KQUiVOCAL FEATtmi^S — ABSENCE 01' BEACHE5S 801 



this salient lie the beaches of the ocean-level waters — the Champlain 

 Sea — some stretches in splendid form, but in some places weak. The 

 summit level is about 740 feet. At a lower level, about 525 feet, is a 

 declining series of heavy cobble bars passing near Covey Hill post-office, 

 Maritana and Franklin Center, before it passes southwest into New York 

 north of Chateaugay. When we follow the summit series of cobble bars 

 southward from Covey Hill along the Champlain side of the highland, 

 we find it increasing in strengtli and remarkably well developed as far 

 south as the parallel of Port Kent or to the south edge of the Dannemora 

 quadrangles. But the Covey Hill Post-office series of bars, which are the 

 stronger bars on the north end of the salient, weaken southward and dis- 

 appear near West Plattsburg, in the northeast corner of the Dannemora 

 quadrangle, and have no strength anywhere to the south. Two miles 

 northeast of West Plattsburg this shoreline is only a rolling plain of 

 sand, like other vast areas in the submerged Champlain Valley. This 

 locality had as good exposure as where strong beaches occur. The waters 

 stood there just as long, and fine beaches are found occasionally at lower 

 altitudes. What is the explanation? Only the difference in the material. 

 The bars and spits are cobble or gravel. ^Vhere the waters found only 

 sand they were unable to build embankments. On the Vermont side of 

 the broad Champlain Valley, with good exposure to the stronger winds, 

 the shore embankments are in coarse materials. Some small bars of 

 sand are found on lee slopes or in sheltered places where weak waves 

 found a small amount of material proportionate to their power. A good 

 example occurs on the east slope of the Williston Hill, in Vermont (30, 

 page 25). All the heavy beaches in the sealevel waters in the Hudson, 

 Champlain, and Saint Lawrence valleys are coarse materials, ^never sand. 

 Even the steadier level of Lake Iroquois produced only cobble bars in 

 the stretch of short-lived waters between Watertown and Covey Pass. 

 On the extensive delta plains, with superabundance of sand and fine 

 gravel, beach features are practically wanting. An abundance of sand 

 seems to have inhibited bar construction, even when there was consider- 

 able coarse material. Long Island must have been lifted through the 

 sealevel waters as rapidly as was the Champlain region and the physical 

 conditions were similar. But Long Island and Staten Island (also Mar- 

 thas Vineyard and Nantucket) were at a disadvantage for production of 

 beach phenomena, as the shores were exposed to tidal changes of level 

 and the glacial outwash was so profuse that the shallowed waters could 

 do no more than distribute it. The condition of shallow and ineffective 

 shore waters with superabundance of fine materials persisted over all the 

 rising plain. 



