36 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



Ice movements in Schoharie valley. North of the central 

 escarpment the ice movements, dominated by the major features 

 of the topography, were very complex. The principal valleys tribu- 

 tary to the upper Schoharie trend approximately across the gen- 

 eral direction of the ice movement at the flood stage, and the val- 

 leys of the two upper branches of Schoharie creek are entirely open 

 to the east where they have been beheaded by the retreat of the 

 Catskill front. 



In the lower Schoharie valley, nearly as far up as Prattsville, the 

 ice movement at all stages appears to have been southward, up 

 the valley. In the valley of the Batavia kill tributary above Red 

 falls, and of Schoharie creek above the mouth of Little West kill, 

 the general ice movement at an early stage of the retreat was west- 

 ward, down the valleys, as is indicated by moraines and abundant 

 striae in the valley of Batavia kill and by moraines along the north 

 side of the valley of Schoharie creek. This current met the oppos- 

 ing current, moving up Schoharie valley, in the general neighbor- 

 hood of the junction of Batavia kill with the Schoharie where, by 

 alternating advances of the opposing currents, a complex series of 

 moraines was formed. Between the opposing ice tongues small 

 lakes were impounded, as is shown by a series of hanging deltas. 



At a later stage in the retreat, ice from the lobe in the Hudson 

 valley pushed into the open eastern ends of the Schoharie valley 

 past Kaaterskill and Plaat clove to the vicinity of the junction 

 of the two valleys between Tannersville and Hunter, while ice 

 from the north lay banked against the East Jewett range, pushing 

 a tongue into the pass south of East Jewett, another through the 

 gap south of Beaches Corner, and a third and larger one round 

 the western end of the range at Jewett Center. The latter spread 

 out as a bulb in the alley of Schoharie creek and seems to have 

 blocked the valley, impounding a lake in which deltas were built at 

 various levels by the streams carrying outwash from the tongues 

 of ice which pushed through the gaps in the range farther east. 



The ice stood in this general position long enough to build 

 conspicuous moraines. Meanwhile, the great, fluted, drumlinlike 

 deposits of thick drift which lie across the valley of East kill, 

 especially between Beaches Corner and the pass south of Henson- 

 ville, were probably accumulated beneath the ice. 



Small deltas in the valley of East kill, between East Jewett and 

 Beaches Corner, indicate that the ice melted out of this part of 

 the valley while the lower end was still blocked. 



