GLACIAL WATERS IN CENTRAL NEW YORK 



29 



in one section, has been excavated out of the former delta is proven 

 by a conical mound of cemented gravel, over 40 feet high, stand- 

 ing conspicuously in the open valley a mile northwest of Cedar- 

 vale, a witness to the general filling of the old valley and the sub- 

 sequent reexcavation by the falling drainage [sec pi. 21]. The 

 abundance of travertine in the mound suggests that the latter 

 covers the site of an extinguished lime spring. This mound was 

 noted, with correct interpretation, in 1842 by Vanuxem [see title 4, 

 p. 247]- 



A stretch of open valley, f of a mile square, from which the 

 delta deposit has been removed; separates the Cedarvale portion 

 of the delta from the larger and more scattered portion at South 

 Onondaga and Indian Village. North and northwest of South 

 Onondaga lies a mass over a square mile in area, the mesalike 

 summit plateau having altitude of about 740 feet, with an eastern 

 terrace of 670 to 660 feet; while the village lies on a 600 foot bench. 

 A succession of erosion terraces with steep curving borders extend 

 east and north for 3 miles, declining to the valley bottom of Onon- 

 daga creek at about 440 feet. South of the lowest channel, in 

 which the west branch of the Onondaga creek runs, is a broad 

 expanse of the delta filling in the higher part of the old valley, 

 toward Cardiff, at altitude of 640 to 500 feet. The borders of the 

 delta have received some contribution from the land stream 

 drainage, a good illustration of which is seen south of South Onon- 

 daga where two small brooks falling 700 feet in ij miles have 

 built deposits inclosing boulders in size up to 2 and 3 feet in 

 diameter. 



From some point of observation which commands a general 

 view of the delta masses it is seen, much more plainly than the 

 above figures for elevation indicate, that the many terraces or 

 plains in the delta fall into three groups; the highest at 860 feet 

 and downward, the middle (in altitude but not in geographic 

 position) at about 750, and the lower from 680 down to 500 feet. 

 These levels represent corresponding planes in the waters held in 

 the valley, called the Onondaga Valley lake, and correlate of 

 necessity with eastward outlets. We find these outlet channels 

 on the ground southeast of Syracuse, as will be described in the 

 next chapter. 



Assuming that the great Gulf and Cedarvale channels were made 

 by hypo-Warren waters it must be noted that the intake of the 

 Gulf channel, 820 feet, is 60 to 70 feet beneath the plane of Lake 



