52 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



comes a strong gravel ridge under the highway which utilizes the 

 ridge for 9 miles, or to within 2 miles of Fredonia. Southeast 

 and south of Portland the Whittlesey and its highway lie on the 

 delta plain, but eastward the beach forms the north bank of the 

 conspicuous river channel already described on pages 20, 21. This 

 locality near Portland, with the glacial river channel, the delta 

 plain with wave-built bars on top and its wave-eroded front, all 

 lying at or just below the Whittlese}^ level, makes it one of great 

 interest and critical importance. 



Portland to Fredonia. From 2 miles southwest of Portland to i^ 

 miles southwest of Fredonia, a distance of at least 9 miles, the 

 Whittlesey beach is followed by the "Ridge road," and is roughly 

 parallel with the Warren shore and its highway. South of Brocton 

 the two ridges are nearly a mile apart, while 2 miles east and south- 

 west of Lamberton they are only ^ mile apart, these being the 

 extremes of horizontal spacing in this section. The course of the 

 Whittlesey shore is more indirect than that of the Warren as it 

 bends to the irregularities of the higher ground, while the Warren 

 lies on the Whittlesey bottom and delta fillings. In all its course 

 from Portland to Fredonia the Whittlesey beach faces, or lies lake- 

 ward of stream-cut bluffs or river channels eroded by glacial 

 drainage. For most of the distance it is a definite ridge of gravel, 

 [see pi. 20], but in a few places it is a wave-cut cliff. One such cliff 

 occurs south of Brocton, and others south of Lamberton. 



The Warren shore is unusually varied in form and character 

 between Portland and Fredonia. Portland lies on the higher and 

 broader of several bars. Halfway between Portland and Brocton 

 there are three bars with intervals, in descending order, of 35 and 

 20 feet. Brocton village lies below the Warren beach. One half 

 mile east of the village the highway rises on to the beach, which 

 for over a mile is a low bar facing a bold, wave-cut cliff cut in the 

 delta front. Nearing Lamberton the beach is lost in an eroded 

 embayment in the delta. For ^ mile east of Lamberton the road 

 is on the single Warren ridge, but for the next i^ miles the beach is 

 a broad gravel plain, with several ridges, and an abrupt border J 

 mile north of the road as shown in plate 21. This plain is another 

 delta plateau, leveled by Warren waves, but probably accumu- 

 lated in Whittlesey waters from glacial drainage. 



Toward Fredonia the road rises slightly above the Warren level, 

 and is on till. The beach lies on an abrupt but eroded delta front J 

 to ^ mile lakeward of the road. No lower Warren bar is dis- 

 tinguished in this section unless it is represented by a short spit 



