664, REPORT— 1897. 



2. Glacial Geology of Western Neiv York.^ 

 By Herman LeRoy Fairchild, B.Sc. 



The glacial and glacio-lacustrine phenomena of Western New York are 

 remarkable for range and variety as well as for their excellent and typical develop- 

 ment. The relation of the stratigraphy, topography and altitude of the area, with 

 the effects of static waters and the retreating ice sheet have produced various, 

 interesting features. The retreatal moraines lie in two systems, conforming to 

 the ice bodies in the Erie and the Ontario basins. Drumlins are displayed in 

 profusion and of great variety. They are mostly of elongated form, and support 

 the theory of their origin as constructional forms of the ground moraine. Eskers 

 are few, but of typical character, while kames are well developed, some of the 

 kame areas being of great extent and mass. 



The pre-Laurentian glacial waters have left an interesting series of well-developed 

 shore lines. These belong to the stages known as Lake Warren and Lake L-oquois 

 and the .intermediate falling waters. A differential post-glacial uplift of the 

 region has produced deformation of the shore lines. The remarkable series of 

 parallel valleys holding the several lakes known collectively as the ' Finger ' lakes 

 produced a lobina: of the retreating ice front, a localising of the moraines, and 

 other significant modifications of the several phenomena. 



The paper was especially intended to give the non-American glacialists a brief 

 general view of the various phenomena of the interesting region. The topics, 

 briefly treated, are as follows : — Physical features, ice invasion, glacial deposits, 

 glacio-aqueous deposits, glacial lakes, morainal lakes, channels of glacial drainage, 

 post-glacial stream erosion. 



3. Second Report on Seismological Investigation. See Reports, p. 129. 



4. Earth Strains and Structure. By O. H. HowARTH. 



If we consider the case of any small suspended body subjected to external forces 

 and maintained in its position and motion by the resultant of those forces as we 

 can observe them, it is safe to draw at least parallel conclusions in the case of the 

 earth as to similar efl'ects on an extended scale. It cannot follow that because, in 

 the case of a planetary body revolving in its orbit, we have to regard those forces 

 as enormously greater in degree, and their action as extended over enormously 

 greater periods of time, we must therefore attribute their results to a class of 

 mechanical principles of which we have no cognisance. And amongst the causes 

 whose operation we find recorded in the structure of our earth, there seems obvious 

 reason to assume that the main feature, and by far the most potent, is the constant 

 variation in the balance of external strains to which such a body is subjected. If, 

 as has been admitted by several authorities, these forces bear any part at all in the 

 operations of planet-moulding, surely it follows that it must be immeasurably the 

 greatest. That they operate often silently and in a manner only observable to us 

 by indirect means, is a necessary consequence of our limited powers of perception. 



Yet it is surprising to note how large a number of visible effects — seismic, 

 volcanic and structural — seem to be clearly accounted for if we apply on the 

 greater scale of creation those conceptions of dynamic action which we derive 

 from the smaller. It is because these vast developments of force are continually 

 balancing and counteracting each other, and hence create no general cataclysm, 

 that the continuity of their action may escape our observation. But if we realise 

 proportitmately the tremendous pressures and the no less tremendous relaxa- 

 tions of pressure under which this ceaseless ' kneading ' action proceeds, we must 

 see that the parallel results obtained in a small-scale experiment, however 

 inexact the imitation may be in detail, offer a comparison by no means so 



• Published i-i extenso in the Geological Magazine, 1897, Dec. 4, iv. p. 629. 



