480 Cr GOKD ON: 
Between Plainwell and Otsego it turns abruptly southward 
along the outer border of the Valparaiso moraine (G), past 
Decatur and Niles to South Bend, and thence evidently, accord- 
ing to Leverett’s observations, the waters reached the Illinois 
River by way of the Kankakee. On thesouth and east side the 
waters were confined by the Olivet moraine (£). Between 
Lansing and Plainwell the channel has an average width of about 
a mile, but is somewhat wider inits lower portion. Atthe bend 
near Kalamazoo it has a width of two anda half miles and at 
Plainwell it is much wider. At Plainwell a branch comes in 
from the northeast by way of Gun Lake that is in direct con- 
nection with the upper part of the valley of the Thornapple 
River which is here wide and was evidently active as an outlet 
at a later stage than the Kalamazoo. The connection between 
the Thornapple and Gun Lake divisions is through a series of 
small lakes and marshes in Yankee Springs township. 
Between Dimondale and Charlotte the Kalamazoo channel is 
marked by a long narrow marsh some portions of which have 
been brought under cultivation. Similar marshy tracts occur 
also between Charlotte and Battle Creek, at Kalamazoo and 
south of Otsego. At Kalamazoo the mucky soil has been util- 
ized for growing the celery for which that city has become noted. 
Outside the mucky areas the channel floor is covered with sand 
and gravel. In some places sand predominates and often occurs 
in low mounds and ridges. Gravel, however, mixed with more 
or less sand is the principal constituent of the valley filling. 
Gravel beds occur along the sides of the valley as remnants of 
a terrace, the top of which is about fifteen feet above the general 
plain level. Cultivated fields generally show an abundance of 
cobble stones strewn over the surface and in some places bowlder 
patches occur. At Charlotte gravels constitute the low divide 
between the headwaters of Battle Creek and Thornapple River 
occupied by the Grand Rapids branch of the Michigan Central 
Railway. At Plainwell a bluff of gravel twenty feet high extends 
along the north bank of the river which here flows over a stony 
bottom. 
