28 The Ame?'icftn Geologist. July, 1897 
erly trend." I have been unable to find in geological litera- 
ture any notice of actual observations upon the strije or till 
of this region. Hence I fuKillcd a long cherished desire in 
studying the glacial phenomenon about Mt. Whiteface, one of 
the best known and most conspicuous mountains in northern 
New York. 
In passing through Jay and Wilmington striie were observed 
pointing S. 50° W., and the till contains boulders of Potsdam 
sandstone besides various granites. Mt. Whiteface exceeds 
4000 feet in altitude, and rises considerably above the general 
level of the adjacent elevated country. Nearly the whole of 
the mountain is covered by till, made up principally of an- 
orthosites and fragments of Potsdam sandstone. I was una- 
ble to examine the upper three hundred feet of the peak, but 
have no reason to suppose the facts are any different there 
from what have been mentioned; but it was quite a disap- 
pointment to me, not to have been able to search for striae or 
glacial smoothing at the very summit. Prof. H. P. Gushing 
and Mr. F. B. Taylor tell me in conversation that a corres- 
ponding S. W. direction is the prevailing one all over the 
north flank of the Adirondacks, Following up Lake Cham- 
plain the course is usually southerly, but the S. W. direction 
commences very near the water, as at Crown Point. Professor 
Kemp reports a S. W. course as prevalent about Moriah. Van- 
uxem mentions the occurrence of the peculiar granitic bould- 
ers of the Adirondacks in the counties lying to the south- 
west, as in Herkimer, Montgomery, Oneida, Otsego, Madison, 
Cortland and Tioga. 
The conclusion naturally following from these statements 
is that the Adirondack region has been sw^ept over by the ice 
from base to summit. The hard sandstones everywhere con- 
tribute extensively to the composition of the till, and indicate 
by their presence as well as by striae and the dispersal of the 
granite blocks, the direction of the movement from the north- 
east. Probably every square mile of this elevated region has 
been covered. 
This conclusion was not anticipated, and hence gives us a 
different and consequently a better idea of the real movement 
of the ice sheet east of western New York, As is w^ell known 
the direction of the ice over New England, including all the 
