408 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



the lower and smoother plain. The contouring on the Erie county 

 sheets, the Attica, Depew, Buffalo, and other quadrangles to the 

 south, fails to properly indicate the drumlinizing of the land 

 -surface. As the ridges lie in the smooth country occupied by the 

 glacial Lake Warren and the subsequent falling waters, and as they 

 have the southwest direction parallel with the general contours and 

 the lake shore lines, some of the smaller ridges are liable to be mis- 

 taken, in distant view, for huge wave-buik bars or beaches. 



The small variety of the long ridges is displayed in the Lvons- 

 Clyde-Savannah district, where the primary drumlins include 

 between them a secondary or minor order of ridges. These inferior 

 ridges are straight, parallel, side by side, and often not larger than 

 large railway embankments. They are not good subjects for pho- 

 tography but plates 32 and 33 are examples. These attenuated, 

 intermediate ridges prove the molding action of the ice, and 

 its drumlin- making tendency, even in the hollows between the 

 larger structures. The major and minor ridges taken together 

 suggest comparison with a piece of wood molding " struck " by the 

 planing machine. This comparison is even better if we take the 

 drumlins which exhibit longitudinal ribbing or fluting along their 

 sides or bases. This longitudinal molding on the slopes of drum- 

 lins is certainly constructional and not due to any subsequent or 

 erosional effect, as are the vertical forms. 1 



To the observant traveler on the railroads between Rochester and 

 Syracuse the statement that the longitudinal drumlin profile is 

 always convex seems untrue, because decided concave notching may 

 be seen on both north and south ends of the drumlins. These are 

 due to subsequent wave erosion by glacial lake waters. Some work 

 of this kind was done at higher levels by the Warren and Dana 

 waters [pi. 17], but the most conspicuous notching is in the area of 

 the Iroquois waters. The pronounced erosive work illustrated on 

 the shore of the living Ontario [pi. 7, 8] and along the " Ridge 

 road " or ancient shore of the extinct Iroquois [pi. 4] may be seen 

 in less degree but yet clearly between Lyons and Syracuse from the 

 trains of the New York Central and the West Shore Railroads. 

 Plates 36, 37 and 39 are views taken from the railroads. 



1 Speaking of these ridges D. F. Lincoln has said : " From this they grade downward to little 

 ridgelike elevations of 5 feet in hight and a furlong in length. Even these are quite distinct to 

 the eye, rising from the uniformly level plain." 



