r76 



NEW YORK STA.TE MUSEUM 



The east and west road in Beekmantown just at the south 

 limits of the map passes over a series of ridges at progressively- 

 higher and higher levels, which somewhat resemble beaches in 

 .shape but do not seem to be such, as they consist in large part 

 of rather coarse and not well water-worn material. It is prob- 

 ably to these that Prof. G. F. Wright alludes in a short paper', 

 and these that he calls lateral moraines. 1 The writer has not 

 given them sufficiently critical study to speak positively of their 

 nature, but is disposed to agree that they are due to lateral 

 streams along the edge of an ice tongue which lingered in the 

 Champlain valley after the ice had disappeared from the hills. 

 Deposits of apparently similar origin run north along much of 

 Eand hill between the 600 and S00 foot levels. A single knob at 

 the TOO foot level appears like an elongated drumlin, as suggested 

 by Prof. Wright. Its surface is profusely covered with boulders 

 and it is apparently of till, no exposures occurring. A little over 

 a mile north of this drumloid hill is another knob of till or 

 moraine at precisely the same level, and a mile and a half farther 

 north, in Altona, is yet another of still more elongated shape. 

 A satisfactory explanation of these three outlying knobs with 

 identical summit levels has not presented itself. 



In the northern half of Mooers the drift is very heavy and is 

 morainic, though no bulky and conspicuous terminal moraine ap- 

 pears, and in general the moraine covering over the till is not 

 thick, so far as can be judged by the few stream sections. The 

 irregular, hummocky topography and numerous marshes are 

 characteristically morainic. Yet occasional rock outcrops show 

 in this belt, and the streams not infrequently show ledges in their 

 beds. There is no indication that the ice made more than a very 

 brief pause along this line. 



Another similar east and west belt, with a breadth of some 

 2 miles, crosses southern Altona. Heavy boulder trains, mainly 

 of Potsdam sandstone, are frequent on the surface. Like the 

 previous belt, this does not mark a protracted pause in the gen- 

 eral ice retreat. 



1 American geologist. 1S9S. 22:333-34. 



