GLACIAL POT-HOLES AT CROWN POINT, NEW YORK 
E. EUGENE BARKER 
Cornell University 
Glacial pot-holes have been described from various parts of the 
glaciated regions of North America and Europe. They occur 
singly or in groups, in positions unrelated to the beds of modern 
streams. Perhaps the best-known examples are in the famous 
Glacier Garden at Lucerne in Switzerland, where they are seen by 
many tourists every year. Even more remarkable than this most 
advertised occurrence is a small area on the Dalles of the St. Croix 
River near Taylor’s Falls, Minn., described in detail by Upham (31). 
He says it is “unsurpassed by any other known locality in respect 
to the variety of forms and grouping, their great number and 
extraordinary irregularity of contour.’”’ In all, there occur within 
the area not fewer than 100, large and small. 
The purpose of this note is to call attention to and describe a 
very fine specimen of glacial pot-hole that has been discovered 
recently at a place of commanding historic interest—Crown Point 
on Lake Champlain, a long promontory of horizontally bedded lime- 
stone jutting northward into the lake. Because of its great strategic 
importance this point was fortified by the French in 1731. Fort 
St. Frédéric, the stronghold they built, was captured and destroyed 
by the British under General Amherst in 1759. Immediately 
afterward, Amherst built the great star-shaped fortress with ram- 
parts extending half a mile in circumference, whose ruins now 
attract thousands of visitors annually. In the summer of 1912, 
while these ruins were being explored and reinforced by the state 
government, the pot-hole here described was discovered. 
Fig. 1 shows the pot-hole with the ruins of the soldiers’ barracks 
and a portion of the ramparts in the background. It extends toa 
depth of 14 feet 7 inches into the topmost strata of the Chazy 
limestone formation. The aperture at the surface is an irregular 
oblong measuring 6 feet 4 inches by g feet 7 inches. The longer 
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