TRIBUTARIES OF LAKE ERIE. 211 



feet and the other still lower. He has not traced out the lines of discharge 

 for these lower water levels, but supposes them to be on the western border 

 of the valley. As indicated above, the lake in this valley received for a 

 time the outflow from the Second Warsaw Lake in the Oatka Valley. 



TRIBUTARIES OF LAKE ERIE. 



The present southern and western tributaries of Lake Erie drain about 

 12,000 square miles in northern Ohio, about 1,000 square miles in north- 

 eastern Indiana, about 600 square miles in northwestern Pennsylvania, and 

 about 1,500 square miles in southwestern New York. This embraces but a 

 small part of the area that was tributary to the Lake Erie Basin in pre- 

 glacial times. As i]\dicated above (pp. 127-148), the present Alleghenv 

 system of drainage is made up of independent preglacial lines which 

 entered the Lake Erie Basin by three or more distinct lines of discharge. 

 Indeed, the entire drainage of the present Ohio in western Pennsylvania 

 and eastern Ohio, with adjacent jjarts of West Virginia, appears to have dis- 

 charged into the Lake Erie Basin. Possibly the old Kanawha, with much 

 of the Muskingum drainage Hbasin, was formerly tributary to the Lake Erie 

 Basin, though, as already indicated, the evidence is somewhat in question. 



In the present discussion the several southern tributaries of Lake Erie 

 are taken up in order, beginning at the east and passing westward to the 

 western end of the lake. 



BUFFALO CREEK. 



Buffalo Creek, which enters Lake Erie in the southern part of the city 

 of Buffalo, constitutes a line of discharge for several small streams which 

 head in the elevated uplands of southeastern Erie and western Wyoming 

 counties, N. Y. These small streams lead northward through preglacial 

 valleys into the lowlands that lie south of the Corniferous escarpment, but 

 on the lowlands their courses appear to be largely independent of preglacial 

 lines. Borings in the vicinity of Buffalo have brought to light a preglacial 

 channel occupied for a few miles by Buffalo Creek, whose rock bottom is 

 about 80 feet below the surface of Lake Erie.^ What proportion of the 

 present drainage basin of Buffalo Creek discharged through this preglacial 

 line has not been determined. It is probable, however, that the eastern 



'See Pohlman: Proc. Am. Assoc. Adv. Sci., Vol. XXXII, 1883; also Trans. Am. Inst. Min. Eng., 

 Vol. XVII, 1889. 



