56 GEOLOGY OF OHIO. 



and New Haven, to Fort Wayne, where it forms parallel lines on the 

 opposite sides of the old river which once flowed out of Lake Erie; 

 thence it passes eastward through Van Wert, Delphos, Findlay, etc. 

 A higher and equally continuous ridge lies back of this, passing from 

 Hudson, Michigan, on the left bank of the St. Joseph's river, to Fort 

 Wayne, and on the south side of the Maumee, running south-easterly 

 to Lima and Kenton. This ridge he does not consider to be an old lake 

 beach, but rather a swell of the Erie clay determined by a buried mo- 

 raine. The conjecture seems very plausible, except that it is hardly 

 necessary to suppose that a moraine of gravel and bowlders here under- 

 lies the Erie clay, since this clay — if I am correct in my ideas of its 

 genesis — when unstratified and a bowlder clay, is itself true moraine 

 material. It would not be strange if we should find this accumulated in 

 unusual quantities along certain lines within the lake basin, where the 

 reach of the glacier was for a long time constant, and where circumstances 

 were not favorable for its being washed away. The controlling influence 

 which this St. Mary's ridge — as it is called by Mr. Winchell — has exerted 

 over the flow of the St. Joseph's and St. Mary's rivers, would seem to in- 

 dicate that it was a feature in the original topography of the country 

 when left bare by the retirement of the lake waters. 



The second beach of Mr. Gilbert's series runs closely parallel with the 

 first, and is often confounded with it. The third beach, with an altitude 

 of 165 feet, passes through Delta, Ridgeville, (Henry county) to Defiance ; 

 thence eastward to Tiffin. This, also, Mr. Gilbert supposes to be a beach 

 line traced along the slope of a swell of Erie clay, over a buried moraine ; 

 a suggestion which I would emend as before. It will be noticed that this 

 swell — but not the ridge — had the same influence on the courses of the 

 Tiffin and Auglaize as the former one on those of the St. Mary's and St. 

 Joseph's. 



Mr. Winchell recognizes six parallel ridges in the Maumee valley, 

 which he names the St. John's, the Wabash, the St. Mary's, the Van 

 Wert, the Leipsic, and the Belmore ridges; his Van Wert ridge being 

 identical with Mr. Gilbert's beach No. 1 ; his St. Mary's ridge being the 

 same with Mr. Gilbert's upper moraine, having an altitude of from 354 

 feet at Hudson, Michigan, to 322 feet at Lima. This is certainly not an 

 old lake beach, and should not be included in the same category. The 

 same is true of his higher ridges, the Wabash, 350 to 408 feet, and the 

 St. John's ridge, 386 to 490 feet above the Lake. These upper ridges of 

 Mr. WinchelPs series are altogether distinct, in their external characters 

 and in their composition, from the lower ones, and have evidently been pro- 



