GLACIAL WATERS IN CENTRAL NEW YORK 



17 



At present it is not possible to correlate the Phelps-Geneva 

 delta and its receiving lake with any particular outlet for the water 

 on the east. The escape must have been 40 miles away, and 

 probably was by the channels between Camillus and Syracuse. 

 Possibly the channels at Elbridge and Hartlot [pi. 4] on the Skane- 

 ateles meridian, carried the primary overflow for a time. The 

 close correlation depends on the tracing of the moraines, now very 

 fragmental because eroded by the waters. 



Most of the channels of this series are on the Onondaga limestone, 

 which accounts partly for their shallowness, great breadth and 

 indefiniteness of the borders ; but the lowest channels in the Phelps 

 district are down in the Camillus or gypsum group of the Salina 

 shale. 



Lower series: Fair port to Lyons 



Approximately parallel with the Victor-Phelps series of chan- 

 nels is another water course, 6 miles north, of greater simplicity 

 and unity. This heads at Fairport at the present altitude of 460 

 feet and debouches southwest of Lyons, 26 miles away in a direct 

 line, at 400 feet elevation. The thriving towns of Fairport, Mace- 

 don, Palmyra, Port Gibson, Newark and Lyons lie in its course. 

 The New York Central and the West Shore Railroads follow this 

 ancient river course its whole length, as does also the Erie canal. 

 In this connection it should be noted that the glacial waterways 

 through western-central New York have provided the transporta- 

 tion lines with their remarkably uniform east and west grades. 



East of Palmyra the channel splits into two, reuniting a mile 

 farther east; but it immediately divides again and surrounds a 

 tract of country about 3 miles in diameter, reuniting 2 miles north- 

 west of Newark. The West Shore Railroad and the Erie canal fol- 

 low the southern loop and the New York Central the northern loop. 



This channel lies in the midst of the dominant drumlin area of 

 central New York [see title 39] and these most remarkable and 

 interesting forms of glacial drift border the channel on either hand. 

 East of Palmyra the drumlins themselves do not seem to have 

 been eroded by the stream flow, but instead the channel is some- 

 what below the base of the drumlins, forming a trench in the soft 

 Salina shales. West of Palmyra some of the drumlins lie at the 

 channel level and have been cut by the widening of the channel. 



The map, plate 3, shows open channellike passages north of 

 Newark and Lyons which are not represented as glacial drainage 

 courses, for the reason that at some points they are so constricted 



