38 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



on being released from the confines of the narrow mountain 

 valleys. Some of the deposits may be moraines of local glaciers 

 overridden by later advances. 



In addition to the indications of local glaciation furnished by the 

 short, steep valleys on the north slope of the central escarpment, 

 there is evidence which suggested and gives strong support to the 

 theory that the valleys of Little West kill and West kill, respec- 

 tively 4^ and II miles long, were for a time occupied for their 

 full length by independent local glaciers. Unfortunately the evi- 

 dence on which the above theory is based can not be adequately 

 presented in the space available for this abstract. 



South of Esopus creek, in the valleys on the north side of the 

 Slide mountain group, there were also local glaciers, some of them 

 of large size. Big Indian hollow, at least above Oliverea, and pos- 

 sibly for its whole length, was occupied by a local glacier. A 

 smaller one descended the north slope of Balsam mountain, south- 

 west of Big Indian and reached levels at least as low as 1400 feet. 

 Woodland valley, which heads on the north side of Slide moun- 

 tain, was occupied by a local glacier which left distinct moraines 

 at Woodland and less distinct ones a mile below. Whether the 

 great morainic embankments in Esopus valley at Phoenicia were 

 built by a bulb of a local glacier from Woodlawn valley is a prob- 

 lem whose solution requires further field study. 



There is evidence that, for a time at least, local glaciers occupied 

 the Stony Clove valley and its higher tributaries, but whether the 

 great moraines in the lower part of the valley at Chichester belong 

 to the morainic system of a local glacier could not be definitely 

 determined by reconnaissance. 



The critical elevation necessary for the formation of local 

 glaciers was found to be about 3400 feet, and the glaciers in the 

 smaller valleys descended to various levels down to 1400 feet. 

 In the lai*ger valleys, heading in the highest mountains, what are 

 believed to have been local glaciers reached levels between 1300 

 and 1400 feet above the sea at the mouth of West kill and, possibly, 

 of 800 feet at Phoenicia. 



A noteworthy feature of the local glaciation of the Catskills is 

 the weak development of land forms produced by glacial sculpture, 

 namely, cirques and trough valleys. The heads of the valleys 

 tributary to the upper West kill and those heading on Hunter and 

 Plateau mountains present evidences of weak cirque action, but 

 typical, strongly sculptured cirques were nowhere recognized. 



