Back from the lake there are elevations of some magni- 

 tude and fairly continuous. These are especially developed 

 upon the eastern side, where they frequently rise to heights 

 exceeding forty (40) feet. It is from this region that the lake 

 derives the major part of its water. The lake itself is not 

 deep and yet its depth when compared to that of inland lakes 

 in general, is somewhat striking. Less than a mile in width 

 for most of its length, it has an extreme depth of eighty-one 

 (81) feet. This lake is typical of the glacial lakes of northern 

 Indiana, all of them having bottoms rather deeper than the 

 elevations of their immediate neighborhood. While the area 

 here is not the "kettle and knob" topography perfect, such 

 as exists at Valparaiso, yet it closely approaches that, the ele- 

 vations and depressions being formed by the same agencies and 

 largely under the same circumstances. As compared with 

 these lakes, both those in the western states and those formed 

 by glacial agencies in Wisconsin and Michigan are extremely 

 shallow. The majority of the Nevada and Utah lakes, though 

 of great area, average but a few feet in depth. 



THE TOPOGRAPHY 



Lake Eagle owes its origin to glacial influences. When 

 the ice advance known as the Erie lobe moved southward and 

 westward, ft came in contact laterally with that ice advance 

 from the north known as the Saginaw lobe. The median mor- 

 aine, made up of long well marked ridges, is the region under 

 discussion and about to be described. The general direction 

 of this moraine is south 35 degrees west. All the glacial phe- 

 nomena, once so powerful in forming the surface here, may 

 still be approximately traced by their influences. The region 

 is covered with a very thick mantle of drift, not only the thick- 

 est in the state, but much thicker than has been found in the 

 states to the north. At Kendallville, Ind., a few miles to the 

 north, but yet on the summit of the same moraine, the drift 

 measures 485 feet in thickness. From this point south the 

 thickness varies, being 245 feet at Eagle Lake, while at 

 Wabash, 25 miles further south, it thins out to practically 

 nothing. At this point the underlying rock comes to the sur- 

 face. This moraine, in which Eagle Lake is located is one of 

 the six eliptically-shaped moraines which at present round the 



