ELIZABETHTOWN AND PORT HENRY QUADRANGLES I9 



the valley of the Boquet the lake was created whose abandoned 

 bottom now yields the meadows of Pleasant valley. This lake 

 bottom was described by Heinrich Ries in 1893/ The ponding 

 back of the waters was discussed four years later by F. B. Taylor.^ 

 Down stream and in the northeastern edge of the Elizabethtown 

 sheet, there is a morainal barrier which is now cut through. Its top 

 is on the 500 foot contour while the stream flows at 400 feet. This 

 is not quite high enough for the Elizabethtown bottom at 540-60, 

 but it would account for some of the phenomena in the south- 

 western portion of the Ausable sheet, where lake bottoms are 

 beautifully developed. The Elizabethtown lake bottom has gone to 

 the extent of arable meadows but the one which lies along the outlet 

 of Lincoln pond and which doubtless marks its former extent, is 

 still in the condition of swamp. It is a not uncommon experience 

 to note other little abandoned lake or pond bottoms, too small to 

 be brought out very strongly by the contours, but furnishing a 

 stretch of meadow land or of a small farm. Within the area 

 of the sheet almost all of the stages from lake or pond to meadow. 

 which have been graphically described by C. H. Smyth, jr," can 

 be identified and the significance of these minor features is so 

 plain as to easily attract and impress even the casual observer 

 during drives for pleasure. 



Deltas. In no other form of evidence is the effect of the post- 

 glacial ponding so clearly indicated as the deltas, and that too im- 

 mediately beneath a portion of Elizabethtown itself. The flat or 

 terrace shown on the map at the 6oo contour and lying in the 

 southwestern portion of the village is a particularly fine example 

 and is almost a dead level. It has furnished the site for the Wind- 

 sor and Antlers hotels and for the county buildings. Undoubtedly 

 it was built up by the Branch and its upper portion has probably 

 wasted away but Httle in the time since its construction. It stands 

 quite zo feet above the lake bottom of Pleasant valley and the 

 600 foot contour is not cut b}^ the Boquet until we go 3 miles or 

 more to the south at the New Russia cascade. In August 1893 

 thrre was a very sudden and heavy storm in this section of the 

 mountains which procHiced such floo^''s that bridges were carried 

 off and the banks were undermined throughout this and neighbor- 



1 Ries, Heinrich. A Pleistocene Lake Bed at Elizabethtown, N. Y. 

 X. Y. Acad. Sci. Trans. 1893. 13:197. 



2 Lake Adirordack. Am. Geol. 1897. 19:392. 



3 Smyth, C. H. jr. Lake Filling in the Adirondack Region. Am. Geol. 

 1893. 11:85. 



