Observations on the Recent Glacial Drift of the Alps. 26T 



glacial channel lay through schistose rocks, or limestone, there 

 was a notable larger proportion of clay, and some of the moraines 

 were a tj'^pical bowlder clay. These observations throw unex- 

 pected light on the drift of our state, where there is a very marked 

 difference between the glacial deposits of the limestone and gran- 

 itic districts in respect to the physical condition of the material. 



14. In former times, the Alpine glaciers were greatly expanded 

 and stretched entirely across the lake region to the foot of the 

 Jura mountains, on the French border. In this expanded condi- 

 tion, they most nearly, though still quite inadequately, represent 

 the nature of American Quaternary glaciers. The Juras and much 

 of the intermediate region are composed ot limestone strata. To 

 the west of Lake ISTeuchatel the sheet of drift extends up the 

 mountain slope nearly 3,000 feet above the lake surface, when it 

 terminates on the declivity in a rude, imperfect terrace of undu- 

 latory surface. Tnis, where I observed it, is composed of bowlder 

 clay, usually quite gravelly, and associated with gravel beds. It 

 was my hope to find the margin of this great moraine profonde at 

 some point on a comparatively level tract, where its development 

 would not be cramped or coerced by encompassing barriers, but 

 both at this point and in the vicinity of Grex, west of Greneva — 

 the only two points where I was able to examine it — I found it 

 pushed high up on the steep side of the mountains, and could, 

 therefore, only conjecture what its form and structure would have 

 been on plains similar to those of the Mississippi valley ; indeed 

 we can hardly assume that its material would have remained pre- 

 cisely the same, since in more level regions it might have been 

 influenced in a greater degree by glacial waters. As it was, it 

 may be characterized as a gravelly bowlder clay, with accom- 

 panying gravel beds. 



15. In the beautiful valley of Euz, west of Neuchatel, I found 

 excellent exhibits of the morainic bowlder clay. If an excava- 

 tion seen on the east side of this valley were placed side by side 

 with any one of a large number that can be found in Wisconsin, 

 no one but a skilled lithologist or paleontologist could determine 

 to which locality they severally belonged, so striking is the physi- 

 cal similarity of the two formations. Indeed the resemblance of 



