LATEE MORAINES OF LAKE MICHIGAN, SAGINAW, AND HUKON-ERIE LOBES. 239 



southern Saginaw counties and extends almost as perfectly into Genesee County. In this area 

 the moraines are remarkably parallel for about 85 miles. In the typical area they are so remark- 

 able for the simplicity of their configuration and grouping that it seems important to describe 

 them somewhat fully. 



Where the moramic ridges are most typical and most widely deployed they are all of about 

 the same strength and are almost equally spaced, indicating apparently that they are all fully 

 developed single individuals of their class, and that no one of them represents a combination 

 of two or more such individuals. In Clare and Montcalm counties some of the more massive 

 ridges come within 6 or S miles of the Grand River channel before they divide into their ultimate 

 units, but all the ridges that cross the channel appear to be single individuals. 



These slender moraines number a dozen or more, each named for some city or village through 

 or near which it passes. Their names, beginning with the oldest, are as follows, the last three 

 being water-laid and fainter than the rest: (1) Lansing, (2) Grand Ledge, (3) Ionia, (4) Portland, 

 (5) Lyons, (6) Fowler, (7) St. Johns, (8) Flint, (9) Owosso, (10) Henderson, (11) West Haven, 

 and (12) Chesaning; still another very faint member lies north of the Chesaning. Possible 

 equivalents of the Flint moraine are the Maple Rapids and Eureka ridges. 



Where deployed in open order these slender moraines possess characteristics very different 

 from those of most of the other moraines of Michigan. They are predominantly clayey, gener- 

 ally yellowish gray or brownish gray on weathered surfaces, and they contain comparatively 

 few bowlders and small quantities of pebbles or water-assorted materials. Their width varies 

 from one-eighth mile to 2 miles, averaging about 1 mile, and rarely exceeding 1J miles. Their 

 relief above the adjacent flat till plains is generally low and as a rule their surfaces are com- 

 paratively smooth. The highest knoll in any of them, where they stand apart as separate 

 individuals, does not exceed 60 feet above the plain and their average crest height does not 

 exceed 20 feet. In some places they fade out to a broad, low swell scarcely perceptible to the 

 eye and in other places to scattered low knolls scarcely 5 feet in height. 



Where these moraines overlap — the later ones overriding the earlier — as they do eastward 

 from Lansing, their characteristics are entirely different. They become broken and irregular — 

 more massive, wider, and higher in places, more steep-sided, and more rugged. Their normally 

 even trend is destroyed and they include many lakes and swamps in reentrants and transverse 

 and irregular depressions. In these areas they resemble more nearly the massive rugged mo- 

 raines of other parts of Michigan, except that they are narrower and smaller. 



LANSING MORAINE. 



The relatively massive West Branch morainic system crosses the north line of Ionia County 

 and runs southward. About 4 miles from the line it divides into three slender moraines which 

 diverge toward the south and southwest. The most westerly of the three reaches the Grand 

 River channel about 3 miles west of Ionia, at which place it is about H miles wide. This is the 

 northern limb of the Lansing moraine. Beyond the channel for about 10 miles south no cer- 

 tain continuation exists, but 3 or 4 miles northwest of Lake Odessa scattered morainic knolls 

 appear, and from the east bank of the lake a well-defined but very slender moraine, here called 

 the Lansing, extends eastward through northern Eaton County to the southern part of Lansing, 

 a distance of over 25 miles, passing through the villages of Lake Odessa, Sunfield, and Mulliken. 

 Where it passes about 2 miles south of Grand Ledge this moraine is extremely narrow though 

 sharply denned. For 5 or 6 miles in T. 4 N., Rs. 3 and 4 W., it is hardly one-eighth mile wide, 

 but it is perfectly continuous, and although it is only 10 to 20 feet high, is conspicuous above 

 the flat till plains on either side. Elsewhere its usual width is from three-fourths of a mile to 

 a mile. 



At Lansing the moraine is cut through by Grand River and by Sycamore Creek, and becomes 

 otherwise broken and irregular where it passes over the north end of the Mason esker. East- 

 ward it extends in broken, irregular form at least as far as Okemos, but beyond this its exact 

 course is uncertain. It may possibly run eastward along Cedar River, passing in very faint 



