Education Department Bulletin 



Published fortnightly by the University of the State of New York 



Entered as second-class matter June 24, iqo8, at the Post Office at Albany, N. Y., under the 



act of July 16, 1894 



No. 509 ALBANY, N. Y. December 15, 191 1 



New York State Museum 



John M. Clarke, Director 



Museum Bulletin 154 



GLACIAL GEOLOGY OF THE SCHENECTADY 

 QUADRANGLE 



BY 



JAMES H. STOLLER 



The bedrock of the area comprised in the Schenectady topographic 

 sheet consists of the sandstones and shales of the Lorraine forma- 

 tion. The present report has to do with the materials overlying the 

 bedrock, that is, the soils and earthy materials of whatever kind, 

 whether fragmentary or more or less compacted, including clays, 

 sands, gravels, hardpan, loose stones and boulders. These surface 

 materials (excepting such additions as are of recent origin, as 

 stream alluvium and blown sand) were brought to their present 

 location by the agency of moving ice or by the flooded waters result- 

 ing from the melting of the ice. They are deposits of the Pleisto- 

 cene, or Glacial period. 



The distribution of these deposits, especially those laid down 

 during the epoch of flooded waters, was determined largely by the 

 general topography of the region, as due to the slope and surface 

 features of the bedrock. A brief description of the more important 

 of these topographic features will therefore first be given. 



TOPOGRAPHY DUE TO ROCK SURFACES 



THE MOHAWK CHANNEL 



The area under consideration is crossed by the Mohawk river 

 which pursues a zigzag course across the southern half of the sheet. 

 Where the river enters the area, at its western edge, its valley is 



