32 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



Channels conveying tributary water from Oatka and Genesee valleys 



The territory covered in this chapter is not now a part of the Erie 

 drainage area, but belongs to the Genesee river. During the time 

 of the ice recession, however, an extensive region to the east, possibly 

 including all the Finger Lakes district of central New York 1 was 

 drained westward past the ice front until the latter had receded to 

 Leroy and Batavia, at which time it appears that lower escape was 

 opened to the east, through Syracuse, and the direction of the 

 glacial drainage was reversed. 



Plate 6 shows the channels between the Tonawanda, Oatka and 

 Genesee valleys. The series of channels lying between the Tona- 

 wanda and Oatka are not excelled in their general character by any * 

 other series in the Erian drainage. The entire slope from the 

 parallel of Linden to that of Batavia, 9 miles, is quite denuded of 

 its drift , and the numerous strong channels are mostly in rock. They 

 show the work of a large volume of water for a relatively short time. 



The highest group of these channels lies south of the Erie Railroad 

 at West Linden, at 1300 down to 1200 feet, and all in rock. The 

 intermediate set of channels covers a breadth of 2% miles between 

 the parallels of Bethany and East Bethany, the Lackawanna Rail- 

 road lying in the lowest member of the series, at 1000 feet. 



On the north side of the Lackawanna channel at East Bethany 

 is a fine example of a glacial outwash sand plain. The sinuous line 

 of the ice contact shows conspicuously along the highway, on the 

 northeast side, in the abrupt, irregular border of the plain and the 

 accented morainal topography below the level of the sand plain. 

 A strong esker, followed by the crooked road leading north, is the 

 bed deposit of the feeding stream. 



The lower series of channels are broad and somewhat indefinite 

 scourways, from 1000 to 920 feet. They seem to be in drift, and 

 were so low and nearly graded to their base level (either the shallow 

 waters south of Batavia or the Warren lake at Corfu) that they were 

 unable to deepen their beds. The later flow seems to have filled 

 or leveled up whatever valley depression once existed at Batavia. 



'At the time of this writing the full history of central New York drainage 

 has not been deciphered. In a former writing [Geol. Soc. Am. Bui. 1899. 10:44] 

 the idea was stated that Lake Newberry, which occupied the Seneca, Cayuga 

 and Keuka valleys, was extinguished by westward escape into Lake Warren, 

 near Canandaigua. This is now thought to be wrong, for it appears that 

 Lake Warren did not enter central New York until subsequent to the time of 

 all the ice border drainage in western New York. It now seems probable 

 that the local waters adjacent to Seneca valley on the west were lowered into 

 the Newberry lake, and that the latter finally found escape westward. If this 

 is the correct interpretation then the Bethany- Batavia channels carried for 

 a time the entire glacial drainage of all the territory as far east as Syracuse. 



