742 GLACIAL FORMATIONS OF ERIE AND OHIO BASINS. 



the level of the ridge cut through by the Niagara River near Buffalo, and 

 also above the divide at the head of Lake Michigan, for at that time the 

 relation of the lakes to the ice sheet was not even dimly conceived. 



The Belmore beach is the "third beach" of Gilbert's series in the Mau- 

 mee basin,' and is the same to which Spencer applied the name Ridgeway 

 in Michigan.^ The name Belmore, however, has priority, and has also the 

 advantage of being less liable to lead to confusion than Ridgeway. The 

 latter name has been applied to at least thirteen towns in the United States, 

 and there is a Ridgeway in each of the four States bordering Lake Erie. 

 As a further disadvantage the name Ridgeway is applied to a town in New 

 York that stands on a different beach from the one under discussion. 



The coui'se of the Belmore beach had been mapped throughout much 

 of its extent from southern Michigan thi-ough Ohio and northwestern Penn- 

 sylvania to southwestern New York before the writer began investigations. 

 Attention, therefore, has been given chiefly to such portions as others had 

 not attempted. The extent of the beach in southwestern New York was 

 worked out in company with F. B. Taylor. Taylor also assisted in tracing 

 the beach around the part of Defiance Bay north of the Maumee River. 



UBIiY OUTIiET. 



This outlet for Lake Whittlesey having been discovered and brought 

 to notice by Taylor ^ and no opportunity having been afforded the writer 

 to examine tlie outlet, Taylor's discussion, both of the outlet and of neigh- 

 boring parts of the Belmore beach, is here presented: 



The most northerly point of Spencer's tracing [of the Belmore beach] is 2 miles 

 east of Emmet, where the altitude is 770 feet. From this point it was followed north 

 and then east past Spring Hill, 2 miles northeast of Avoca, where its altitude is about the 

 same. It is a strong and well-formed beach and is easily followed to this point. At 

 Spring Hill it culminates in a great blunt spit of gravel compounded of many beach 

 ridges laid up one against the other. The head of the spit projects toward the north- 

 east, is about 40 rods wide, and at its front stands about 15 feet above the flats to the 

 east and 10 feet above those to the northwest. Two more fragments of this beach 

 were found within 3 miles northwest from the spit, both gravelly projecting, points. 

 Mr. Gilbert also traced this beach from Emmet to Spring Hill. North of the spit 

 there is a stretch of 10 miles or more of very flat land on which no beach was seen. 

 Four miles west of Crosswell a faint shore line was found along the base of high 



1 Geology of Ohio, Vol. 1, 1873, pp. 554, 569-570. 



2 Am. Jour. Sci., 3d series. Vol. XLI, 1891, pp. 204-208. 

 ' Bull. Geol. Soc. America, Vol. VIII, 1897, pp. 39-46. 



