New York State Museum Bulletin 



E.itsred as second-class matter November 27, 191S, at the Post Office at Albany, New York 



Published monthly by The University of the State of New York 



Nos. 215, 216 ALBANY, N. Y. November-December 191 8 



The University of the Stale of New York 

 New York S'ate Museum 



John M. Clarke, Director 



GLACIAL GEOLOGY OF THE COHOES 

 QUADRANGLE 



BY JAMES H. STOLLER 



INTRODUCTION 



The period of geological history known as the Glacial or 

 Pleistocene Period and characterized by the extension of a great 

 ice sheet from the region of Labrador southwestward beyond the 

 boundary of the State of New York has its record in the materials 

 left by the ice and by the flooded waters following the melting of 

 the ice. 



This bulletin deals with the Pleistocene geology of the area ot 

 the Cohoes quadrangle. The materials for study consist in general 

 of the mantle of clay, sand, gravel and boulders that overlies bed- 

 rock. The distribution and mode of arrangement of these materials 

 and the surface forms which they exhibit — whether hills of definite 

 topographic features, terraces along the courses of streams, or 

 slopes bordering ravines and valleys — reveal the agencies which 

 brought these materials to their present locations and gave them their 

 present forms. To the extent that the several kinds of earthy 

 materials occur in separate areas of distribution, the mapping of 

 the glacial deposits becomes, in a general way, a survey of soils. 

 In the region here reported upon the dependence of soil composition 

 upon geological origin is, over considerable portions of the area, 

 somewhat close and the accompanying map is therefore of interest 

 not only from the standpoint of geologic science but also that of 

 agriculture. Thus the soils that originated as sediments, consisting 

 of finely divided particles of clay and sand deposited in bodies of 



