ST. LAWRENCE SYSTEM. 



201 



GENESEE DRAINAGE BASIN. 



GENESEE RIVER. 



Genesee River, which forms the east boundary of the region under dis 

 cussion, rises in the Allegheny 

 Mountains in northern Pennsyl- 

 vania and flows northward across 

 western New York, entering Lake 

 Ontario a few miles north of the 

 city of Rochester. The accom- 

 panying map (fig. 8), prepared by 

 Fairchild, shows the leading fea- 

 tures. The drainage basin is about 

 100 miles long and perhaps 40 

 miles wide. It is broadest in the 

 northern half, the southern end for 

 a distance of about 35 miles from 

 the head of the basin being but 10 

 to 20 miles wide. The area of the 

 drainage basin is estimated by Raf- 

 ter to be 2,445 square miles.^ 



The upland surface at the head 

 of this drainage system attains an 

 altitude of about 2,500 feet, but 

 there are passes connecting the 

 headwaters of the Genesee with the 

 headwaters of the Allegheny and 

 with branches of the Susquehanna 

 that are 250 to 400 feet lower than 

 the high uplands. One of these 

 near Bingham, Pa., is 2,174 feet; 

 another near Ulysses is 2,252 feet; 

 and one near Gold is 2,228 feet 

 (Fairchild). There is a still lower 

 pass (2,068 feet) connecting the 

 West Bi'anch of Genesee River with the head of Oswayo Creek, a tributary 



Fig. S.— Hydrography of the Genesee Valley, by H. L. Fairchild. 

 This map is reproduced from Fairchild's paper in the Bulletin 

 of the Geological Society of America, Vol. VII, 1895, PI. XIX. 

 Water partings are shown by heavy broken lines. Glacial lake 

 outlets are indicated by bars transverse to the water parting. 

 Figures indicate altitude above mean tide. 



' Water-Supply Paper U. S. Gaol. Survey No. 24, 1899, p. 26. 



