REPORT OF THE DIRECTOR I915 I77 



SHORE-LINE PHENOMENA 



Epochs Marked by Impounded Bodies o£ Water 



At the close of glacial times the Champlain region stood much 

 lower in relation to the sea than at present. It has since risen 

 625 feet ^ at Montreal.^ The greatest rate of elevation has been 

 to the north. This has resulted in a tilting of the land as one goes 

 northward. Consequently, the old shore lines as they exist today 

 are found to form tilted planes, and along these planes Woodworth 

 has correlated the beaches, terraces and cliffs of the ancient body of 

 water that occupied the Champlain valley at the close of the Ice Age. 



When the Hudson-Champlain glacier retreated it was followed by 

 a body of water that was held in by the ever retreating wall of ice 

 to the north. Due to one cause or another, this body of water did 

 not always stand at the same level, but dropped to successively lower 

 levels at each of its stages. The marks made in the Crown Point 

 region at each of these stages will be described first, leaving all 

 discussion of their significance until later. Professor Woodworth's 

 postulated water levels are here accepted provisionally. 



LEVELS CORRELATED WITH THE QUAKER SPRINGS OUTLET^ 



(Map l) 



According to Professor Woodworth's observations, glacial Lake 

 Champlain or " Lake Vermont " was confluent in its incipient stages 

 through the Wood creek pass with a large body of water, " Lake 

 Albany," that covered the area now constituting the plains about 

 Fort Edward and southward beyond Albany to the highlands of the 

 Hudson. This body of water received the discharge of glacial 

 Lake Iroquois by the Mohawk river, and its waters escaped to the 

 sea through the Hudson highlands. The northern limit of the lake 

 was ever coincident pari passu, with the retreating ice front. 



At the close of the Lake Albany stage the level of Lake Vermont 

 may have been determined by a possible outlet just east of Quaker 

 Springs. Professor Woodworth, in a letter to the writer, regards 

 this outlet as doubtful, but certain evidence about Crown Point and 

 Street road may indicate a stand of water as high as this altitude. 



1 The altitude of upper marine limit on Mount Royal, according to 

 unpublished opinions of Professor Goldthwaite and Professor Woodworth. 



2 The evidence of this alteration is discussed on pages 21-24. 



3 Woodworth, 1905, p. 194-96, and pi. 28, line T-U. 



