194 THE CANADIAN NATURALIST. [Vol. viii. 



now claims consideration. In the passage above quoted from 

 the Geology of Ohio, mention is made of the existence of a buried 

 channel between Lake Ontario and the Hudson River through, 

 the valley of the Mohawk. Many years ago, in the course of the 

 Geological Survey of New York, the facts were discovered ou 

 which this opinion is based. They prove the existence of a deep 

 drift-filled and therefore pre-glacial channel near Syracuse, in the 

 course of which channel lies Lake Onondaga. 



" Onondaga Lake is the remains of an ancient and deep exca- 

 vation in the Onondaga salt group, of which Onondaga valley 

 forms the southern part, all of which has been filled up with 

 sand and gravel except the part occupied by the lake." Geology 

 of New York, Third District, p. 241. 



Professor Newberry says : " The long level of the Erie canal 

 between Utica and Rome lies in the old partially filled valley of 

 the Mohawk." Geology of Ohio, 1874, p. 16. 



In this channel are bored the Salina salt wells, the deepest of 

 which extends 414 feet below the level of the lake, and it is not 

 certain that the rock was reached in this.* 



Dr. Newberry says : " The rocky bottom of the valley of the 

 Mohawk is far below the surface — how far is not known, as it 

 has never been readied" 



These figures warrant the couclusion that there exists a buried 

 channel leading south-east from some point in the Ontarian val- 

 ley near Oswego to Lake Onondaga and thence eastward towards 

 Rome and Utica in the valley of the Mohawk. Beyond this 

 point it has not been investigated, but there can be little doubt 

 of its communicating by the valley of the Mohawk with that of 

 the Hudson somewhere near Albany. It is also reasonable to 



* Geology of Ohio, Vol. II, p. 16. Here by an error the surface 

 of the lake is put at 274 feet above the Atlantic. But as the survey 

 of New York shews a fall of 66 feet in the upper Niagara rapids, 160 

 feet at the Falls, and 104 feet in the lower rapids, or 330 feet in all, 

 it is evident that the surface of Lake Ontario must be 235 feet only 

 above the ocean. The Survey of Canada also (1863, p. 10) gives the 

 fall from the Lake to the Atlantic 232 feet, a discrepancy of only 3 

 feet. By another error we are here told that at 414 feet below the 

 lake-level, we are only 50 feet below the sea-level, whereas if 234 be 

 subtracted from 414, the difference shews that we must be 180 feet 

 below the surface of the Atlantic. It is difficult to discover which of 

 the given data is wrong — the depth below the lake or that below the 

 ocean. 



