GLACIAL FEATURES OF ST. CROIX DALLES REGION 247 



appears to have had its beginning with the ponded waters and out- 

 wash from the west. 



The Franconia recessional. — The most westerly, and youngest, 

 of the red terminal moraines in the Dalles region, I have termed the 

 Franconia, from the fact that it was first detected on the uplands 

 back of Franconia. It is the most difficult of the three to trace, 

 because most of it has since been rubbed over by the gray ice, which 

 covered what was left with a thin sheet of gray till. As mapped, 

 the chain consists of seven separate links, disconnected by the later 

 ice invasion, but all in a slightly curved strip, whose missing bound- 

 aries could easily be drawn. With the exception of the most northerly 

 patch, this moraine lies west of the river in Minnestoa. (See map.) 

 The curved belt is concentric with the two other moraines across the 

 river. In this buried recessional all degrees of terminal topography 

 are displayed, from that which can scarcely be identified, to a strong 

 kettle moraine. Opposite Osceola its great depressions and hum- 

 mocks have been well preserved; between Taylor's Falls and Fran- 

 conia station it has been almost entirely obliterated. The veneering 

 of gray drift varies in thickness; on the northernmost strip of this 

 moraine, east of the river, practically no gray till was found, though 

 the presence of limestone pebbles, and also striae beyond it, proves 

 that this ice once visited that section. Along the railroad tracks, 

 between Taylor's Falls and Franconia, some of the steep banks 

 expose from 20 to 30 feet of gray till, but this is unusual and exces- 

 sive. The average thickness is perhaps best represented in the 

 strip back of Franconia village, or near Wyckstrom Lake where, in a 

 number of cuts, from 2 to 3 feet of gray drift rests upon the red. 



While a strong terminal moraine belt can survive the effects of a 

 subsequent ice advance, and still be recognized by its topography, 

 an outwash plain is much less easily distinguishable under these 

 unfavorable conditions. But by its stratified material it is readily 

 identified. In the road-cuts near Franconia, and from this point 

 south, in the excellent sections revealed by the gullies which are 

 working from the river back into the Minnesota uplands, a thick 

 deposit of stratified sands and gravels is found everywhere to sepa- 

 rate the red and gray till-sheets. The lines of contact are sharp. 

 Lithologically, these gravels are the same as the coarse material of 



