14 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



run down to the lake from tlie southwest forming mountainous 

 escarpments around whose sices the Paleozoic rocks set back in 

 cmbayments and between which tliey constitute tlat forelands, ob- 

 viously the western remnants of the level expanses of tlie \'ermont 

 shore- Within the area here mapped there are the Port Henr)- 

 and W'estport embayments, and ia addition the northerly prong of 

 Crown Point, farther south the same relationship reappears in 

 Ticondercga, and farther north it is ver> emphatic in Essex and 

 W'illsboro. The v-illage of Port Henr>' is built on a small flat at 

 240 contour, while the large level stretch southwest of Westport 

 ranges up to the 300 as a maximum. Beyond question these flats 

 are fault blocks. 



Escarpments. The rehef of the mountains and valleys can 

 hardly be dismissed without mention of tlie escarpments. They 

 are at times verv' pronounced. In fact the favorite outline of tlie 

 eastern Adirondacks is the sawtooth. As the observer follows the 

 sky line from any point of outlook commanding a wide sweep, 

 he can not but be impressed with the moderate upward slope of one 

 side of a mountain, terminating in a sharp, precipitous cut-off on 

 the other. Usually the moderate slope follows the dip of the folia- 

 tion while the precipitous side is due to a fault. Upon the topo- 

 graphic maps the abrupt character of the escarpment is much 

 softened by the spreading of the contours either on the part of the 

 draftsman or the engraver. Thus the Broughton ledge [pi. 6], 4 

 miles west of Moriah Center is a sheer cliff two or three hundred 

 feet, almost smooth and scarcely 5 degrees from the vertical. 

 Others of impressive steepness front the road from Cnderwood 

 past Chapel pond on the northeast side, and many smaller cliffs are 

 on the northwest side of the road which follows the Boquet river 

 to its source south from EUzabethtown. In several instances trap 

 dikes have come up through the cleft which has caused the cliff 

 and portions may remain adhering to the sides of a precipice. One 

 such may be observed along the northwest side of New pond, and 

 another in the cliffs just north of the brook, which reaches Pleasant 

 valley from the north side of Iron mountain. The dikes are shown 

 on the geologic maj 



These cliffs are constantiy mer m rraversmg the mountams and 

 are often encoimtered in passing through the woods on the steeper 

 slopes. They make constant detours a necessity'. When, moreover, 

 one reaches the summit of a ridge and proceeds along its crest, 

 the way is interrupted constantly by cross-gulches with precipitous 

 sides, through which either a human or a game trail almost always 



