12 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



irregular. The abundant detritus brought into the shallow lake by 

 the copious drainage from the southwestern Adirondacks, through 

 the upper Black river and neighboring creeks, seems to have quite 

 completely filled the lake, producing the broad delta plains described 

 below. 



The Remsen outlet heads in several indefinite passes among 

 morainal knolls in the stretch four or five miles north from Remsen. 

 By the topographic map the present altitude of these swamp cols is 

 1240 feet. About one mile north of Remsen the winding swampy 

 channels unite into a single definite rock channel which continues for 

 three miles south of Remsen and ends in terraces and scourways on 

 the delta north of Trenton and Trenton Falls villages. The head of 

 the rock channel north of Remsen is 1200 feet altitude. In the 

 south edge of the village it rapidly falls to iioo feet and in another 

 mile it drops to 1000 feet. The fall of 200 feet in two miles gave the 

 Remsen river a torrential character, the evidences of which are seen 

 in the eroded limestones with abandoned cascades. These features 

 may be well seen on the east and west road somewhat over a mile 

 south of the village. 



The flow of the distributaries over the delta northeast of Trenton 

 and north of Trenton Falls is conspicuously shown by terraces and 

 channels. These benchings, found specially on the slopes facing 

 north and west, indicate that the receiving waters occupying the 

 Mohawk valley were slowly falling during the life of the river. It 

 also appears that the Remsen river ceased its flow while the Mohawk 

 water was standing with an altitude of about 980 feet, the height 

 of the lowest well-developed plains. 



Forestport sand plains. The delta plains built in the Forestport 

 and higher lakes by the tributary drainage are very extensive, cover- 

 ing nearly all the area for several miles north, east and southeast of 

 the village, and must have c[uite filled the shallow waters. Super- 

 ficially they are mostly sand and were derived from the wastage of 

 the quartzose rocks of the Adirondack crystallines. These sand 

 deposits were laid down over the ice-laid or moraine deposits, which 

 in places project up through the lake beds. This is strikingly illus- 

 trated in the lofty kame hills, the most conspicuous heights of the 

 district. The village of Forestport lies on the west side of a large 

 kame hill. Another mass lies one and one-half miles south of the 

 village, and a very prominent pair of steep sand hills about three 

 miles northeast, locally called Dustin hills, rise 140 feet above the 

 broad expanse of level sands. The ice block kettles which are such 



