13G NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



of the sands and gravels and underlying clays in the flat topped 

 glacial deposit which borders the west shore of the lake. 



This deposit lies mostly between the 2G0 and 280 foot contour 

 lines. Its steep sides have probably been cut back somewhat by 

 the lake when the water was at a higher level and covered the low 

 ground of Bog Meadow brook on the west. 



This 200 to 280 foot terrace is well marked in Fish creek 

 valley. Extended gravel and sand plains of about the same 

 level occur south of Saratoga Springs, the whole presenting a 

 complex series of deltas apparently built in the presence of lin- 

 gering blocks of ice. Till the detailed study of these deposits 

 and their final mapping has been accomplished it will not be 

 possible to state just what relations this area has to the Hud- 

 son trough on the east of it. It is evident though that the clays 

 on the Hudson rock terraces were not abundantly deposited 

 either in Fish creek valley or over the Saratoga lake district. 

 This may have been because the lake region was so far from the 

 mouths of clay-contributing streams and out of the drift of 

 currents that clays were not brought to the district. There is 

 no evidence of the clays having been swept out of the valley. 



That claj^-depositing waters occupied the region as high as 

 the 300 foot contour line is shown by the character of the debris 

 at the base of a cliff on the east bank of the lake 1 mile east 

 of Saratoga lake station. Here the under, older part of the 

 talus is grayish, clay-stained debris of the Hudson rivor rocks. 

 Above and outside of this is a more moderni talus of clean, 

 black fragments of the cliff above, this newer talus accumu- 

 lation being about 4 feet thick. It is to be assumed that the 

 older talus at least as high as the 300 foot line accumulated in 

 tlie waters which deposited clays at that level to the eastward on 

 the Hudson rock terraces. 



The ice remained longer over the depressions occupied by 

 Saratoga and liouiid lakes than it did in the Hudson valley 

 immediately east of this district. The large streams coming 

 into llic Hudson valley from the open ground on the east prob- 

 ably favoird I lie melting of the glacier nior(» rapidly on the side 

 where their water coursed along the ice margin. 



