MORAINIC SYSTEMS AT HEADS OF LAKE MICHIGAN AND SAGINAW BASINS. 183 



North of Kalamazoo River the conditions are again simple (as in the district southwest 

 from Paw Paw), a strong morainic ridge of the Valparaiso system with regular border running 

 northward across eastern Allegan County, and a pitted gravel plahi to the east filling in much 

 of the space out to the inner ridge of the Kalamazoo system. 



KENDALL MORAINE. 



A few miles north of Paw Paw lies a prominent ridged belt which rises in an outwash 

 apron east of the main part of the Valparaiso system, in the northeastern part of Van Buren 

 County. The village of Kendall is situated on it and the name Kendall moraine has been 

 applied to it. It is provisionally assigned to the Kalamazoo system though it may prove to 

 be as closely related to the Valparaiso system. Its length is about 9 miles and its width l\ 

 to 2J miles. The portion north of Kendall is very prominent, knolls 60 to 80 feet in height 

 being present. South of Kendall it is weaker, though a knoll hi sec. 31, Pine Grove Township, 

 is 50 feet in height. Ordinarily the knolls in this portion rise only 25 to 30 feet above neighboring 

 sags and basins. Knob and basin topography appears all along the belt, and several of the basins 

 contain small lakes. The surface, especially north of Kendall, is in places very thickly set 

 with bowlders, the largest of which are 8 or 10 feet in diameter. Among them were noted 

 conglomerates of various kinds, including the red jasper conglomerate thought to be derived 

 from the Huronian ledges north of Georgian Bay, a few pieces of gypsum, and numerous lime- 

 stone fragments derived from Mississippian formations to the north. The drift appears generally 

 to be loose textured though not well assorted. Blue till, if present, lies at considerable depth. 

 A well 202 feet deep on an elevated portion of the moraine in sec. 14, Pine Grove Township, 

 penetrated throughout much of its depth a sandy stony reddish-brown till with a few blue or 

 gray streaks. Considerable blue till was found, however, in a well one-half mile farther east 

 on ground 150 feet lower, which penetrated 8 or 10 feet of gravelly clay and 35 feet of loose gravel 

 and cobble and then went 100 feet into blue till without passing through it. 



The Kendall moraine terminates at the northeast in a swamp that is part of a line of glacial 

 drainage which led southwestward from Kalamazoo River to Paw Paw River and which was 

 apparently in operation after the ice had withdrawn. East of this swamp a weak ridge, which 

 may prove to be the continuation of the Kendall moraine, leads northeastward across the 

 northwestern township of Kalamazoo County and connects with the inner moraine of the 

 Kalamazoo system. It is only one-fourth to one-half mile in width and has a gently undulating 

 surface, with a relief on its inner slope of 25 to 50 feet, but with scarcely any relief on its outer 

 slope, the outwash apron being built up nearly to the level of the crest. Bowlders are present 

 on its inner or north slope. Its outwash apron is in harmony with one on the outer border of 

 the Kendall moraine and this perhaps constitutes one of the strongest points in favor of its 

 correlation with that moraine. This correlation of the ridges forms a bridge across the space 

 between the Valparaiso and the Kalamazoo morainic system similar to that near Paw Paw. 



WITHDRAWAL OP THE ICE. 



Certain features immediately north of the Kendall moraine indicate that the ice withdrew 

 northward from it. Along the slope at the northern end of the prominent part of the moraine, 

 about 125 feet below the crest and about 50 feet above the neighboring swamp, a definite terrace 

 is traceable, running from the middle of the line of sees. 2 and 11, Pine Grove Township, south- 

 eastward into sec. 13, a distance of nearly 2 miles, and opening into the outwash apron on 

 the southeast border of the moraine. It seems best explained as having been formed by a line 

 of border drainage running between the ice and the moraine from which the ice had just receded. 

 Within a mile north of this terrace a till plain sets in and a similar till plain is found north of the 

 weak ridge east of the swamp, both of which fit in naturally as ground moraine connected with 

 the terminal moraines just discussed. 



On this interpretation the ice held its position along the inner edge of the Kalamazoo mo- 

 rainic system north of Kalamazoo River while f orniing the Kendall moraine and the weak ridge 



