WAtKlNS GLEN AND ITS PHE-GLACIAL EQUIVALENT 483 



should be no conjecture that Seneca Lake is a rock basin until such be 

 proved. 



Watkins Glen and its pre-Glacial Equivalent 



However, if further investigations should show tliat Seneca Lake (the 

 bottom of which is above that of Lake Ontario) is partly barricaded by 

 rock, there would be strong suspicion that its basin was partly due to the 

 sinking of the floor, owing to solution and removal of underlying salt, 

 which explanation is not needed for Cayuga Lake, nor indeed is it needed 

 here on account of known facts. 



The high country back of Watkins Glen calls for an ancient drainage 

 in the direction of that of the present time, but a passing visit would not 

 leave the impression that such did formerly exist. The rock-walled glen 

 is 1.38 miles in length, rising from 443 feet above the sea to 850 feet 

 beneath the railway bridge (which is 1,015 feet above tide). It is a 

 narrow fissure in the jointed Devonian shales which has been opened by 

 the modern streams. Immediately above the bridge is an enlarged em- 

 bay ment (see figure 2), the northern side and eastern end of which are 

 bounded by banks of drift. Above the bridge the rocky glen becomes a 

 wider valley excavated out of drift, with the rock appearing at only a 

 few points. Here is the great pre-Glacial valley of the district. To the 

 north of the rock-bound glen the ancient valley is not open, but it is 

 found by borings, which reach to 150 feet or more in depth without 

 encountering the bedrock (Corbitt). The reopened cove above the rail- 

 way bridge is a repetition of the features of the Whirlpool at Niagara. 



Hanging Valleys at the Head of Seneca Lake and their pre- 

 Glacial Equivalents 



Three miles up the Seneca Valley is Montour Falls cascading over the 

 rocky side of the trunk valley. Its small stream has not yet cut a gorge 

 more than 25 feet in length. Half a mile to the north is Aunt Sarahs 

 Fall (named after an Indian woman), also descending over the side of the 

 valley. Between these falls is a dry valley in drift heading in the higher 

 country. Along its course, at three-quarters of a mile from its mouth, 

 Mr. Corbitt and others sunk a well in drift to a depth of 150 feet with- 

 out reaching rock. The pre-Glacial representative of both of the modern 

 hanging valleys is seen in dry valley between them. 



At 300 feet above the eastern side of the lake is a peneplain. Here 

 Hector Falls, descending in cascades, has receded only a few feet in the 



