IJ NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



sides ha\e gentle slopes and show evidence of much more pro- 

 tracted wastirg away. The best example in the Elizabethtown 

 quadrangle is the \ alley of the " Branch" which enters the Boquet 

 at the village itself. Although the Branch is the smaller stream, 

 its valley, except perhaps at the headwatersfis more open and larger 

 than that of the Boquet itself. From observations on a wide area 

 the writer has therefore been impressed with the probability that 

 the eldest drainage lines were east and west, and north and south. 

 They often correspond with belts of Precambric limestones whicn 

 furnish comparatively soft and easily eroded rocks, and the result- 

 ii'g topography has a different aspect and character *from the pre- 

 cipitous northeast and northwest valleys. The Elizabethtown quad- 

 rangle dees not furnish however the best evidence and therefore 

 the subject is not further pursued at this point. The citations below 

 will place the reader in touch with the fuller literature so far as 

 it exists.^ Nevertheless, in the southern central portions of the 

 quadrangle there are two escarpments which run nearly due east 

 and west. Cne, the Broughton ledge, a most impressive precipice, 

 i'lastrated in plate 6, and the other less steep, rise on the north 

 side of Crowfoot pond in a series of steps. 



Aside from the small feeders or tributaries which have high 

 gradients and cascades, the larger streams are usually marked for 

 a mountainous region by low gradients and slack water until they 

 (h-op with relative suddenness to Lake Champlain. For example, 

 in a distance of V^ mile from Split Rock falls to a point below 

 E'izpbet^Town the Eoque" river meanders for 7 miles through open 

 meadows. Its descent is chiefly concentrated at New Russia, where 

 there is a drop of 40 or 50 feet within less than half a mile, and 

 partly over ledges. Both at Split Rock falls anil at the cps'ades ai 

 New Russia the river presents the relationship not uncommon in the 

 Adirondacks, of a waterfall succeeded by an open and level valley, 

 containing a sandy lake bottom or meadow land which the stream 

 next traverses. The Schroon is also a very sluggish stream with 

 a relatively low gradient. Other smaller streams, such as the 

 cutlet of Lincoln pond and Ashcraft brook are decidedly swampy. 



These relationships are undoub'edly due to the postglacial ponel- 

 irg back of the waters either by the retreating ice sheet on the 

 north or by moraines which for the time furnished a barrier. In 



1 Kemp, J. F. Physiography of the Adirondacks. Popular Science 

 Mcnthly. Ma-;ch ico6. p. 199; Ogilvie, I. H. Geology cf the Paradox 

 Lake Qrardrmgle. N. Y. State Miis. Bui. 96. 



