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Watkins Glen is but one of a great number—certainly many scores, and probably hundreds—of picturesque gorges in southern central New York, many of them unnamed, and the great majority known only to a few. They lie in the southern half of the Finger Lake valleys, notably Seneca and Cayuga (Fig. 1), cut in the slopes of the valleys which enclose these lakes. Such an abundance of gorges and associated waterfalls, more than can be found in equal area in any other part of eastern United States, is noteworthy, and seems to demand an unusual explanation, which in fact is the case. This explanation has been worked out step by step, being far more complex than at first supposed, and involving the operation of geological agencies now no