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escape of subglacial streams, deposited near the western border of the 

 outwash plain a belt of sand and gravel hills three miles long and rising 

 in the sharp knob of Crown Hill 90 feet above the plain and 150 feet 

 above the river. White River passes through this kame-moraine in a 

 gorge three miles long and half a mile wide, bordered by steep bluffs 

 40 to 80 feet high. The gravel plain about three miles wide is bounded 

 on the east by a gentle rise or bluff 15 to 30 feet high, which parallels 

 Fall Creek and touches the river at the mouth of Pleasant Run, below 

 which the plain lies on the west side of the river. Its surface slopes from 

 about 740 feet A. T. in the north to 680 feet in the south, or about six 

 feet to the mile and is cut by the high water channels of the river, Fall 

 Creek and Eagle Creek, into a series of low but well defined terraces. The 

 city occupies the gravel plain, the kame-moraine and the gorge, bluffs and 

 flood plain of White River, and extends on the east and south several 

 miles beyond the bluff over the more elevated undulating drift. 



The physical features have influenced the development of the city, 

 favorably and unfavorably, in various ways. White River is a commercial 

 obstruction, too small for navigation, inadequate for sewerage and en- 

 tailing large expense for bridges and levees. It pays some coriipensation 

 in water supply and picturesque sites for parks and residences. The 

 gravel plain makes grading and excavation inexpensive and surface 

 drainage rapid; but this credit account is balanced by a debit of 25,000 

 wells subject to serious contamination. Pogues Run has cost untold sums 

 in damage to health and property by floods and the expense of conversion 

 into a covered sewer, but furnishes a route by which several railroad 

 lines enter the city. The low bluffs and terraces of Fall Creek and 

 ifleasant Run are utilized for boulevards and parkways. The Crown 

 Hill kame-moraine, the most striking and attractive natural feature 

 of the area, is admirably suited for the abode of the living or the dead 

 and forms the beautiful site of Crown Hill Cemetery. The smooth sur- 

 face of the surrounding drift plain is a prime factor in the accessibility 

 which makes Indianapolis the largest center of exclusively land trans- 

 portation in the United States. 



