754 GLACIAL FORMATIONS OF ERIE AND OHIO BASINS. 



sliore curves around from a nortlieastward to a southeastward course and 

 comes to East Eighteemnile Creek Valley near the line of Hamburg and 

 Boston townships. It then passes northward toward Orchard Park, crossing 

 the Hamburg moraine immediatel}^ south and east of that village. There 

 were small islands along the south border of the moraine (see PI. XXV). 



From Orchard Park the course was traced eastward by the writer in 

 company with F. B. Taylor in the autumn of 1899, and the sinuosities of 

 the shore shown in PI. XXV were mapped in considerable detail. It will 

 be observed that the beach follows the inner slope of the Hamburg moraine 

 in a very winding course as far as the village of Marilla, where it appears 

 to terminate. Its apparent terminus is south of the western end of the 

 Marilla moraine, and, so far as examined, no trace of it was found on that 

 moraine. This negative evidence, combined with the fact that the beach is 

 very weak from the point where it crosses the Hamburg moraine eastward 

 to Marilla, led us to conclude that the lake level had dropped before the 

 ice sheet had withdrawn from the Marilla moraine. 



VARIATIONS IN STRENGTH. 



From the Maumee River southeastward as far as the Sandusky River 

 the Belmore beach is no stronger than on the west shore of the lake, and its 

 general appearance is quite similar to that of the west shore. The portion 

 between Fostoria and the Sandusky River is weaker, on the whole, than 

 any section of similar length found on the west shore of the lake, though 

 the beach is well defined between Amsden and Kansas, where its trend is 

 from southwest to northeast. The weak places are found either at hilly 

 tracts or at points where the shore faced the northeast. 



East of the Sandusky River the shore for about 25 miles faced the 

 northwest, and this portion shows the effect of somewhat stronger wave 

 action than is commonly found in the portion already described. There is 

 usually a cut bank standing 10 or 15 feet above the plain on its inner border 

 which is in places flanked by heavy deposits of gravel. 



Among the hills of western Erie County the beach is very irregular in 

 strength and far from continuous; but from North Monroeville south and 

 east to Norwalk there is a regular and continuous ridge similar to that found 

 on the west shore of the lake. Near Berlin Heights the shore is chiefly a 



