00 II. L. FAIRCIIILD GLACIAL WATERS IX FINGER LAKER REGION 



Standing on tlie delta it is seen, mucli more plainly than the above 

 figures indicate, tliat the several terraces fall under three general levels. 

 The highest, HIK) feet and downward ; the middle, 770 feet and downward, 

 and the lower from 680 feet downward to, perhaps, 500 feet. These three 

 levels correlate with east and west rock channels that drained the Onon- 

 daga Valley waters eastward into Butternut valle}^, and which may now 

 be ver}' briefly described. The channels are shown in figure 1, page 54. 



CHANNELS NEAR JAMES I'lLLE 



The highest of these old waterwa3'S heads about one mile northeast 

 of Onondaga Castle postoflfice and leads east over two miles, to the But- 

 ternut valle}^ south of Janiesville, and opposite the reservoir, after 

 which, in default of a better name, we will call it the Reservoir channel 

 (plate 7). At the divide the channel is cut about 100 feet in INIarcellus 

 shale, with a floor width of about 30 rods (plate 7, figure 1). Land of 

 Mr Charles Byrnes forms the north wall of the cut at the divide, which 

 is given an elevation on the unpublished Tull}^ sheet between 840 and 

 860 feet. At the edge of the Butternut valley the descending channel 

 reaches the limestone, and the ancient river had a cataract there of 40 or 

 50 feet descent. 



In the earlier work of this river it made a southward loop around a 

 great drumlin mass, and during most of the life of the river the drumlin 

 was probably an island. The loop channel forms more than half a circle 

 three-fourths of a mile in diameter, is of excellent form and of interest- 

 ing relation to the more direct waterway (plate 7, figure 2). 



About one mile north of the Reservoir channel is another scourway 

 across the high ground having a summit elevation of about 760 feet. 

 This becomes about a mile north of west of Jamesville a gorge in the 

 limestone headed by a semicircular cataract cliff 160 feet high and 400 

 feet across the amphitheater (plate 9, figure 1). In the depression ex- 

 cavated by tiie falling water lies Green lake, 60 feet deep. Professor 

 Quereau has named the gorge the Jamesville gorge and renamed the 

 lake Jamesville lake.* 



The third and lowest of this set of channels (plate 8) lies a little over 

 one-half mile north of the Jamesville gorge. In its altitude, form, 

 preservation of features, and accessibility to observation, it is the hand- 

 somest glacial lake outlet channel in the State. The western end of the 

 channel (plate 8, figure 1) is three miles southeast of the center of the 



*This chiinnel, with its singular cataract phenomena, has been described by Professor E. C. 

 Quereau, in a paper entitled "Topography and History of Jamesville Lake, N. Y. " : Bull. Geol. 

 Soc. Am., vol. 9, p. 173. In this paper he also describes briefly the general topojrraphy nt tin' re- 

 gion and the relation of the postglacial channels to the preglaeial valleys. 



