84 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



back of the ice tongue which occupied the ' lake belt ' during its 

 slow retreat north, the material being furnished by the subglacial 

 and englacial streams flowing into the lake at the ice margin." 



As nearly two-thirds of the Saranac sheet exhibits terraces and 

 sand plains of the higher levels, it was proposed that the name 

 " Saranac glacial waters " be applied to the standing waters that 

 built these levels, although the waters covered portions of the Lake 

 Placid, Mt Marcy and Ausable quadrangles. 



Extensive levels are preserved within the area in the brook val- 

 leys such as Clifford, Styles, Brown's and New Bridge brooks and 

 to the east and west of the town of Wilmington. 



The general character of the terraces is that of gently sloping 

 plains on the mountain slopes without any prominent shore-line 

 features. An exception to the last statement is a wave-cut cliff on 

 the south side of the Styles Brook valley. The indefinite nature 

 of nearly all the sand plains strongly impressed the writer and 

 thus he was inclined to view them as having been formed by aggrad- 

 ing glacial streams, the remnants now existing being merely por- 

 tions left undisturbed by the present streams. But field work 

 revealed a remarkable series of outlets in the center of the Ausable 

 quadrangle that furnish evidence for regarding them as glacial 

 lake features. 



Outlets. Here again we must depart from the confines of the 

 Lake Placid quadrangle to understand the nature of these conspicu- 

 ous levels. Although a detailed description of the outlets will not 

 be given, a short summary of them is indispensable.^ 



(Beginning on the southern slopes of Ellis mountain, in the town- 

 ship of Jay, a long glacial channel extends south for a distance of 

 some 9 miles with a dozen side outlets to the east. The lake 

 entrance to this channel was at the northern end, south of Ellis 

 mountain. The controlling spillways were regulated by an ice lobe 

 that lay to the east. Thus it is the writer's opinion that as the ice 

 retreated it permitted escape first by the most southern side outlets 

 which represents the outlet of the early stages of the Saranac 

 glacial waters ; while as the ice continued to retreat, lov/er spill- 

 ways were opened farther north with a consequent lowering of the 

 waters. 



In several of these side-outlet channels " fossil " or dried-up 

 falls and cataracts are found. The channels are very impressive 



^ For a fuller account, see AlHng, H. L., The Glacial Lakes and Other 

 Glacial Features of the 'Central Adirondac'ks, Bui. Geol. Soc. Amer., 

 27:658 and fig-. I, 



