BLANCH AKD OK DEFIANCE MORAINE. 585 



Along the bluffs of the Cuyahoga, from near Peninsula southward to the 

 bend of the river, the moraine is characterized by lower swells than on the 

 higher lands a short distance back from the river. The bluffs bordering 

 the stream are about 250 feet high, but they do not represent the height 

 of the uplands, there being a rise of nearly 250 feet more to the brow of 

 the escarpments of Carboniferous conglomerate which border the valley at 

 a distance of 1 to 3 miles from the stream. The tract along the valley 

 between these escarpments bears resemblance to a terrace in its nearly uni- 

 form altitude, but it is dotted with low drift swells of morainic type. It 

 is probable that the valley was filled with drift aboiit to this height while 

 the ice overhung it, and the inner valley, 250 feet in depth, has been 

 excavated since the ice sheet withdrew. Between this stream and Medina 

 there are few drift knolls worthy of note ; but west of Medina, in the south- 

 ern part of York Township, Medina County, are numerous drift knolls and 

 ridges which in places are definite enough to admit of description. The 

 inner ridge lies just south of York Center, a very level tract extending 

 for several miles north from that village. The ridge trends northeast to 

 southwest and rises abruptly 20 to 25 feet above the plain northwest of it. 

 A second ridge, about one-fourth mile from this, on the southeast, rises 10 to 

 20 feet higher still. Near the south line of York Township is another drift 

 ridge 20 feet or more in height, which has an east-to-west trend. The inter- 

 val between these ridges is well filled with drift knolls about 10 feet high. 

 This system of ridges and knolls continues in a course south of west across 

 southeastern Litchfield Township, its principal ridge touching the southeast 

 corner of that township. There are scattering knolls outside this main ridge 

 in the northern part of Lafayette Township. In Chatham Township, also, 

 the moraine is separable into three distinct ridges. The outer one occupies 

 the eastern part of the township and trends north-northeast to south-south- 

 west. It consists of a nearly continuous chain of knolls 10 to 20 feet high, 

 on each side of which there are scattering knolls. It lies on the slope east 

 of the southward-flowing portion of East Black River. The middle ridge 

 occupies the central portion of the township, passing from north to south 

 entirely aci-oss it. It lies west of East Black River, and constitutes the 

 barrier which caused the stream to take a southward course in this town- 

 ship. It is about a half mile in width, and is a smooth ridge with scarcely 

 any knolls and basins along it. However, about a mile soutli of Chatham 

 Center, and 60 rods west of the Qenter road, a basin several feet deep, and 



