EXTINCTION OF LAKE WARREN HYPER-IROQUOIS WATERS 55 



found here an outlet lower than its old one westward across Michigan to 

 the Mississippi. Its western flow, that had been sustained perhaps some 

 thousands of years, was by the removal of the ice-dam in this region 

 slowly reversed and shifted to the east toward the Mohawk-Hudson. 

 This was the end of lake Warren proper. For the similar body of 

 water, but with falling surface and diminishing area, Avhich found lower 

 and lower outlets eastward along the ice-front, we can have no specific 

 name, but using a generic term may speak of it as the hyper-Iroquois 

 waters. 



The Warren overflow into the Otisco valley would have been quickly 

 checked if some eastward outlet were not provided. This is found in 

 another rock gorge, which we call the Cedarvale channel, that leads 

 southeast from Marcellus to the Onondaga valley. A great part of the 

 excavation of this gorge was done pari jmssio with the cutting of the Gulf 

 and by the same water, but the initial height of the outlet must have 

 been less than the height of lake Warren. 



It seems probable that the Warren waters had obtained access to the 

 Otisco valley, and even to the Onondaga valle}', before the lower passes 

 further east were opened ; in other words, the ice barrier was removed 

 from the pass at Sheppards Settlement before it was lifted from the passes 

 south or southeast of Syracuse. This succession of events would account 

 for the absence of scourways, below 900 feet elevation, across the north- 

 and-south ridge west of the head of the Gulf. When the lower eastern 

 escape was finally opened, probably by the channels near Jamesville. 

 the Warren waters in the Otisco and Onondaga valleys quietly fell until 

 the Gulf outlet became effective, the waters entering from the north by 

 two valleys separated by a drumlin ridge, the eastern of the two valleys 

 eventually taking all the overflow. Theoreticall}^ the Warren waters 

 entered this region with an elevation more than 880 feet. Evidence 

 of erosion at near this level appears in a cliff on the west side of the 

 valley one mile south of the intake, which has the appearance of stream 

 cutting. This is near Mud pond. On the east side of the channel, 

 at the east-and-westroad one-half mile below the intake, is a gravel jjlain 

 at 880 ± feet, which is probably a floodplain of the early river. 



The body of water held in the Marcellus section of the Otisco valley 

 during the life of the Gulf river we will call the Marcellus lake, it being 

 the third glacial lake of the valle.y. The surface elevation of this water 

 was determined by the heights of the Cedarvale outlet. The down-cutting 

 of this outlet during the life of the Marcellus lake will account for the 

 succession of terraces on the Gulf delta, south of Marcellus, ranging from 

 860 down to 800 feet, and for the several stream-cut cliffs on the south- 



