GEOLOGY OF SARATOGA SPRINGS AXD VICINITY 169 



the Champlain valley to the St Lawrence, the Delaware & Hudson 

 Railroad, does not follow the Hudson river to Fort Edward as 

 one would expect, but leaves it at ^lechanicville to swing far to 

 the west. Thus again the influence of the faults which bring up 

 the mineral waters of Saratoga is strongly felt in the distribution 

 of the population of the quadrangles and the direction of the 

 principal railroad. 



A third geologic agent which controls the distribution of the 

 settlements and which is constantly growing in importance is the 

 presence of rapids and waterfalls in the rivers and brooks. These 

 are due to two causes in the region, first, the greater erosive 

 power of the Hudson river over that of its tributaries on both 

 sides, whereby the latter flow in " hanging valleys " and are forced 

 to reach the level of the river along a series of falls and rapids in 

 their lowest course ; and, second, the rejuvenation of the rivers by 

 the glacial period, in consequence of which in their new, immature 

 courses they frequently meet ridges of harder rock protruding into 

 the glacial deposits from the irregular preglacial surface, and in 

 such places are dammed up and form falls or rapids. Thus 

 Schuylerville and X'ictory Mills grew up where Fish creek falls 

 into the deeper Hudson valley ; Ballston Spa where the Kayaderos- 

 seras creek falls into the old preglacial fault depression of the 

 Saratoga fault ; Thomson and Fort Miller where the Hudson river 

 plunges over ridges of shales, chert and grit that block its way. 

 Likewise Gansevoort is located where the Snook kill strikes a line 

 of anticlinal ridges and overthrusts in the Canajoharie shale and 

 supplies water power by a waterfall, and Clark Mills where the 

 Batten kill crosses a ridge of harder Xormanskill rocks; Middle 

 Falls where it is held up and falls over the Bald Mountain lime- 

 stone, and (ireenwich where the olive grits of the Georgian forma- 

 tions force the Batten kill to form ra])ids and supply water power. 

 It is thus seen that every village in the shale belt is located where 

 water power is produced by the geologic structure of the region. 



Equally interesting with the control of the settling of this region 

 by its geology is that of the events of the battles of Saratoga by 

 the same agency. 



Burgoyne had two routes to reach the Fludson river and thereby 

 Albany, his objective^ l)oint ; namely, first, the dee]) depression ex- 

 tending from Whitehall to Fort Edward and caused largely bv the 

 downfaulting of the Ordovicic rocks at the eastern base of the 

 Adirondacks and, second, the fault l^asin of Lake (ieorge. He 



