POSTGLACIAL FEATURES OF THE UPPER HUDSON VALLEY IT 



not erosional, fronts; and since the building of the lower sand plains 

 there has been no great erosion of the valley. 



The valley was drowned under 300 feet of water as the ice uncovered 

 it. As the land slowly rose out of the waters the land drainage and 

 wave action on the slopes rinsed some detritus down to the valley 

 bottom. When the water was very shallow, fonning a strait in the 

 valley, and so connecting the deeper waters at the two ends, storm 

 waters were driven in both directions, which may account for the 

 level character of the valley bottom. It is possible that during a 

 low stage of the falling waters the southward current helped to 

 smooth the divide. The bare shale rocks alongside the valley, and 

 rising as knolls in the bottom of the valley, have forms chiefly due 

 to wave action, not definite stream work. 



Similar explanation must be made for two other supposed river 

 channels, one of which is the " Coveville," west of Schuylerville ; 

 another is the "Quaker Springs scourway," a few miles south. No 

 effective stream flow occurred at either locality, but chiefly the 

 work of static waters. The features are mainly the product of 

 delta construction and wave erosion in subsiding waters. At the 

 time when the standing waters were lowered (relative to the land) 

 to what is now 200 feet the southward current, the initial Hudson 

 river, probably scoured the depression northwest of Coveville. But 

 this was not sufficient to direct the flow of Fish creek. The Quaker 

 Springs tract comprises the deltas of several small streams, with 

 leveling by waves. The area is mostly sand, declining eastward, 

 toward the axis of the valley. Much of the sloping surface is rolling 

 and dimy. The front of the plain, facing the river, is bare shale 

 which has been rinsed clear of the drift and sand by wave erosion. 

 Looking east, across the Hudson, one sees a beautiful series of ter- 

 races, at all levels from 140 feet up to nearly 400 feet. The evidence 

 of long-lived, standing waters as the latest occupant of the region 

 is conspicuous and conclusive. There are no distinct channel ehar- 

 acters and no relation of topographic or other features requiring a 

 channel; no evidence of an ice border, or any ice contact; and no 

 corresponding features on the opposite side of the Hudson. 



IROMOHAWK DISTRIBUTARIES 



The marine plane at Schenectady is uplifted to 355 feet altitude- 

 The great delta sand plain, stretching from Schenectady to Albany » 

 12 miles, was laid in the sea-level water at practically full height- 



