572 GLACIAL FORMATIONS OF ERIE AND OHIO BASINS. 



touches the outer border of the Defiance moraine. This spur occupies a 

 shghtly depressed tract, compared with the region on the east, its highest 

 points rising scarcely to the level of the plain east of it; but it is fully as 

 high as the plain west of it. Basins are a conspicuous feature, and they 

 are associated with knolls and winding ridges in cliaracteristic morainic 

 fashion. At the northwest end of the spur, along each side of the Sandusky 

 River, there are ridges whose trend is northeast to southwest, or nearly 

 parallel with the moraine and at right angles to the spur. They rise 

 abruptly 15 to 20 feet above the till plain that lies west of the Sandusky. 

 East of Mexico and near the outer border of the Defiance moraine is a 

 district where the knolls and basins are very sharp, presenting a strong 

 contrast to the gently undulator}- topography of the Defiance moraine. 

 As stated above, the spur is traceable up to that moraine and may have 

 extended still farther to the north along Sandusky River and have had its 

 northern portion overridden by the advance of the ice sheet which produced 

 the moraine. 



The Fort Wayne moraine crosses the Sandusky River at Little San- 

 dusky, and has a remarkably feeble development from there westward 

 around the end of the loop. A low ridge passing southwestward near 

 Moral and Cochranton completes the eastern limb of the moraine. From 

 Cochranton to Dunkirk there are only patchy developments of morainic 

 topography which in themselves Avould hardly be considered sufficient to 

 be classed as a moraine, but which serve as the connecting links between 

 the well-defined portions to the east and to the west. 



About 1^ miles east of Dunkirk a well-marked drift ridge sets in, which 

 for 2 or 3 miles has a course north of west. It then assumes a nearly due- 

 west course, which it maintains for fully 10 miles, when it curves to the 

 south of west and follows the north side of Hog Creek to Lima. Before 

 reaching Hog Creek it is bordered on the south for a few miles by Hog 

 Creek Marsh. It has a well-defined crest standing 20 to 40 feet above the 

 outer border plain, and is dotted by low swells 5 to 10 feet in height. Its 

 breadth is scarcely half as great as that of the portion of the moraine 

 east of Sandusky River, being but a mile, or even less. From Lima west- 

 ward the moraine maintains a well-defined crest, but it is not so sharp as it 

 is east of that city. It is dotted by low swells, scarcely 10 feet in usual 



