BUFFALO SOCIETY OF NATURAL SCIENCES 71 



Eighteen Mile creek drained through a channel which debouched 

 into a glacial front lake at Hamburg. The lakes filling Buffalo 

 creek drained through streams that debouched into the same 

 lake at East Aurora. 



Several of these glacier front streams can still be traced in 

 Erie county with reasonable accuracy. One of the best preserved 

 is to be found southeast of Orchard Park. It heads in Cazenovia 

 creek half a mile north of Quaker road, which it crosses in a 

 southwesterly direction a mile west of the bridge at Jewettville. 

 Thence it continues its course to Deuel's corners. Just south- 

 east of Deuel's it is joined by a branch the bed of which is now 

 occupied by the B. R. and P. Railway. South of Deuel's it 

 continues its southwesterly course but loses its definiteness. It 

 probably was the stream which built the delta plain upon 

 which Hamburg is sitnated. 



In its upper course, that is from Cazenovia creek to Deuel's, 

 it is a well marked stream valley, now occupied by a tiny rivulet. 

 South of Deuel's it loses one of its banks though the other side 

 is well marked. The reason for this one sided valley seems to be 

 that the stream at this point washed the edge of the glacier which 

 served as one side of the stream. 



Other glacier-front stream valleys may be seen in the 

 moraine northeast of East Aurora and north of Wales, These 

 seem to have flowed westward into the large glacial L,ake 

 Warren. 



Glacial Lakes. 



When the glacier had receded north of the divide between 

 the Allegheny drainage and the present L,ake Erie drainage a 

 lake was formed in the trough between the ice and the divide. 

 This lake overflowed at the lowest point in the rim of the trough. 

 This lowest point varied at different stages of the recession of 

 the glacier, as successively lower points were uncovered. The 

 earliest of these lakes in this county seems to have been that in 

 the upper reaches of the Cattaraugus creek which were uncovered 

 before the lower portion of its valley. This lake overflowed at 

 Machias at an altitude of 1646 feet and its outlet occupied the 

 valley now occupied by Ischua creek. Its channel is strongly 

 marked by huge sand and gravel beds. It drained into the 



