DEFIANCE COUNTY. 433 



the west, yet in some, places between Farmer Center and Williams 

 Center it has a marked descent both ways. At the former place there is 

 a half mile interval between this and the Van Wert Ridge, and the 

 country is generally somewhat broken. The Van Wert Ridge is easily 

 discernible at this point in but few places. Between Defiance and 

 Independence the Maumee River shows two terraces besides the flood- 

 plain, the height of the bank being about equally divided between them. 

 The upper terrace, or that which furnishes the ascent to the level of the 

 country, does not accompany this river further than Independence, but 

 seems to merge into the inner margin of the Blanchard Ridge, and 

 thence to strike off in opposite directions at right angles from the river, 

 while a little further east the gravelly Belmore Ridge rises and accom- 

 panies it toward the north and south. This terraced condition of the 

 Maumee is not seen at any other place below this point. It is, however, 

 seen at Fort Wayne, and for a few miles below, where the river crosses 

 the St. Mary's Ridge. In the same manner, there the upper bench strikes 

 away from the river and forms the inner margin of the St. Mary's Ridge. 

 On the N. E. J section 24, Defiance, in the bank of a little ravine known 

 as Sulphur Hollow, a section of the Drift was seen, as follows : 



No. 1. Sandy loam, forming the surface soil 4 ft. 



" 2. Fine, laminated clay 6" 



" 3. Bluish-brown hard-pan, containing gravel, stones, and small 

 bowlders that are scratched as if glaciated, very hard, and 



compact 4 " 



" 4. Fine sand in distinct, oblique stratification ; seen, about 8 " 



Total 22 " 



Between Defiance and the S. E. \ section 30, in Richland, the surface 

 is clayey, high, and somewhat gravelly when not covered with lake sand. 

 For about a mile out from Defiance the soil is quite fine, and is appar- 

 ently of the nature of the "beeswax soil" already mentioned. The ridge, 

 in section 28, Richland, is thirty feet high, with a conspicuous descent 

 into a flat, having the Black Swamp features, in both directions. This 

 ridge here is considerably enlarged by lake sand, and doubtless lay as a 

 sand-bar, where waves broke in high winds when the lake had suffi- 

 ciently retired. This is the Belmore Ridge. There are two ridges of 

 gravel, each like the Belmore Ridge, running south from the Maumee to 

 Ayersville, and further east. About Ayersville they are covered with 

 sand, and roads cross from one to the other on ridges of sand. This has 

 given the idea that the divergence is there, the sand not being distin- 

 guishable from the gravel. The outer one of these two ridges runs to. 



28 



