BULLETIN OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF AMERICA 

 Vol. 8, pp. 285-286 March 29, 1897 



OLD TRACKS OF ERIAN DRAINAGE IN WESTERN NEW YORK 



BY G. K. GILBERT 



(Read before the Society December 30, 1896) 



[Abstract] 



The lowest water-plane of the glacial lake Warren was about 500 feet 

 higher in the region of their overlapping than the plane of the next im- 

 portant glacial lake, Iroquois. Lake Iroquois drained eastward, and, as 

 recently shown by Taylor, lake Warren drained westward. In the epoch 

 between the two water stages the water plane was gradually but not con- 

 tinuously lowered by the discharge of water eastward across western 

 New York. This discharge followed successively several different lines, 

 which were roughly parallel with one another, but cut the lines of modern 

 drainage at right angles. Each line was characterized by a succession of 

 glacial lakelets occupying north-south valleys, and the lakelets were con- 

 nected by rivers traversing the intervening uplands. The channels of 

 the rivers are consjricuous topographic features, having in general the 

 character of troughs, which in drift are from 1,000 to 2,700 feet broad 

 and in shale from 350 to 700 feet. The coarser part of the material ex- 

 cavated in the formation of a channel is usually found in a delta deposit 

 at its eastern end. At various points are cliffs over which the water 

 plunged in cataracts. There are some channels with but a single wall, 

 the opposite wall having been constituted by the ice-front. 



One of the earliest of the channels heads a few miles south of Halfway 

 station, 14 miles west of Syracuse, and is deeply carved in Hamilton 

 shale ; its intake has an altitude of 812 feet. An important channel of 

 later date runs from Fort Hill, north of Le Ro}^, .to Scottsville, and is 

 occupied in part by Oatka creek. Another extends from East Rush to 

 Mendon ; is there interrupted by the Irondequoit valley ; is resumed 

 near Victor ; discontinued near Coonsville ; resumed again at Elbridge, 

 and continued to Fairmount. Yet another extends from Fairport to 

 Lyons. South of Syracuse are three channels, quite close together, one 

 being traversed by the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western railroad, and 

 thence westward to Mycense the system is somewhat complex. Most of 



XLII— Bull. Geol. Soc. Am., Vol. 8, 1896 (285) 



