1*12 NEW YORK STATE MUSEiUM 



A recoil naisisance of the Yallej^s of tlie Hudson river and Lake 

 Champlain, occupying nioet of the months! of July, August and 

 Septemiber, was undertaken with the purpose oif determining the 

 nature and extent of the evidence of marine transgression clearly 

 marked in the latter valley. Beginning on the south, the Hud- 

 son valley exhibits several series of glacial deposits correspond- 

 ing to as many temporary^ halts in the retreating ice front. These 

 deposits are successively newer as one proceeds northward, and 

 each stage is accompanied by terraces bordering the present 

 river channel. These terraces lie on an older rock terrace whose 

 levek have been approximately determined between New York 

 and Albany. A deeply eroded series of glacial clays was traced 

 to within a few miles of Peekskill. Between Croton point and 

 Haverstraw there extends the trace of a moraine with an attend- 

 ant frontal plain or delta, best marked at the mouth of Oroton 

 river. At Peekskill deltas and terraces occur at an elevation of 

 from 100 to 120 feet, the deposit at Jones Point having appar- 

 ently been laid down in contact with ice in the Hudson channel. 



Another terrace of this nature occurs at West Point at an 

 elevation of 180 feet. North of the Highlands, clays reappear, 

 capped at Newburg by glacial outwash contemporaneouis with 

 kames, indicating the presence oif masses of ice just west of 

 that city. From the month of Wappinger creek and thence north 

 of Poughkeep'sie the Hudson valley is again free of clays and 

 contains deposits of gravel and sand, showing the occupation of 

 the valley by ice remnants. Near Coxsackie the clays reappear 

 and continue northward to and beyond Albany, forming a part 

 of the delta of the Mohawk. 



East of Albany and Troy there is a possible shore line at about 

 380 feet. The full interpretation of this apparent water level 

 depends on work yet to be carried on in the Champlain valley. 



A reconnaissance of the country within a radius of 10 to 15 

 miles of Fort Edward revealed a variety of glacial deposits, 

 most of which are contemporaneous with masses of land ice. 

 No definite shore lines were discovered. 



