138 PLEISTOCENE OF INDIANA AND MICHIGAN. 



at Bremen, does not carry so well defined a sand plain and seems to have been at best a weak 

 line of discharge. Yellow River has apparently a very low gradient from Bremen to Plymouth 

 and this may account for the weakness of outwash. Sand ridges near the junction of the two 

 forks suggest the former presence of a smaU lake, but to prove its existence will require 

 further study. 



Two till plains of considerable extent lie between the Maxinkuckee and the Bremen mo- 

 raines. One is north of Yellow River in St. Joseph and Elkhart and on the edges of Kosciusko 

 and Marshall counties; the other is southeast of Tippecanoe River in Kosciusko, Fulton, and 

 Cass counties. The plain north of Yellow River has a general elevation of about 850 feet with 

 a range from about 820 to 880 feet or more. It is very smooth with scarcely a knoll worthy 

 of note. The drift is in large part a clayey till, though small areas with sandy soil were noted, 

 the most conspicuous being near the Bremen moraine. Bowlders are far less numerous on 

 its surface than on the tract south of Yellow River or on the main Maxinkuckee moraine to 

 the west. Many dug wells obtain water from sand beds between the yellow and blue tills at 

 depths of only 10 to 20 feet, but drilled and bored wells are carried to depths of 60 to 100 feet 

 and penetrate more or less blue till. 



The till plain south of the Tippecanoe gradually rises toward the southeast, or away from 

 the river, from 750 to 850 feet above sea level. The bowldery strip of southern Fulton and 

 northern Cass counties runs through the middle with an altitude of about 800 feet throughout 

 its length of 15 miles or more. The southeastern edge of the till plain, which is determined 

 by the outer border of a prominent moraine of the Erie lobe, passes near the villages of Clay- 

 pool, Akron, and Macy. From the meridian of Rochester southwestward to Lucerne this 

 plain has scarcely any knolls or ridges, but east of this meridian it bears small knolls and has a 

 wavy surface. Its clayey till, occupied by beech, maple, and elm forests, put it in striking 

 contrast with the looser-textured drift and oak forests of the morainic tract to the southeast. 

 Many wells find water at moderate depths in sand between till sheets, but a few have been 

 sunk 60 to 80 feet or more. The deeper ones are largely through blue till. Bowlders are 

 rather common over all this plain but are especially numerous along the belt that runs from 

 near Lucerne in Cass County northeastward across southern Fulton County to the two Mud 

 lakes at the head of Mud Creek. This belt (p. 132) seems likely to mark the position of the 

 ice border in a brief halt in its retreat to the line of the large moraine southeast of it. The 

 bowlders outside this belt seem to be no more abundant than is natural to a rapidly receding 



ice border. 



NEW PARIS MORAINE. 



COURSE AND DISTRIBUTION. 



The next-younger well-defined moraine of the Saginaw lobe is named from New Paris, 

 a village in southern Elkhart County, that stands near one of its most prominent points. The 

 moraine, as here interpreted, includes a somewhat loosely assembled series of undulating and 

 knolly tracts that covers the northeastern part of Kosciusko County and leads northward 

 through central Elkhart County to the St. Joseph Valley immediately southeast of the city 

 of Elkhart. It embraces a strip 6 or 8 miles wide, only part of which can be said to have 

 morainic topography. Its western edge in Elkhart County and its eastern edge in Kosciusko 

 County are especially difficult to define. In eastern Kosciusko and southwestern Noble counties 

 it connects with a strong moraine of the Huron-Erie lobe that crosses it nearly at right angles 

 and runs southwest to Logansport. Its connections at the north are obscured by a sand plain 

 that borders St. Joseph River, interposing a wide gap, north of which a later moraine occupies 

 the district. 



In northeastern Kosciusko County two somewhat distinct ridges are present. The outer 

 one, which is only 7 or 8 miles long and scarcely 1 mile wide, leads northwestward from the 

 moraine of the Huron-Erie lobe along the north side of the Barbee Lakes and Tippecanoe Lake 

 across T. 33 N., R. 7 E., to Dewart Lake in the southeastern part of T. 34 N., R. 6 E.; it is 

 separated from the inner ridge by a nearly plain tract 1 to 2 miles wide. The inner ridge parts 



