46 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



The close areal association of such a variety of glacial phenomena, 

 and their intimate and interesting relationship as members of a 

 connected series, and thus the unusual opportunity afforded in this 

 region of comprehending a variety of glacial phenomena by field 

 study, rarely afforded by so restricted an area, has in some measure 

 been overlooked ; but it must not be thought that the striking indi- 

 vidual features exhibited here have altogether escaped the attention 

 of geologists. Early in the history of the New York State Geological 

 Survey, when the theory of continental glaciation had but recently 

 been announced and had not yet gained wide acceptance ; that is, at a 

 time when geologists generally were much puzzled by such extra- 

 ordinary accumulations of loose material as the moraines present, 

 Vanuxem ^ writes : 



There is another class of deposits, well defined as to position hut irregular 

 as to composition, which are worthy of note. They occur in north and 

 south valleys which are on the south of the Mohawk river and the Great 

 level ; or in other words, the Helderberg range forms generally the dividing 

 line between their north and south waters. These waters anciently flowed 

 in one same direction, through valleys still more ancient than themselves ; 

 but they now separate, and flow over double inclined planes in opposite 

 directions. 



The whole of these deposits have a common character, they are in short 

 hills quite high for their base, and are usually in considerable numbers. 

 None were opened and no opportunity oflFered to ascertain if any defined 

 arrangement of their materials existed or had been made when deposited. 

 They consist of gravel, of stones also of greater size, sand, and earth. 

 In Onondaga valley there are two deposits . (the second) 



is a lesser deposit near the head of the valley (the Tully moraine). . 

 The hills appear to have been formed by the waters of creeks when the lake 

 was at a higher level for where such substances are deposited in deep and 

 tranquil waters there is no tendency to diffusion [i. e. irregular, hummocky 

 deposits]. 



It will be noted that Vanuxem assigned the morainic deposits lo 

 the action of rapidly moving stream waters; also that he failed lo 

 appreciate that the hillocks which he saw were but the surface 

 excrescences of a much larger mass of material extending solidly 

 between them and below them to the rock floor of the valley. This 

 irregular surface expression of the moraine is very characteristically 

 illustrated in plate 4, a photograph made on the summit of the 

 Tully moraine on its east side just off the improved state highway 

 that parallels the valley. 



^Vanuxem, L., Natural History Survey of N. Y. 3d Dis't, 1842, p. 218. 



