THE 
AMERICAN GEOLOGIST. 
VOL. XXXVI. SEPTEMBER, 1905. No 3. 
PLEISTOCENE FEATURES IN THE SYRACUSE REGION.* 
By H L. Fairchild, University of Rochester 
PLATES VI. AND VII. 
The district lying near the city of Syracuse is one of 
unusual interest to the student of glacial and geographic 
geology. In addition to the common forms of Glacial drift 
there are here displayed a remarkable series of stream 
canons and cataracts cut by the ice-border drainage, and 
the shore phenomena of Glacial lakes, specially of lake Iro- 
quois. 
Moraines are not strongly represented among the drift 
forms of the region. No heavy or well-defined moraine oc- 
curs near the city, although some masses of hummocky 
drift are to be seen. Most of the drift burden of the ice 
sheet was here built into drumlins. Valley moraines occur 
far south of the city, as has been noted in the description 
of the railroad routes. 
Karnes, or water-laid or stratified drift in the form of 
knolls or mounds of gravel and sand, are scattered over the 
region, and are conspicuous in the southern part of the city 
and along the valley sides, their structure being well shown 
in the excavations for building sand. 
The remarkable features of the drift known as "drum- 
lins" are excellently shown in and around the city. The 
city lies in the eastern end of the belt of drumlins, perhaps 
the most remarkable in the world, which extends west for a 
hundred miles. Every hill between Syracuse and Rochester 
is a drumlin ; adthough some of them have a base or core of 
Salina shale. 
* Prepared for the field programme of the meeting of Section E, Am. 
Assoc. Adv. Sci., Syracuse, N. Y., July 19-22, 1905. 
