1886-1 "^" [Branner. 



Drift in the South-west End op the Valley. 



Having had no opportunity for examining the drift hetween Scranton 

 and Wilkes-Barre, I shall pass over this part of the valley, and speak of 

 its south-western extremity. 



The great body of the drift in this end of the valley, especially between 

 Nanticoke and the water-shed that crosses it two and a half miles above 

 Mocanaqua, lies below the elevation of the gap in the water-shed. Most of 

 this drift is assorted. The largest and mo9t interesting kames in the whole 

 valley, as might have been expected, are found in the vicinity of Nanti- 

 coke.* Two of these were cut into in making the Newport colliery branch 

 of the Susquehanna Coal Company's railway, one opposite the bridge of 

 the Lehigh and Susquehanna railway over Newport creek, the other three- 

 quarters of a mile further up Newport creek. The horizontal stratifica- 

 tion of the material forming the kames south-west of Naticoke, and par- 

 ticularly those about the Newport colliery, show an absence of any strong 

 current in the waters by and in which it was deposited. The sand of these 

 kames shows, by the presence of much coal in it, that a large part of the 

 material is near its original source. Here may also be seen good examples 

 of distorted bands or strata of sand lying between straight or horizontal 

 ones. 



The distribution of assorted drift throughout this end of the basin, from 

 Nanticoke to the gaps in the watershed, seems to show that the water 

 was once backed into this space by a dam, or gorge, in the Susquehanna 

 at, or below the Naticoke water gap. The topography and the disposition 

 of the drift also, indicate that the water was backed into this end of the 

 basin, and that some of it, at least, flowed over the water-shed at the gaps 

 already mentioned, and reached the river below Mocanaqua, by the way 

 of Black creek and Turtle run. The valley through which Black creek 

 runs is too narrow, and its fall too great to permit the accumulation of 

 much drift along the stream, and as a matter of fact but little has been 

 left along it above where it passes the conglomerate ledge. Below the ledge 

 and between the West End breaker, and where the Mountain Inn road 

 turns off to the east, are some very large kames. 



Kettle-holes. 



But few kettle-holes have been observed, and it is probable that the nar- 

 rowness of the valley through which the glacial floods were obliged to pass 

 has caused most of them to be filled up or otherwise obliterated. The half 

 dozen observed are all small. One of them is in the town of Jermyn, 

 just north of the school-house, and is now partly filled with water. 

 Another smaller one is south of, and about a thousand feet from the resi- 

 dence of Mr. Richmond, of Richmond Hill farm, near Providence. Three 



* In making this statement it is possible that I should make an exception of 

 the kames in the vicinity of Pittston, which I have had no opportunity of ex- 

 amining. 



