568 GLACIAL FORMATIONS OF ERIE AND OHIO BASINS. 



The general width of the moraine from Hog Creek marsh westward 

 nearl}' to the State line of Ohio and Indiana is but 1 to 2 iniles. It there 

 shows a marked increase in breadth, and throughout much of its course 

 in Indiana presents a breadth of about 4 miles, not inchiding the long 

 inner slope. In the earlier moraines — the Union, Mississinawa, Sala- 

 monie, and Wabash — the greatest breadth is found along the southern 

 border of the ice lobe instead of the southwestern border. It is thought 

 that this difference may be occasioned by the ice movement, the broad 

 portions being at the terminus of the axial or strong movement, while the 

 narrow portions mark the terminus of the lateral or weak movement. At 

 the time the Fort Wayne moraine was forming the axial movement appears 

 to have been southwestward, or in about the direction of the trough of the 

 Erie-Maumee Basin. It seems, therefore, but natural that the moraine 

 should be broadest at the end of that trough. At the time the earlier 

 moraines were forming the ice appears to have moved strongly toward the 

 Scioto and Miami basins and to have been controlled less by the Maumee 

 trough; hence the great strength of these moraines around the southern 

 end of the loops. 



In the distribution of this moraine Gilbert found the key to the 

 peculiar coiirse of the St. Marys and St. Joseph rivers. On this subject 

 he says:^ 



North of the Maumee the general descent is to the southeast, and south of that 

 river to the northeast. With slight exceptions, the smaller streams follow and 

 indicate these slopes, but all the larger tributaries of the Maumee, including the St. 

 Joseph, St. Mar}^s, and Auglaize rivers, and Bean or Tiffin Creek, appear to be 

 independent of them. The St. Joseph, for example, flows to the southwest, through 

 a country where everj^ rivulet runs to the southeast. The entire region drained by 

 it lies on its right bank, while from its left the drainage is toward Bean Ci'eek, the 

 divide between the two streams being everywhere within 3 or 4 miles of the St. 

 Joseph. In like manner the course of the St. Marys is west and north, and while 

 from its left bank the streamlets flow northeast into it, from the right the}' flow 

 northeast into the Auglaize. These hydrographical peculiarities, which may readily 

 be noted on the accompanying map, are so singular and striking as to have excited 

 some attention and curiosity before the region was visited. Upon examination 

 there was found a continuous ridge following the eastern banks of these rivers and 

 evidently determining their courses. Running somewhat obliquely across the slopes 

 of the country, it turned aside all the small streams and united them to form the St. 

 Joseph and St. Marys. The height of this ridge is ordinarily from 25 to 60 feet 



1 Geology of Ohio, Vol. I, 1873, p. 541. 



