New York State Museum Bulletin 



Entered as second-class matter November 27, 1915, at the Post Office at Albany, Nev/ York, 

 unier the act of August 24, 1912 



Published monthly by The University of the State of New York 



No. 195 ALBANY, N. Y. March i, 191 7 



The University of the State of New York 

 New York State Museum 



• John M. Clarke, Director 



POSTGLACIAL FEATURES OF THE UPPER 

 HUDSON VALLEY 



By 

 H. L. FAIRCHILD 



INTRODUCTION 



This area, comprising the five quadrangles, Glens Falls, Saratoga, 

 Schuyler ville, Schenectady and Cohoes, is the most typical section 

 of the Hudson valley Pleistocene. It received the heaviest con- 

 tributory drainage of Glacial time; it holds the most extensive 

 detrital plains, the vast deltas built by the inflowing streams; and 

 abundant evidences of the deep submergence in sea-level waters 

 following the recession of the latest ice sheet. Other interesting 

 features are the abandoned distributary channels of the glacial 

 predecessor of the Mohawk, and three lakes of singular character. 

 In recent years the area has been described in a general way by Prof. 

 J. B. Woodworth (see no. 4 of the appended Bibliography); Prof. 

 W. J. MiUer has referred to the Glacial course of the Hudson river 

 through the Kayaderosseras valley (6), which was noted in 1895 

 by G. F. Wright (2); and Professor Stoller has published a descrip- 

 tion of the glacial geology of the Schenectady quadrangle (7). 



The original purpose of the present writer was merely to show^ the 

 true character of the peculiar basins of Round and Saratoga lakes, 

 but this is so tied in with other interesting matters of the Pleistocene 

 geology of the region that the brief paper has been given a general 

 character. 



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