106 PLEISTOCENE OP INDIANA AND MICHIGAN. 



BOWLDERS. 



In eastern Indiana the Bloomington morainic system is in places very thickly strewn 

 with bowlders. A well-defined belt enters from Ohio into northeastern Wayne County and 

 for a few miles follows nearly the line of Wayne and Randolph counties, and then passes north 

 of west into northeastern Henry and southeastern Delaware counties. It swings abruptly 

 southward near Mount Summit at the head of the East White gravel plain and follows the 

 moraine about to Cadiz in western Henry County, where it ceases to be well defined. The 

 width of the strip over which the bowlders are sufficiently numerous to seriously obstruct land 

 cultivation is only about a mile; but from this thickest part they grow gradually fewer toward 

 the north for several miles. In western Randolph County they abound over the whole district 

 between White River and the southeast corner of the county. They are thicker along the 

 southern margin of the belt in Henry County near the head of Stony Creek and of East White 

 (Blue) River than they are farther north. 



In Hancock County some small districts carry bowlders as abundantly as any part of 

 the larger belts. One of the most conspicuous areas is found in the level portion of the 

 county between the two branches of the Cleveland, Cincinnati, Chicago & St. Louis Railway. 

 Bowlders occur in great abundance and large size in sees. 21, 22, 27, and 28, Vernon Town- 

 ship, about 2 miles south of Fortville, and are numerous along the east side of Sugar Creek 

 southeast of Eden in sees. 25, 30, and 36, Green Township. In other parts of the county and 

 in northern Shelby County they are not conspicuous. 



In northern Johnson and southern Marion counties bowlders cover the moraine and the 

 plain north of it so thickly that farms of 160 acres ordinarily have several thousand on their 

 surface. They are especially numerous near Rocklane, where some fields have a hundred 

 or more to the acre. McCaslin 1 says: 



The bowlders are everywhere thickly studded in a solid matrix of clay. Near Rocklane a multitude of unusu- 

 ally large ones were seen, sometimes a hundred of them in an area of a few acres, many of them 10 to 15 feet in length 

 and weighing many tons. On the farm of W. F. Kimuck, in sec. 36, Clark Township, one was measured showing the 

 following dimensions: Length over top, 18 feet 1 inch; circumference, 41 feet 10 inches; height above ground, 5 feet. 

 Near this monster were a number of immense proportions. It was noticeable that there was a striking similarity in 

 the bowlders of this ridge. They were mainly a coarse gray granite, appearing as though they came from the same 

 locality, as doubtless they did. 



In southern Marion County the bowlders are more numerous on the plain immediately 

 northeast and east of the moraine than on the sharp ridges of the moraine itself. They are 

 very numerous between Glen Valley and Southport and also north of Southport. In Indian- 

 apolis they are less numerous than at Southport though still abundant except on the gravel 

 plain. At Crown Hill and northward along the east side of Write River they are very abun- 

 dant. They are less numerous for 2 or 3 miles west of White River than they are east of it or 

 than they are for 2 or 3 miles east of Eagle Creek in northwestern Marion County. 



In Boone County bowlders are numerous in clusters and in narrow strips a mile or so in 

 length but do not form a well-defined belt. They are not rare, however, along the probable 

 ice margin. Taken as a whole they seem to occupy a southeast-northwest tract 5 to 10 miles 

 wide, which connects the more concentrated belt of Marion County with that in Montgomery 

 County. They are rather numerous over the whole northwest fourth of Boone County, but 

 are rare over the southwest fourth. They are abundant in the central and southeastern parts, 

 but are rare in the northeastern part of the county. Unusual numbers were observed in the 

 following places: In the extreme southeast section of the county; in the vicinity of Holmes 

 station; along the Lebanon and Elizabeth pike from Lebanon northeast for about 4 miles; 

 about a mile south of Pike Crossing; about 2 miles east of Thorntown in sees. 31 and 6, Washing- 

 ton Township; north of Sugar Creek, in sees. 15, 16, 22, 27, and 26, Sugar Creek Township, the 

 southeast end being just north of Thorntown; near Dover along Muskrat Creek. The Linden- 

 Darlington belt appears a few miles east of Crawfordsville and leads northwest to the Wabash 

 Valley. 



i Thirteenth Ann. Rept. Indiana Dept. Geology and Nat. Hist., 1883, pp. 123-124. 



