New York State Education Department 



New York State Museum 



John M. Clarke Director 

 Bulletin io6 

 GEOLOGY II 



GLACIAL WATERS IN THE LAKE ERIE BASIN 



BY 



H. L. FAIRCHILD 



INTRODUCTION 



In former papers on the glacial waters of central western New 

 York the writer has described mainly the phenomena in the Ontario 

 basin. The present paper is the result of study distributed through 

 several years in the Erie drainage area, and it discusses glacial effects 

 which antedate those in the Ontario basin. The writing is intended 

 as the first of a series describing the effects of glacial waters in New 

 York State and treats of the westernmost geographic area, where the 

 phenomena are of earlier date than those eastward, as the greater 

 glacial lakes invaded the territory from the west. 



There has also been a personal reason for delay in this writing. 

 The studies of Mr Frank Leverett on the Pleistocene geology of 

 Ohio and the Erie basin led him in 1893 into New York as far as the 

 Genesee river. The results of this earlier work have been awaiting 

 publication and the writer has delayed the completion of his own 

 study in the Erie basin in order to give precedence to that 

 which now has been published as Monograph XLI of the 

 United States Geological Survey. The present writing covers 

 ground traversed in Leverett's report and deals with the same 

 phenomena; but the manner of treatment is somewhat different, 

 the description is more detailed and in some points the interpre- 

 tation or explanation of the phenomena is not the same. 



The writer has ventured to differ from Leverett's description or 

 interpretation only where the facts seemed imperative, and his best 



