GLACIAL WATERS IN THE LAKE ERIE BASIN 33 



Between the Oatka and the Genesee valleys only two definite 

 west-leading channels have been mapped. The higher is a deep, 

 rock channel, at altitude of 1000 feet, with a northwest direction, 

 opening into the Oatka valley at Pearl Creek. This is the eastern 

 representative of the Linden and Bethany channels. The lower 

 channel is 6 miles north and is utilized by the Lackawanna Railroad, 

 with altitude of 940 feet. These two channels were the outlet of 

 the seventh stage of the Genesee glacial lakes, which were named 

 in a former publication the Warren Tributary lake. 



The curving direction of these channels on the valley slope shows 

 clearly the lobation of the ice front projecting up the low ground of 

 the Genesee valley. 



Here ends the too brief description of the Erian glacial drainage 

 channels. But study of the region shows still other channels heading 

 east of Leroy at 800 feet altitude, and northwest at 700 feet, which 

 lead to the east. These are the beginning of a remarkable series of 

 low level drainage channels extending east through Syracuse to the 

 Mohawk valley. Those beyond Syracuse have already been de- 

 scribed in former writings [see p. 7], and those between Leroy and 

 Syracuse will form the subject of a future article. 



Leroy and Batavia stand at the critical altitude between the two 

 opposite directions of ice border drainage. During all the centuries 

 while the ice front was melting back obliquely from the south slope of 

 the Erie basin the ice border in central New York was also receding, 

 so that low eastward escape was soon to occur through Syracuse. 

 As long as the ice front, lying against high ground in the Syracuse 

 district, shut out the central New York waters from a low eastward 

 escape they all passed westward to Lakes Whittlesey and Warren, 

 as described. But while the ice was resting over Batavia [see p. 31] 

 the relations changed so as to permit lower eastward flow, even for 

 the Oatka valley, and the direction of the ice border drainage was 

 permanently reversed. 



When the ice front passed north of Batavia the glacial waters on 

 the east were down to perhaps near 800 feet, and the Tonawanda 

 creek found a sinuous course through the moraine and entered 

 Lake Warren as a land stream. 



LOCAL GLACIAL LAKES 



The drainage channels described in the preceding pages were the 

 outlets for the glacier-dammed lakes held in the valley basins. It 

 would be the more logical order to describe the lakes before describ- 

 ing their outlets; but the reverse order has been followed because 



