SAGINAW LOBE. 147 



from Corey Lake near Fabius to St. Joseph River. Its inner border is at Pleasant Lake in sees. 

 3 and 10, Fabius Township. An outwash north of Pleasant Lake in sees. 3 and 10, Fabius, and 

 sec. 34, Flowerfield, connects with a strong moraine of the Lake Michigan lobe lying west of it. 



The great gravel plain that leads down St. Joseph River passes through this moraine in a 

 gap 5 or 6 miles wide. East of this gravel plain and immediately south of Centerville the 

 mam ridge of the Sturgis moraine sets in and bears southeastward into Indiana, passing between 

 Sturgis and Burr Oak, Mich., and just north of Lexington and Orland, Ind. In St. Joseph 

 County, Mich., it has a width of 3 to 6 miles, but in Branch County, Mich., and in Lagrange 

 County, Ind., it is somewhat narrower and is more or less separable into distinct ridges with 

 intervening gravel plains. It connects with a strong moraine of the Huron-Erie lobe about 

 2 miles east of Orland in the north part of the northwest corner township of Steuben County, 

 Ind. Outside of it, a weaker moraine of the Huron-Erie lobe connects with the Stui'gis moraine 

 about 2 miles west of the Steuben-Lagrange county line. 



More or less isolated tracts on the inner border of the main moraine seem to be properly 

 included with the Sturgis moraine. One tract about 5 square miles lies north of Centerville 

 and is surrounded by the gravel plain of St. Joseph River. Another tract about 8 square 

 miles, also surrounded by the same gravel plain, lies along the Michigan Central Railroad from 

 Wasepi to Fairfax. A small sharply morainic tract north of Mendon on the north side of the 

 gravel plain of St. Joseph River and other sharply morainic tracts east and south of Colon on 

 the south side of the river seem also to belong to this moraine. Indeed, the country north- 

 eastward from the main part of the Sturgis moraine constitutes a transition belt several miles 

 wide, in which a change from sharply morainic to nearly plane topography occurs. North- 

 eastern St. Joseph and southeastern Kalamazoo counties embrace such a district on the north 

 side of St. Joseph River, and western Branch County carries its continuation on the south side. 



If all these isolated morainic tracts and the transition belt are thrown in with the Sturgis 

 moraine it has a width of nearly 20 miles. Its outer border is very definitely determined by a 

 great outwash plain that fits about it all the way from St. 'Joseph River to the junction with 

 the morainic belt of the Huron-Erie lobes, and shows the trend of the ice border. The inner 

 border, with its transition belt and long spurs reaching back into the bordering till plain, makes 

 a striking contrast to the very regular outer border. The glacial map (PI. VII) makes clear the 

 position and relations of the various parts of the moraine and shows its relation to the moraines 

 of the Lake Michigan and the Huron-Erie lobes. 



TOPOGRAPHY. 



The altitude of the greater part of the Sturgis moraine is between 900 and 1 ,000 feet and 

 is nowhere much below 900 feet. In several places it rises above 1,000 feet and in one place 

 it appears, by barometric determination, slightly to exceed 1,100 feet. The altitude of this 

 apparent highest point, which is in the Lake Michigan part of the interlobate tract in the central 

 part of Newberg Township, Cass Comity, was determined by W. F. Cooper to be 1,115 feet. 

 The altitude of another knoll a mile west is 1,070 feet. These knolls rise more than 100 feet 

 above the surrounding country, there being probably less than 2 square miles in Newberg 

 Township above the 1,000-foot contour. A single knoll in southern Flowerfield Township, 

 St. Joseph County, also on the Lake Michigan part, was found by Cooper to rise above 1,000 

 feet. A small area around the Sherman geodetic station, 4 miles northwest of Sturgis, rises 

 above 1,000 feet, the hill on which the station stood being 1,038 feet. The altitude of the south- 

 eastern end of the main part of the morame in northeastern Lagrange and northeastern 

 Steuben counties, Ind., and of a part of its outwash apron slightly exceeds 1,000 feet. The 

 lowest part of the moraine is on the borders of the St. Joseph Valley in central and eastern 

 St. Joseph County, and this is not less than 850 feet, except perhaps in basins and sags among 

 the knolls. 



