New work

There's a particular name for the sort of carved out tributarian thing that we built roads into to go up the escarpment but I can't remember now what that's called so I'm waiting for someone to get back to me on this.
The Academic answer can be found in "Niagara Natural History" which is a seminal text to all who live here.
"With a few exceptions, everywhere a road goes up the escarpment it goes up an old river cut that was filled in by the Wisconsin or earlier glaciation" (J. C. Lewis, Brock University, 1991, p.37) 
Is there a native word, perhaps lost?

Oil on cardboard
28 x 20in.