Correspondence. 333 
CORPxESPONDENCE. 
Glacial Observations in the Champlain-St. Lawrence Val- 
ley. Two points of considerable interest came under my observation 
during a recent excursion in Canada. 
I St. A Buried Channel in the Valley of the Maskinonge 
.^zW;-.— This stream enters into lake St. Peter from the north, about 
seventy miles below Montreal. The line of hills which forms the 
border of the old Laurentian continent, is about fifteen miles back, 
and forms a well-defined line visible from the river through the entire 
distance. A well-defined terrace, rising about fifty feet from the river, 
is encountered about two miles inland. From this point on to the 
Laurentian hills there is a gradual rise over an even surface of boulder 
clay until an elevation of something over two hundred feet is reached 
at the base of the hills. This glacial deposit is deeply eroded. 
Where the river breaks through the Laurentian barrier it descends 
by a waterfall nearly two hundred feet high, and finds its way into a 
preglacial valley running at right angles to the fall, the river itself hav- 
ing turned abruptly to enter the gorge. This preglacial gorge was 
found to extend about a mile northward with very little glacial de- 
bris filling it. At this point, however, it was entirely tilled with 
glacial debris, which forms a complete obstruction. For several miles 
above as far as to Rousseau Platte the stream is very sluggish, while 
the banks and the bottom are of sand and clay. But so extensive are 
the deposits of modified drift that it was impossible to tell just where 
the buried channel was or how far up it extended. The whole condi- 
tion of things, however, furnished a striking and fresh illustration of 
the now well-established law that in the glaciated region a waterfall 
is sure indication of a buried channel in the near vicinity. Indeed it 
was not difficult to recognize in the gentle inclinations of the sides of 
this preglacial valley the enormous lengths of time during which pre- 
glacial rivers had been doing their work, nor in the small amount of 
erosion at the present site of the waterfall, the very limited time during 
which the stream had occupied its present channel. For the privilege 
of making these observations I am indebted to the kindly interest of 
Messrs. Frank Wing and C. H. Simpson, of New York city, who have 
summer residences in that region. 
2nd. Lateral Moraines near Plattsburgh' N. Y. — Mr. S. Prentiss 
Baldwin in his paper in the American Geologist (vol. xiii., p. i8i), al- 
ludes to a possible terminal moraine in Altona township, Clinton 
county, N. Y., about ten miles northeast of Plattsburgh. Here there 
are three or four well-defined parallel lines of morainic deposits just 
above the level of the highest terrace of the Champlain epoch, which 
is here about four hundred feet above the sea. I had the privilege of 
being conducted over the region by Dr. D. S. Kellogg and Prof. Hud- 
son, of the Normal school. Our observations led us to conclude that 
these deposits could more properly be called lateral than terminal mo- 
