10 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



I 



Till of the lowlands 



In the low district, below 900 feet in elevation, there are several 

 areas which appear to be distinctly of an ice-laid character; the 

 general distribution of erratics over the surface, and the frequent 

 occurrence of elongated, low hills with wave-washed drift, are 

 evidence that the surface was originally, or at least when the 

 ice sheet disappeared, supplied with an abundant ground moraine 

 of a somewhat diversified relief. 



Probable drumlins. In the eastern part of the town of Mooers, 

 there are several low, oval-shaped hills, about half a mile long at 

 the base and extending from east of north to west of south, 

 whose general appearance recalls that of the drumlins of Massa- 

 chusetts except that the summits and frequently the slopes of 

 these hills are ribbed with beaches or strewn with wave-washed 

 material. These hills lie between the 240 foot level and that of 

 o40 feet, and they rise about 50 feet above the ground at their 

 base. There are three good examples northwest of Mooers Junc- 

 tion, each with beaches on its western slope. The eastern slope 

 of these three hills is decidedly glacial in appearance, strewn with 

 large and small erratics without distinct marks of wave erosion. 

 No cuts have been made in them except for one north of Sperry 

 brook and within a mile of the international boundary where the 

 road cutting on the west slope shows a very thick accumulation 

 of thoroughly rounded waterworn beach pebbles at about 350 feet 

 above present sea level. The eastern slope of these hills appears 

 to be very much as it might have been left by the retreating ice 

 sheet. In a later chapter of this report I shall consider the 

 possibility of the ice front resting against these eastern slopes 

 while waves beat on the Avestern slopes. In the case of the ridge 

 about 1 mile northwest of Thorn the top is wave-heaped, and to 

 the southward both slopes show the wave-assorting of the gravels. 



The hills of this class between Mooers and Biddies crossing are 

 wave-marked on the eastern slope and near the crest. The south- 

 ernmost of the two hills just north of Bullis brook has a decidedly 

 drumlinlike contour. 



The major axes of these hills do not coincide with the direction 

 of glacial si rial ion in their vicinity. Their axes lie to the west of 

 south, while the glacial striation, so far as it can be inferred from 



