GLACIAL GEOLOGY OF THE SARATOGA QUADRANGLE 1 7 



clearly deposits made in static waters. As a body the sands are 

 continuous with formations of like character which extend north, 

 east and south in the general valley of the Hudson. It has been 

 shown by the work of Woodworth and others that these sands and 

 clays are deposits made in the extensive body of glacial waters 

 named Lake Albany. 1 



In the present account it will be convenient to distinguish between 

 the Lake Albany deposits which form the lower plain at average 

 elevation of 320 feet (which may be called the Saratoga plain) and 

 the upper or Milton plain with elevation of 400 feet. The materials 

 of the Saratoga plain, while varying in different localities, consist 

 predominantly of fine-grained sands with admixture of clay. Over 

 a considerable portion of the area the soils are of the type com- 

 monly described as sandy loam and afford excellent farming and 

 gardening lands. The State forest nurseries located southeast of 

 the village of Saratoga Springs occupy lands of this formation. 



The thickness of the deposits of the Saratoga plain as exposed 

 where Coesa creek has cut through them to bedrock (near where 

 the railroad lines cross the creek, 2 miles southeast of Saratoga), 

 i9 about 40 feet. About 1 mile to the north of this point the records 

 of borings made by the gas-pumping company referred to above 

 indicate a thickness of 95 feet of sands and clayey sands. The 

 records of these borings as taken from the well books of the com- 

 pany are as follows : 



Well no. 1 No. 2 No. 3 

 feet feet feet 



Soil and common sand 49 54 54 



Quicksands 28 31 29 



Putty clay 18 10 9.5 



Blue clay 32 21 19.5 



Dark gray sand and gravel 35 24 



Slate rock 38 43 



Lime rock 23 



It is evident that the first three divisions of strata (together 95 

 feet in thickness) comprise Lake Albany deposits and that the 

 fourth and fifth divisions represent glacial till. As already ex- 

 plained, the glacial deposits here occupy a depression in the under- 

 lying rocks. 



1 According to Fairchild, the body of waters in which the Hudson valley 

 clays and sands were deposited was at sea level and at its highest develop- 

 ment formed a strait connecting the oceanic waters which then occupied 

 the Saint Lawrence valley with the ocean at New York. Pleistocene Geology 

 of New York State; Science, Feb. 21, 1913, p. 295. 



