386 The American Geologist. Jane, 1894 
filled with water from the melting ice and would obviously 
discharge across their cols, down the valleys of the corres- 
ponding south flowing streams, swelling the volume of the lat- 
ter and increasing their power as distributing agents for the 
detritus which they were obliged to dispose of. 
The Chenango valley is filled with such deposits, especially 
in the upper portion, near the town of Hamilton, where the floor 
of the valley is very level and where the current of the stream, 
even where swollen by these diluvial conditions, could not 
have had sufficient force to carry away nearly all the detrital 
material supplied to it. The col between this valley and that 
of the Oriskany is very slight, and in fact is concealed be- 
neath the broad meadow lands north of Hamilton, which are 
of the nature of a transition between the true flood-plain of 
the upper ( henango and a lake sediment, with which the 
southern end of the Oriskany valley lake was filled in the 
early stages of its emergence from beneath the ice. 
But as we follow the Oriskany valley northward, we find 
that it ceases to be thus completely filled. The coarse gravels 
of the flood-plain occupy a relatively less and less portion of 
the cross section of the valley, and are seen to be distributed 
chiefly in mounds and ridges along its sides, while the middle 
part is occupied through the greater portion of its length, by 
a flood-plain of increasing width, composed of fine material, 
lying at a much lower level, and evidently formed by the 
stream which at the present day meanders through it north- 
ward to the Mohawk. 
The kames, or irregular deposits of gravel above alluded to, 
are best seen in the neighborhood of Oriskany Falls; and an 
excellent view of them is to be obtained from near the quarries, 
on the road which runs northward from that village along the 
west side of the valley. 
In some cases they have the form of irregular mounds, but 
in many instances, they appear as short ridges, with undulat- 
ing crests, which extend out at intervals from the sides of the 
valley, diminishing in hight as they are followed toward its 
center, sometimes sinking below the level of the valley flood- 
plain, and sometimes coming to an abrupt end. 
As regards material, they consist of sand and water- worn 
pebbles of various sizes, composed chiefly of the Lower Hel- 
