436 FRANK BURSLEY TAYLOR 
its base somewhat more than forty feet, but the real crest is 
somewhat higher than the railroad track. The front or western 
slope is about two and a half miles long and the eastern or back 
slope about seven miles. It has been suggested that the 
moraines that show this form owe their steeper front slopes to 
the action of marginal glacial rivers which have carried off the 
deposit on that side. No doubt there was a slight influence of 
this kind in some cases, but there certainly was none in the case 
of the Defiance moraine, for it was laid down in about sixty feet 
of still water (glacial Lake Maumee) and there was no chance 
for a stream to act until the ice-front had retreated beyond 
Detroit nearly to Port Huron. While the Leipsic beach was 
being made the water still stood about thirty feet deep -at 
Defiance, and it was only when it fell to the level of Lake Whit- 
tlesey (Belmore beach) that marginal rivers began to exist. The 
depression shown at Defiance in the profile is the bed of the 
Maumee River which began to flow at the same time. But the 
Maumee is a much larger stream than Tiffin or Bean Creek that 
comes in from the north along the moraine front, or the Auglaise 
River, which comes in from the south in the same relation. 
Formed under such circumstances it is obvious that the Defiance 
moraine was originally shaped in the building as we find it now, 
and does not owe its form to the action of a border river. Part 
of the Saginaw moraine, between Ubly and Cass City was prob- 
ably steepened by the large rapid outlet river which flowed along 
its front, but apparently none of the other moraines of this type 
were notably affected in this way. The rest of the Saginaw 
moraine is a fine specimen of the type here referred to.” 
This character of the moraines, however, is not confined to 
the particular tri-state area mentioned above. The same general 
type is only a little less distinctly developed in several other 
places, and is recognized by other observers. Mr. Leverett, 
*Some account of Lake Whittlesey and the Saginaw and Port Huron moraines 
with brief mention also of the Toledo and Detroit moraines may be found in “ Cor- 
relation of Erie-Huron Beaches with Outlets and Moraines in Southeastern Michigan,” 
Bull. G. S. A., Vol. VIII, 1897, pp. 31-58. Also “Glacial Succession in Eastern 
Michigan,” abstract in Am. Geol., Oct. 1896, p. 234. 
