GLACIAL WATERS IN THE LAKE ERIE BASIN 



41 



anys, were the westward outlets of a lower lake, with levels falling 

 from about 1300 feet down to 1000 feet, which we will call the 

 Wyoming-Pavilion lake. 



The full history of the waters in the Oatka and Genesee valleys 

 belongs to another paper which should treat specially of the Genesee 

 and central New York valleys. 



GREATER GLACIAL LAKES 

 General statement 



The evidences of standing water at high levels in the Huron-Erie 

 basin were recognized in the early occupation of the territory, and 

 many geologists have participated in the investigation, among 

 whom should be mentioned N. H. Winchell, J. S. Newberry, G. K. 

 Gilbert, J. W. Spencer, C. R. Dryer, and specially Frank Leverett 

 and F. B. Taylor. The elaborate monograph by Leverett, already 

 noted, is the latest comprehensive treatise on the subject, and its 

 pages 711-55 give a good account of the lake history and records, 

 with excellent maps. Recently Taylor has worked out in Michigan 

 the history of the greater lakes in correlation with the different 

 positions of the oscillating ice front. 



For several years three vast glacial lakes, successively lower in 

 altitude, have been recognized in the Huron-Erie basin. These 

 have been named lakes Maumee, Whittlesey and Warren. Recently 

 Taylor announces another lake level, "Arkona" representing a 

 stage between the Maumee and the Whittlesey, but lower than the 

 latter. 



Lake Maumee 



This earliest member of the series of great lakes in the Erie basin 

 named by Dryer in 1888, did not extend into New York. It was 

 initiated when the ice front retreated from the head of the Maumee 

 valley at Fort Wayne, Ind., and the primitive and principal outlet 

 was at Fort Wayne over to the Wabash-Mississippi. As the convex 

 ice front receded northeastward the lake followed it until the southern 

 branch of the lake, creeping along the glacier margin, reached as far 

 as Girard, Pa. At the same time the western branch pushed along 

 the ice margin in Michigan and found another and somewhat lower 

 escape at Imlay across the "Thumb" of Michigan (the point of land 

 between the south end of Lake Huron and Saginaw bay) over to the 

 glacial lake Saginaw (occupying the Saginaw valley) which poured 

 its waters into the glacial Lake Chicago (occupying the Michigan 

 valley) with ultimate flow to the Mississippi. 



