136 The American Geologist. September, 1900 
South of the palallel of Syracuse, which lies at the line 
of the north-facing escarpment of the Onondaga limestone, 
the ancient valleys that were cut by north-flowing streams 
are very prominent, the country being a series of north and 
south valleys and intervalley ridges, a part of the "finger 
lakes" area. North of the parallel of Syracuse, and where 
the strata are mostly a great thickness of soft Salina, 
Niagara and Medina shales, the valleys have been obliter- 
ated, partly by the drift filling, and possibly to some extent 
by the removal by the ice of the saliences in the soft Salina. 
The city lies in the northern end of the visible Onondaga 
valley, on a plain produced by Glacial and lake filling. Deep 
borings for salt show a great depth of valley filling, but the 
topography of the buried valley can only be determined by 
systematic borings.. In the deeply buried sands of the 
valley the brines accumulate from the adjacent salt beds, 
making Syracuse the "saline city." 
During the recession of the continental glacier from this 
region, the ice sheet acted as a barrier to the northward 
drainage by blocking the northern ends of the valleys. In 
consequence, lakes were held in all the valleys extending 
southward into the highland. The earliest and highest 
waters in each valley found escape southward across the 
col at the present valley head ; but later, as the ice front gave ' 
way, the overflow was across the intervaUey ridges past 
the ice border. The evidences of these ancient waters are 
the deltas built at various levels by the tributary streams, 
and the outlet channels which determined the several levels. 
Some of these channels and correlating deltas are very 
prominent features. 
The description and naming of the local lakes in the 
valleys of the Syracuse region may be found in pages 52-63 
of the article noted in the list of references as No. 1. As 
this may not be available to all readers, a brief enumeration 
of these lakes is given as follows: In the Otisco valley the 
primitive and highest water, called the Glacial lake Otisco, 
had its outlet southward over the col. The lower water, the 
Mariette lake, escaped west to the Skaneateles valley. In 
the Onondaga valley the highest water was the Cardiff lake, 
which had its outlet south through the Tullv lakes. Later. 
