318 THE GLACIAL LAKE AGASSIZ. 



west a gentle slope falls 5 feet within 20 or 30 rods. In tlie northwest 

 quarter of section 20 and the west half of section 17, Highland, it is a 

 gracefully rounded ridge, 1,085 to 1,087 feet, with descent of about 5 feet 

 on its west side and 10 to 15 feet within as many rods on the east. The 

 surface east of the Maple River in this township has an elevation of 1,075 

 to 1,0G5 feet, declining toward the north and east. In the east half of 

 Pontiac, the next township on the west, a surface of till, moderately undu- 

 lating near the beach of Lake Ag-assiz, but prominently rolling at a distance 

 of 3 miles to the Avest, rises to 1,150 and 1,175 feet in the vicinity of the 

 Maple River above its south bend. 



The Hei'man beach, a broad, flattened ridge of sand and gravel, passes 

 in a north-northeast course through the center of section 8, Highland, its 

 elevation being 1,083 feet. A smoothed surface of till, 1,082 to 1,087 feet, 

 with occasional sloughs iu depressions 15 to 20 feet deep, occupies the west 

 half of this section 8 ; and close east of the beach a flat of till on the east 

 line of the section, at 1,065 to 1,070 feet, was the bed of the lake. 



Continuing northeastward, the beach is offset a mile to the east, in 

 sections 4 and 3, Highland, so that the greater part, of section 4 was a bay 

 of Lake Agassiz during its Herman stage, with bottom at 1,080 to 1,065 

 feet, inclosed on the west, north, and east by beach deposits. The liighest 

 portion of the hook or spit east of this bay is in the southwest quarter of 

 section 3, 1,093 to 1,0!)6 feet. It is composed of sand and fine gravel, 

 with pebbles mostl}^ less tliau an inch, but occasionally 2 inches in diameter, 

 forming a smoothly rounded swell 30 to 40 rods wide. This cape, project- 

 ing south and west a mile into the lake, was accumulated by the southward 

 drift of the beach material along the shore, caused by northern winds, as 

 is also observal)le at various other places on both the east and west shores 

 of this glacial lake and on both sides of Lake Michigan at the present time. 



Herman beach in the west edge of section 26, Eldred, 1,094 feet. On 

 the east side of the beach here, near the center of this section, is a slough 

 filled with rushes and containing water all the year ; its elevation is about 

 1,065 feet, that of the laud on its east side, in the east part of this section, 

 being about 1,075 feet. In the northeast quarter of section 34 the beach 

 is intersected by a sluggish creek, apparently formed by spiings within a 



