DRUMLINS OF CENTRAL WESTERN NEW YORK 4OI 



bay) we find, as noted above, that the direction toward which the 

 drumlins point veers from southeast to east. But as we pass on 

 north some 10 miles, to Ellisburg and Belleville, we find the drum- 

 lins pointing southwest, or in direction nearly opposed to the drum- 

 lins between Oswego and Mexico 



These opposing directions represent ice-flow movement at dif- 

 ferent stages of the waning ice body. While the Ontarian mass 

 yet covered the Oswego-Pulaski district the radial flow produced 

 the forms which point southeast at Oswego and east at Sandy 

 Creek. But during the latest stage of the ice in the basin the 

 flow of the St Lawrence valley lobe produced the southwest-pointing 

 forms between Ellisburg and Watertown. 



It will now be recognized that if the southeast-pointing forms 

 were made by an earlier flow of the same waning ice mass that pro- 

 duced the later southwest-directed forms then somewhere between 

 the two opposing forms the drumlinized drift should indicate a 

 turning, swinging or pivotal motion of the ice. As a matter of 

 fact the drumlins in the district east of Mexico bay do show the 

 complexity of form and direction required by the theory of ice move- 

 ment stated above. 1 



Seen in the field, on the ground, the drumlins of the Pulaski 

 district show peculiarities of form which the map contours do not 

 suggest and which are puzzling and apparently inconsistent. The 

 main drumlin forms, as shown on the map [pi. 5], point southeast 

 to east. As seen from the north or south the characteristic profile 

 is usually clear, but with change in point of view, looking . from 

 west or east, one sees instead of the expected end view or cross- 

 section profile the peculiar longitudinal profile of the drumlin oval. 

 Many of these contrawise forms should have received expression 

 on the topographic sheets. 



From whatever direction we view many of these hills the drumlin 

 form appears. In many cases one detects a faint but distinct mold- 

 ing of the drift in direction highly inclined to the main form. 

 Sometimes an irregular surface which is regarded as morainal 

 becomes equivocal or even decidedly ice-molded with a change in 

 point of view. There are patches of emphatic moraine surface and 



1 This is not a case of finding that or which one is looking. The following observations relat- 

 ing to the peculiar forms of the Pulaski drumlins were made and the facts recorded as side notes 

 while making special study of other phenomena, and their significance was not appreciated at 

 the time. 



