MISSISSINAWA MORAINE. 505 



Dryer applies the term "glacierite" to the rock floor ground b}' the 

 glacier and deposited in its drift. It is seldom free from admixture with 

 coarse particles, but when thus free the term glacierite seems applicable. 



In Steuben County two wells about 3 miles southwest of Metz each 

 penetrate about 100 feet of till, and obtain water in sand and gravel at this 

 depth. No other deep-well sections were obtained from the morainic tract 

 in the eastern part of this county. 



INNER BORDER PHENOMENA. 



From the Wabash River northward the Salamonie moraine is somewhat 

 closely associated with the Mississinawa on the inner border. In Blackford, 

 Grant, and Huntington counties, Ind., there is between the Mississinawa 

 moraine and the Salamonie River a level plain which is covered by till. 

 The breadth of tlie plain in these counties is several miles. In Jay County, 

 Ind., and Mercer and Darke counties, Ohio, the plain becomes reduced to a 

 width of 2 to 4 miles, and farther east tlie Salamonie and Mississinawa 

 moraines nearly coalesce. The till beneath this plain does not appear to be 

 markedly different from the ordinary till of the moraines, either in textiire 

 or in the number, kind, and arrangement of pebbles. At present this plain 

 is poorly drained, but it appears to have been crossed in the past by streams 

 with better drainage conditions and also to have held lakes of small size on 

 its most poorly drained tracts. Now these old water com-ses appear as 

 sags and sloughs which are poorlj' drained, and the old lake bottoms are 

 swamps which are seldom depressed more than 10 feet below the level of 

 the bordering dry land. Open ditches are being made which follow the 

 sags and find suitable fall to effect good drainage. From drainage maps in 

 the office of county surveyor of Blackford County, at Hartford, it was 

 learned that these ditches form a nearly 23erfect dentritic systena of drainage 

 with the creeks as their trunk, as if a more perfect system of drainage had 

 formerly existed. A cause that has suggested itself to account for this 

 cliange to less perfect drainage is found in the work of beavers. Tliese 

 animals may have cut down trees and formed dams which have greatl}' 

 obstructed the drainage. In the absence of beavers fallen timber may have 

 choked up the water courses. Man}" of the channels are excavated several 

 feet below the general level of the l^ordering plain, and they are usualK' 

 several rods in widtli. They have the appearance of abandoned ravines. 

 The sliort time devoted to this territory did not give o])])ortunity to obtain 



