RECORDS 139 



Program. 



A. W. Grabau, Recent Contributions to the Problem of 

 Niagara. Illustrated. 



J. F. Kemp, A New Asbestos Region in Northern Ver- 

 mont. Notes on the Physiography of Lake George, 



Summary of Papers. 



Mr. Grabau said that Davis has shown that the topography 

 of the Niagara region conforms to the type generally found in 

 ancient coastal plains, the original features of which have been 

 more or less modified by subsequent warpings, and by glacial 

 erosion and deposition. 



The Niagara escarpment is the inface of the Niagara cuesta, 

 traceable through the Indian peninsula and Grand Manitoulin 

 Island. The Ontario lowland is continued in the Georgian Bay 

 lowland. A second cuesta — the Onondaga — has its inface 

 slightly developed north of Buffalo, but becomes prominent in 

 the Lake Huron valley, where its inner lowland forms the 

 deeper part of the lake. The third cuesta and lowland (the 

 Erie) occurs north of the second. 



The Tertiary drainage is supposed to have been to the south- 

 west, instead of the northeast, as Spencer holds. The principal 

 streams of that time are supposed to have been (i)the Saginaw 

 — whose path is indicated in part by Saginaw Bay and the deep 

 channel between the Indian peninsula and Grand Manitoulin 

 Island ; (2) the Dundas, breaching the Niagara cuesta at Ham- 

 ilton, Ont., and crossing the Erie lowland near Fort Stanley, 

 and (3) for a time, at least, the Genesee, though this may later 

 have had a northward course. The subsequent streams trib- 

 utSLvy' to these consequents carved the various lowlands. St. 

 David's Channel is regarded as an obsequent stream, which 

 was accidentally discovered by the Niagara. The whirlpool 

 gorge was probably, in part, the southward continuation of this 

 stream, and not wholly postglacial. 



Mr. Grabau' s paper was discussed by Professor Dodge and 

 Dr. Julien. 



