500 G. H. CHADWICK GLA( lAL LAKE PROBLEMS 



succession. Hitherto it had been beh'eved that the first of the Erie Basin 

 waters to gain admission into central Xew York (the Genesee and Finger 

 Lake valleTs) was Lake Warren. In FairohiUrs conception "Lake 

 Yannxem" stood as the earliest water body with easterly (Mohawk) es- 

 cape, bnt he ascribed to Yannxem no drainage from west of Batavia. 

 Yet, if we correctly understand the relations, the episode of Lake 

 Yanuxem and the "free drainage" interim is the only known place in the 

 Xew York succession into which "Lake Wayne"^ can be fitted. 



The admission of the Warren waters into central Xew York, past the 

 Batavia salient, without conspicuous channeling on that salient presented 

 a real problem to Fairchild."^ Practical coincidence of the merging water 

 levels had to be subsumed. But if the Erie waters already flowed east- 

 ward, the restored Warren level would reach to Syracuse from its initia- 

 tion and this particular puzzle be eliminated. Eather. the problem is 

 pushed back to Lake Wayne, leaving the apparent absence of channels 

 north of Batavia still a matter of inquiry. Possibly the control point is 

 actually somewhat farther east, near Le Eoy, where there are heavy 

 channels just below the Warren beaches. 



Xone of the Le Eoy channels appears, however, to fulfill the require- 

 ments for the long-lived Wayne spillway. They conform to the tem- 

 porary paths of waters rushing to a new confluence, not to a stabilized 

 outlet. For that we must turn to Syracuse. Here we find at once a 

 splendid channel at the right altitude (about 40 feet below Warren) 

 hitherto unreferred to any fixed water plane. This is the ^'Gulf* west 

 of Marcellus.^ It is confidently believed that the ^""Gulf*" channel carried 

 the Wayne waters prior to Lake AA arren, and that it did not function 

 again subsequent to the Warren flooding. 



A curious fact concerning the "Gulf* remains, nevertheless. Below 

 its intake it is distinctly depicted by Fairchild as a "two-story" channel 

 (the only one he so represents), with the lower story much narrower than 

 the upper, thus indicating diminished water flow. If this narrower inner 

 channel were cut durino- the ice readvance followino- the "free drainasfe" 



cr Co 



Stage, as seems likely, then the restored level ("second Yanuxem'") would 

 appear to have been robbed of the Erie drainage by readvance also at 

 Batavia (or Le Eoy?). This would mean that while "first'' Yanuxem 

 included the Erie flow from Wayne downward to its minimum stand and 

 extinction in "free drainage,*' or even through the earlier rising levels 

 of its restoration, there was no "restored Lake Wayne." but only local 

 waters of the restored (incorrectly "second*') Lake Yanuxem coursing 



* Bull. 127. X. Y. State Museum, pp. 51-52. 



^Bull. 127. X. Y. State Museum, pp. 26-30, pis. 4. IS, 19A. 



