ANCIENT WATER LEVELS OF CHAMPLAIN-HUDSON VALLEYS 135 



West bank of the Hudson between Schuylerville and Stillwater 

 township. South of the valley of the Fish creek, the Hudson rock 

 terrace extends back from the river as far as Quaker Springs 

 with a width of about 2 miles. Clays or stony clays rise in 

 flattish, stream-cut plains to the 300 foot contour line, where the 

 Hudson slates meet the folded sandstone beds which form the 

 belt of low hills on the east of Saratoga lake. 



Southward toward the Stillwater line gravel and sand occur 

 in beds as much as 10 feet thick over the clays. Near the river 

 the sands suddenly cease, giving rise to a low terrace at the base 

 of which small springs break out on the surface of the clays. 



Farther north there are broad tracts in which the Hudson 

 slates are practically bare of drift, such clays as appear at the 

 surface being due to the disintegration and decomposition of 

 the highly tilted slates. Over this eroded surface large, round 

 concretions derived from the slates occur as boulders. Such 

 concretions may be seen in place in the railroad cut north of Cove* 

 ville and which when loosened from their bedding places might 

 be mistaken for glacial erratics. These driftless strips near the 

 river evidently demand the action of a strong current flowing 

 through the Hudson valley apparently before the complete re- 

 excavation of the gorge in its glacial and later clay tilling [see 

 p. 193]. 



Kendrick's hill. In the southeastern corner of Wilton town- 

 ship a hill, of at least glacial materials so far as the road cuts 

 show, rises to three summits, forming a conspicuous object on 

 the general level of the broad sand plains between the Hudson 

 at Schuylerville and the base of the Adirondacks. About the 

 northeastern slope the hill has a morainic aspect. In places 

 it is enveloped with driven sand. I found no traces of shore lines 

 on Kendrick's hill. In fact its base lies above the 320 foot con- 

 tour line. 



Sa rat <></(( lake region. Saratoga lake as in the case of Round 

 lake occupies a depression in the bed rock but in this case of 

 far greater extent than the area of the lake for much of the 

 depression has been filled by glacial deposits. That the ice sheet 

 is partly if not wholly responsible for the unfilled condition 

 of this ancient basin is indicated by the forn* and distribution 



