SAGINAW LOBE. 143 



OUTWASH. 



A narrow strip of sandy and gravelly outwash appears along the outer border of the main 

 moraine in the vicinity of Middlebury, and a tract of several square miles in the central and 

 northern parts of Middlebury Township has so perfect an underground drainage that scarcely 

 any surface drainage lines have been developed. In one place in section 8 drainage lines lead 

 into a deep basin. There is also underground drainage in much of the "Haw patch" gravel plain 

 at the southeastern end of the moraine. It is probable that the glacial drainage from the part of 

 the moraine neiir Middlebury passed through a series of marshy channels leading westward from 

 the central part of Middlebury Township to the Canal Marsh channel. 



Between the main moraine and the inner ridge there is a swamp underlain with sand, through 

 which a State ditch has been carried to improve the drainage. This swamp seems to have been 

 a line of glacial drainage for water escaping from the Huron-Erie lobe after the Saginaw lobe had 

 withdrawn from the weak moraine that lies east of it. 



Little Elkhart River flows along the eastern edge of its valley and cuts in places into the 

 weak moraine, indicating that the valley did not receive much outwash from the moraine, for 

 otherwise the stream would have been thrown toward the west bluff. This valley, like the one 

 drained by the State ditch, was probably utilized by later glacial drainage than that connected 

 with the moraine which borders it. There is an extensive gravel plain outside of the Lagrange 

 moraine in the headwater part of Little Elkhart River that opens into and in ah probability 

 discharged its waters down the Little Elkhart Valley. Some erosion seems to have occurred as a 

 result of this glacial drainage, for the broad vaUey of the stream shows definite trenching, though 

 its bluffs are low. 



The features of the St. Joseph Valley opposite the end of the Middlebury moraine (p. 142) 

 are such as characterize an ice border and it is probable that the St. Joseph was at one time 

 the principal line of direct discharge from the Saginaw lobe, as well as the line of indirect dis- 

 charge from tributary valleys. This might have been the case even if the Lake Michigan lobe 

 overhung much of the plain along the river. 



INNER BORDER. 



Two narrow strips of till plain lie east of the inner ridge in the southwestern part of Lagrange 

 County, one being north of Little Elkhart River and the other south. The one to the north has 

 an area of about 12 square miles and is 2\ to 3 miles wide. It fills the space between the inner 

 Middlebury moraine and the Lagrange moraine. Its till is rather loose textured, with some 

 gravel and sand beds. The till strip to the south is scarcely 2 miles wide; it leads southeast- 

 ward between the "Haw patch" gravel plain and the gravel plain on the headwaters of Little 

 Elkhart River to a moraine of the Erie lobe in southern Lagrange County. It has a more clayey 

 till than that in the strip north of the Little Elkhart. 



The gravel plain which lies between these till plains, like the gravel plains to the north and 

 south, are dependencies of the Lagrange moraine. (See p. 145.) 



LAGRANGE MORAINE. 



COURSE AND DISTRIBUTION. 



The Lagrange moraine takes its name from the village of Lagrange, the county seat of 

 Lagrange County, which stands at the junction of the Saginaw and the Huron-Erie lobes. 

 From the village the Lagrange moraine leads northwestward, the .correlative in the Huron- 

 Erie lobe leads southwestward, and a short interlobate spur extends about 5 miles northeast- 

 ward. 



The Lagrange moraine runs west-northwestward from Lagrange about parallel with 

 Pigeon River through southern Clay, northeastern Newberry, and southwestern Van Buren 

 townships, Lagrange County, into the northeastern part of the northeast corner township of 

 Elkhart County, where the St. Joseph River valley interrupts it for a few miles, though a pitted 

 gravel plain fills much of the gap. It sets in again just north of the river in the southeast 



