It is thinly distributed, 

 seldom being many feet in depth ; while, in man}' cases, the rocks 

 have no soil upon them. All the rocks are extensively eroded, 

 and those which are durable still remain smooth — both above the 

 ground and underneath — wherever I have seen the soil removed. 



In the country south of the great terminal moraine, which 

 extends across our continent, the soil is usually deep, especially 

 in our Southern States. The top of the rocks, under this deep 

 soil, is ordinarily in a state of disintegration ; and the different 

 stages of transition from hard rock to soil may easily be observed. 

 Loose stones, on top of and in the soil, are more or less decom- 

 posed on their surface, relinquishing their substance slowly, as 

 new virgin soil, for the needs of vegetation. Where the country 

 has been extensively^ glaciated, this condition of the rocks and 

 stones does not exist, the soft portion of them having been 

 removed by attrition, and, since the glacial times, little disinte- 

 gratien of the surface of the granite and Pottsdam sandstone has 

 occurred. 



If the great ice sheet should have receded north speedily' , by 

 rapid melting, less material would, of course, be deposited on the 

 ground, than in the case of a slow retrogression. In the former 

 case little would be deposited, in any locality, except what was 

 already on the ground, in the process of transportation. 



Taking the country north of Philadelphia as illustrating prob- 

 ably the conditions prevailing elsewhere within the glaciated area, 

 I have observed that north of the great terminal moraine a large 



