ANCIENT WATER LEVELS OF CHAMPLAIN-HUDSON VALLEYS 149 



of the water-eaten margin of the mass of ice which lay over the 

 Fort Edward district at the latest stage in the delta construction. 



It was probably at this stage that the terrace of coarse gravels 

 lying at the base of Palmertown mountain was deposited. An 

 intermediate stage is marked by the small terrace on the flank of 

 the Hartman terrace lying on the north bank of the river just 

 within the iVdirondack gorge of the Hudson. 



Afterward followed the several stages of broad terrace building 

 described as margining the Fort Edward district on the west, 

 ending in the delta which spreads forward from the mouth of the 

 Adirondack gorge toward Glens Falls on the south side of the 

 river. The ice front or at least the southern margin of the rem- 

 nant which lay over the district may have lain along the northern 

 bank of the Hudson from the gorge toward and beyond Glens Falls, 

 preventing the delta from building on the north side of the present 

 channel. As the ice shrank away from the delta along its front, 

 the stream fell into the depression thus made and so found its 

 way across the limestones and shales past Sandy Hill to the old 

 gorge at Fort Edward, thus establishing the connection of the 

 Adirondack-Hudson with the main channel. 



Delta of the Mettawee river. The Mettawee river crosses the 

 northeastern part of the Fort Ann quadrangle in Granville and 

 Whitehall townships. In the western part of Granville the 

 roughened plateau of eastern New York falls off to the lower 

 levels of the town of Fort x\nn within the clay-covered ground 

 east of Wood creek. Clays cover the surface up to approxi- 

 matelj^ the 300-foot contour line. Opposite the valley of the 

 Mettawee, within the eastern plateau in the vicinity of West 

 Granville, a gravelly and sandy delta of the Mettawee has a 

 small development much less extensive than the deltas of the 

 Batten kill and the Hoosic river farther south. 



The head of this delta is about 320 feet in its present elevation 

 above the sea, passing into terraces at North Granville which 

 rise gradually up the valley and attain a level of 400 feet at 

 Middle Granville. The delta slopes gently outward to the 300 

 foot contour north and south of West Granville and there gives 

 way to the clays which mantle the lower grounds northward to 

 Whitehall and southward into Hartford. It is safe to asiSume 



