378 THE ILLINOIS GLACIAL LOBE. 



River. The beaches of this lake and its western discharge through the 

 Marseilles moraine down the Illinois have already been discussed. The 

 level of the beaches corresponds so nearly with that of the upper limit of 

 the valley filling at Channahon that the latter may, with some confidence, 

 be considered a delta-like accumulation at the north border of the lake. 



It is probable that each of the small tributaries of the Kankakee, 

 which head in the Valparaiso moraine, and also eastern tributaries of the 

 Des Plaines, afforded lines for escape of glacial waters, but the writer has 

 not examined these valleys with sufficient thoroughness to determine the 

 effect of the glacial waters. On the valley of Hickory Creek, which enters 

 the Des Plaines at Joliet, a gravel filling is conspicuous from the outer 

 border of the main moraine in sec. 17, New Lenox Township, to the mouth 

 of the creek. At its point of connection with the moraine it has a gently 

 undulating surface, but about a mile west from the moraine the surface 

 becomes plane. The gravel is built up nearly to the height of the border- 

 ing till plain, and stands 60 to 70 feet above the present stream. 



The headwater portion of the Kankakee River leads through a gravel 

 plain which descends toward the river from moraines on either side. On 

 the north side the gravel plain' connects with the Valparaiso morainic sys- 

 tem, while on the southeast it connects with the Maxinkuckee moraine of 

 the Saginaw lobe. In the vicinity of Laporte, Indiana, the gravel plain 

 which is connected with the Valparaiso morainic system attains an elevation 

 of fully 800 feet above tide on the immediate borders of the moraine. This 

 great altitude, however, is apparently maintained for only a short distance, 

 for the railway surveys show that there is a descent in it along the border 

 of the moraine, both toward the northeast and the southwest, as well as a 

 descent in passing southeastward from the moraiue to the Kankakee River. 

 The elevation of the gravel plain at New Carlisle on the borders of the 

 moraine is but 770 feet, while at Laporte it is about 810 feet. At Stillwell, 

 7 miles southeast of Laporte, in a course directly away from the moraine, 

 the altitude is only 730 feet, while at Wellsboro, directly south of La- 

 porte and only 3 or 4 miles from the moraine, the altitude is 760 feet. 

 Passing southwestward from Wellsboro, parallel with the outer border of 

 the moraine, the altitude decreases to 730 feet at Wanatah. 



The moraine is bordered by a gravel plain no farther west than eastern 

 Porter County. In western Porter County the moraine extends down to 





