LATER MORAINES OF LAKE MICHIGAN, SAGINAW, AND HURON-ERIE LOBES. 237 



The district southwest from Stanton as far as Greenville and thence southward along the 

 east side of Flat River into Ionia County is characterized by a large number of basins, some of 

 which cover 1 to 2 square miles or more. Knolls, however, are low and scattered, and the 

 greater part of the surface is nearly plane. The drift varies greatly in texture, some of it being 

 loose and gravelly and some being a typical till. Gravel and sand, however, predominate greatly 

 over till for 4 or 5 miles east of Flat River, from the latitude of Stanton southward about to 

 Greenville. The till is best exhibited in a belt 3 to 4 miles wide leading from Stanton southwest- 

 ward through central Sidney Township and western Fairplain Township. Immediately east 

 of this belt of till lies the morainic belt which may prove to be the outer member of the system 

 under discussion. At present, however, it seems more probable that the ice at the beginning of 

 the development of this morainic system extended across Montcalm County about to the Flat 

 River valley. The basin tract under discussion continues southward across northwestern Ionia 

 County, crosses the Grand River outlet near Saranac, and continues about to Morrison Lake, 

 where it turns southeastward toward Lake Odessa, keeping just east of the eastern member of 

 the Charlotte morainic system. Till is more conspicuous on the plane tract around the basins 

 and is more clayey in Ionia County than it is in Montcalm County. 



GLACIAL DRAINAGE. 



A strong line of glacial drainage seems to have led along the line of Montcalm and Ionia 

 counties into the Flat River valley near Belding. With the recession of the ice this drainage was 

 extended eastward to northwestern Ronald Township, Ionia County, just east of Shiloh. Its 

 channel, which was 3 to 5 miles wide, including a few small knolls around which the glacial 

 drainage apparently passed, received a feeder from the north along Dickinson Creek from near 

 Amsden. On either side, in Fairplain Township, Montcalm County, and in Orleans Township, 

 Ionia County, lie the tracts of gently undulating till containing the large basins that are discussed 

 above. 



The Grand River outlet, whose features have been studied more particularly by Mr. Taylor 

 (pp.255, 360), probably served as a strong line of glacial drainage throughout the development of 

 this morainic system. 



Between the outer and second of the constituent ridges of the system in southwestern 

 Isabella County a gravel plain sets in and leads southeastward into Montcalm County nearly 

 to Vestaburg. The river passes eastward through the moraine on which Vestaburg stands, but 

 the glacial drainage probably continued southward through a series of narrow channels in western 

 Ferris Township to a well-defined fine of border drainage in sees. 19 and 30, Ferris Township, 

 which continues southward along the west edge of the moraine to the Grand River outlet in 

 Ionia County. Its general width is about a mile, though in places it narrows to less than 

 one-half mile. The descent of this border drainage is about 200 feet in 50 miles from its head in 

 southwestern Isabella County to the Grand River outlet (from 900 to 700 feet above sea level). 

 The material along the whole line of the channel, so far as seen in exposures, is fine sandy 

 gravel, scarcely coarse enough for road ballast. 



The line of glacial drainage between the second and third moraines is continuous from 

 southern Clare County to the Grand River outlet, a distance of about 70 miles. It heads near 

 Hatton and passes southwestward, leaving Farwell at its east border, and enters the Chippewa 

 Valley drainage in northwestern Gilmore Township, Isabella County. It then passes south to 

 the bend of the Chippewa west of Mount Pleasant, from which point the water .may have led 

 westward into the valley of Pine River through a break in the second moraine and thence to the 

 Grand River outlet along the line just outlined. Or, more probably, its greater part may have 

 passed southward by Dushville through a swampy depression which drains into Pine River hi 

 northwestern Gratiot County, followed Phie River past Riverdale to Sunnier, and continued 

 southward to the Grand River outlet along the line of Gratiot and Montcalm counties. At its 

 source this second line had an altitude of about 1,000 feet and descended 300 feet to reach the 

 Grand River outlet. Its width ranges from 1 mile or less up to 5 miles. In much of its course 



