KAMES OF HAMILTON AREA. 21 



may have been the joint product of the two valleys, which here converge 

 from the north, left thekames on its western border and a frontal terrace 

 by discharge at its southern end. Retiring, it left in its bed lakes and 

 marshes, which, with the kames and terraces, form a vivid object-lesson 

 in ice and water work. 



A considerable assemblage of kames lies in a side valley two miles 

 northeast of Hamilton. They have so nearly blockaded the valley that 

 only a moderate amount of constructive work was needed for the em- 

 bankment of the large Madison reservoir. The kames graduate into 

 terraces on the border of the main valley. 



West of Hamilton lies a belt of kames one mile long and a half mile 

 in greatest width. The maximum altitude above the base is 108 feet, 

 with decline southward, fading into the Randallsville terrace. The kame 

 contours reach down to the valley floor. This fact, with other evidence, 

 goes to show that no very deep or massive flood found this avenue of 

 discharge during the closing stages of glaciation. 



Areas farther southward. — Of these, but three are important. The first 

 is at Smyrna, eleven miles south of Hamilton. West of Sherburne and 

 of the Chenango river is a mass of Devonian beds, some miles in extent 

 and 400 feet high, completely dissected out from the main plateau by 

 river and glacial action. Smyrna lies in the lateral valley northwest of 

 this block of strata. The creek which passes Smyrna from the northwest 

 originally took a southeast course b}^ North Norwich. It has now r been 

 diverted northward and enters the river above Sherburne, leaving a part 

 of the ample valley south of Smyrna without a stream, but now traversed 

 by the New York, Ontario and Western railway.* The kames at Smyrna 

 lie in two groups. The first is crescent-shaped, bears the village on its 

 southern end, and extends northward one and one-half miles, with maxi- 

 mum height of 90 feet. The second group is south of the town, on the 

 east side of the valley, more compact in form and about a mile in extent. 

 The elevations rise going southward to 140 feet, and the mass ceases ab- 

 ruptly in a broad, open valley. Another area lies south of Oxford. It 

 will be seen by the map that the Chenango valley is almost free from all 

 but valley train and alluvial accumulations from Randallsville to a point 

 midway between Norwich and Oxford, a distance of twenty-five miles. 

 The Oxford kames lie east of the river. They begin at one mile below 

 Oxford and extend nearly two miles, with a width of one-half mile and 



* South of Sherburne and west of the river is a second isolated mass, separated by a narrow gap 

 from the first. The Delaware, Lackawanna and Western railwa3* leaves the river at Sherburne, 

 passes through this gap, and with the New York, Ontario and Western line reenters the river 

 valley at North Norwich. It is a curious fact that two lines of railway should for several miles 

 leave the perfectly open, main valley and follow a side course which is considerably choked with 

 drift. 



