6 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



The present relief of the surface is moderate. In the northern 

 portion of the map the irregularities are seldom due to rock but 

 represent almost entirely a drumlinized morainal blanket, the work 

 of the latest ice sheet. In the southern part they are rock hills, 

 with a few conspicuous exceptions like the Waterman Hill drum- 

 lin. Benway hill, the highest point, in the extreme southeast corner, 

 constitutes a " monadnock " or erosional remnant rising above the 

 Cretaceous peneplain and giving a minimum measure for the 

 earlier pre-Potsdam peneplain in that direction. 



Fig. I Key map of northern New York showing location of the Canton 

 quadrangle and the belts of Paleozoic rocks adjacent thereto (Geolog>' 

 after Logan and Merrill) 



While there are many eccentricities in the water courses, in gen- 

 eral the drainage lines are controlled at the south by the rock 

 topography, which is in turn largely influenced by rock structure 

 and hardness ; whereas at the north even the larger streams wander 

 in fortuitous pathways among the drumlins and are let down upon 

 bedrock at irregular intervals, thus giving rise to waterpowers 

 determining the location of the early settlements.^ The gradually 



\The broader story of the geography and settlement of the county has 

 been set forth by Edgar G. Blankman in his " Geography of St Lawrence 

 County." 



