LAKE ESCARPMENT MORAINES. 661 



Throughout its course, from Painesville eastward into Pennsylvania, it 

 displays much greater strength than the Euclid moraine. Its influence 

 upon drainage is a notable feature, and one showing its almost perfect con- 

 tinuity. G-rand River is made to take a westward course for about 20 

 miles along its outer border from the bend near Austinburg to the bend at 

 Painesville, thus greatly increasing its distance to Lake Erie. The head- 

 water part of Ashtabula Creek, from its som-ce westward to Kelloggsville, 

 Ohio, also has its course determined by this morainic ridge, and is prevented 

 from flowing directly north to Lake Erie. 



After combining with the Euclid moraine in western Erie County, Pa., 

 there is but little change in the topography from that presented by the 

 Painesville moraine west of the point of union. There is usually a well- 

 defined crest and a sharply undulating surface, on which the knolls are 10 

 to 25 feet or more in height. The part of the moraine between Conneaut 

 Creek and Elk Creek, as may be seen by reference to PI. XVIII, holds 

 small drainage lines between it and the base of the rock escarpment to 

 the south, one line leading northeastward into Little Elk Creek, and the 

 other southwestward into Temple Creek, a tributary of Conneaut Creek. 

 Between these is another stream which finds a gap in the moraine through 

 which it passes northward into Elk Creek. Little Elk Creek takes advant- 

 age of a similar gap near its mouth; but an eastern tributary of Little Elk 

 Creek is turned westward between this moraine and the base of the escarp- 

 ment. Elk Creek owes its southwestward deflection of 3 or 4 miles, near 

 Sterrettania, to the presence of this moraine on its north side. 



The Ashtabula moraine differs but little in strength and in topographic 

 expression from the Painesville moraine. Its width is one-half mile to a mile 

 or more, and its crest stands 30 to 60 feet or more above the bordering sag 

 on the south and the plain on the north. The outer or south face is much 

 more abrupt than the inner. It is sharply undulating, and where strongest 

 it has knolls 20 to 40 feet in height. The weakest part is immediately 

 west of Kingsville, where for a couple of miles it rises but little above 

 the old lake bottom, and has perhaps been worn down to some extent by 

 the waves. The portion along the north side of Conneaut Creek from 

 Kingsville, Ohio, eastward to Lexington, Pa., is exceptionall}^ strong, its 

 height being 40 to 60 feet above the creek bluff. Immediately east of 

 Lexington it is interrupted by a narrow gap through which Crooked Creek 



