SOILS OF NEW YORK 107 



flank of the Adirondack Mountain region in lower 

 Lewis, northwestern Oneida and eastern Oswego 

 counties where the Hudson Eiver and Medina shales 

 and sandstone furnish the bulk of the material. In 

 general, the soils are quite stony. The resistant 

 sandstone contributes bowlders that strew the fields 

 and in the cleared areas have been built into fences. 

 The elevation ranges from 1800 feet in the Lewis 

 County portion down to 600 or 700 feet at the lower 

 limit in Oneida and Oswego counties. A large part 

 of the series is in timber and bears a heavy native 

 growth of hemlock, spruce and a few hardwood trees 

 of maple, beach and elm. In the more accessible 

 parts, the timber has been removed and the land 

 remains in birch slashes with a mixture of more 

 useful species. Farm conditions are rather back- 

 ward and decadent. None of the common crops 

 makes an especially good gro^\d:h. 



A rather quiet lake at some time covered large 

 areas in the St. Lawrence and Champlain valleys. 

 The low rock structure, especially in the former re- 

 gion, was covered by an extensive glacial lake and 

 the sediment laid down over the surface formed a 

 thin covering on the high points and deep deposits 

 in the hollows. In western Jefferson and St. Law- 

 rence counties, innumerable masses of igneous rock 

 and a few limestone ridges protrude through the 

 lake deposits, which condition is well illustrated by 

 the Thousand Island region. 



These lake deposits form the Vergennes series and 

 closely associated with them on the mountain side 



