Correspondence. I97 
for the drainage that once bclungcd to Fall Creek would lead this 
paper beyond its initial purpose."* 
It should be explained in justice to professor Fairchild, that my 
paper was the result not of a "study of stream directions and present 
contours on topographic maps", but of detailed work on foot extending 
over a period of nearly three years. For some time while working on 
the problem, I had hut two sheets, the Dryden and Moravian quad- 
rangles. 
To summarize professor Fairchild's criticism : 
1. He states that I make the valley of Fall creek a preglacial river, 
"debouching into Cayuga valley by the present Fall creek channel." 
2. That I have overlooked "one principle and one fact" which show 
"that no considerable preglacial stream could possibly have followed 
the course given in his map." And that "as a matter of simple fact 
there is no such tributary valley joining the Cayuga valley at Ithaca." 
3. "Nor is there any buried or deserted valley which could have 
been the product of the hypothetical stream." 
4. And that "the reference to the 'moraine of the second glacial 
epoch' is untimely since the moraine in question belongs to the Wis- 
consin,' now regarded as at least the fifth epoch of glaciation." 
As to No. I : 
I do make the Fall .creek valley the product of a southwest flowing 
preglacial stream. I am not able, however, on reading my article again, 
to find any statement which warrants even the inference that this pre- 
glacial stream debouched "into Cayuga valley by the present Fall creek 
channel." The present Fall creek channel is a post-glacial gorge; inci- 
dental to this gorge are buried gorges, the episodes of inter- or im- 
mediately pre-glacial drainage. 
As to No. 2: 
The principle overlooked is that a mature stream attains grade. In 
answer I would quote from my article: "the region is quite mature in 
its drainage development." f One not familiar with the region may 
by consulting the topographic sheets verify the stage of development 
attained; the rock-in-place topography, save in the broad, drift-filled 
valleys, is revealed with approximate accuracy by these sheets. What- 
ever may have been the preglacial condition in the north-south Cayuga 
valley, the grade of the Fall creek stream had been adjusted to it, as 
had also the grade of Six Mile creek. But "as a matter of simple fact 
there is no such tributary valley joining the Cayuga valley at Ithaca"; 
the existence of such a valley is as obvious to me as its non-existence 
is simple to professor Fairchild. A half-hour walk from the Cornell 
campus would convince anyone of the existence of this valley. The 
attitude of Fall creek in reference to Cayuga valley is by no means 
unique: the relationship may be further parallelled in Cayuga, as well 
as in the Seneca valley, by numerous southward-trending hanging 
'Journal of Geography, vol. iJ, No. 3, p. 124. 
f Journal of Geography, vol. ii, X6. 3, p, 118. 
