New York State Museum Bulletin 



Application pending for entry as second-class matter at the Post Office at Albany, N. Y. 

 under the act of August 24, 19 12 



Published monthly by The University of the State of New York 

 No. 183 ALBANY, N. Y. March i, 1916 



The University of the State of New York 

 New York State Museum 



John M. Clarke, Director 



GLACIAL GEOLOGY OF THE SARATOGA 

 QUADRANGLE 



BY 

 JAMES H. STOLLER 



INTRODUCTION 



This report deals with the deposits of the glacial or Pleistocene 

 period of geological history as they occur on the area of the Sara- 

 toga quadrangle. In general, these deposits consist of the aggre- 

 gate of materials which overlie bedrock. The sands and clays 

 which make up the body of the soils and subsoils, the coarser frag- 

 ments, gravel, cobbles and boulders, are materials derived from the 

 ice sheet of the glacial period. To these glacial deposits slight ac- 

 cessions have been made in the recent epoch, namely, the alluvial 

 deposits of streams, low hills of blown sands and the accumula- 

 tions of vegetable debris in swampy areas. Brief mention of these 

 recent deposits is also made in' this report. 



The thickness of the mantle of materials overlying bedrock varies 

 in different portions of the area from nothing (where patches of 

 bare rock occur) to more than 200 feet. Its modes of arrange- 

 ment, whether heaped up in masses, where deposited from moving 

 ice, or laid down in even horizontal layers, where deposited in 

 waters accumulated from the melting of the ice, have determined 

 generally the minor features and in places the bolder and character- 

 istic forms of the landscape. The nature of the country as fitted to 

 be the abode of man has likewise been determined largely by the 

 composition and distribution of the glacial deposits. The kinds of 



