CHAPTEE XII. 



THE MAIN MORAINIC SYSTEM OF THE LATE WISCONSIN 



STAGE. 



SECTION I. IN THE MIAMI LOBE. 



THE MORAINES. 

 GENERAL STATEMENT. 



Under this name is di-scnssed a series of moraines whose members in 

 part coalesce and therefore are more easily described together than sepa- 

 ratel}'. This system where best differentiated comprises three moraines. 

 Of these the onter two were examined by Chamberlin, and are briefly 

 described in his paper in the Third Annual Report.^ The third or inner one 

 lies but a few miles north from the second, and is distinct from it only in 

 the midst of the terminal loop. The entire system, including the narrow 

 plains lying between the moraines, has nowhere a width exceeding 1 8 miles, 

 and where the members are closely associated the width is reduced to 10 

 miles or less. 



DISTRIBUTION. 



At the head of the reentrant angle near Bellefontaine, Ohio, this 

 morainic system connects with the correlative system of the Scioto glacial 

 lobe. The eastern limb follows and constitutes the western bluff of Mad 

 River from the source of the stream east of Bellefontaine, southward nearly 

 to the latitude of Urbana, the several members being united into a single 

 great belt. It then leaves the river to the east for a few miles and passes 

 southwestward through New Carlisle, near which it begins to separate into 

 distinct members. The outer member crosses Mad River near its mouth and 

 follows nearly the east bluff of the Great Miami from Dayton about to Frank- 

 lin. Here it swings westward, crossing the Grreat Miami Valley near Carlisle, 

 and passing south of Grermantown and north of West Elkton, enters the 

 valley of Seveiimile Creek at Camden. It then swings abruptl}"^ northward, 

 passing near Sugar Valley, West Florence, and Westville, striking the State 

 line between New Paris, Ohio, and Richmond, Ind. Near the State line it 



'Terminal moraine of tlie second Glacial epoch, by T. C. Chamberlin: Third Ann. Kept. TJ. S. 

 Gaol. Survey, pp. 334-335. 



