142 THE ICE AGE IN NORTH AMERICA. 



to Rockaway, thence a little south of west to Belvidere on 

 the Delaware, a few miles above Easton. The innumerable 

 throngs of passengers between New York and Philadelphia 

 can not, after their attention has been once called to the 

 facts, fail to notice this moraine as the southward-bound 

 trains pass through it, and emerge into a level, sandy region 

 free from bowlders and all irregular drift deposits. At Me- 

 tuchen and at Plainfield the transition is almost as clearly 

 marked as that between land and water. 



Before following the terminal belt farther west, where 

 its characteristics are more or less disguised by the local 

 topography, we will pause to consider more carefully some 

 of the main characteristics of it as so far traced. 



That these hills constitute a true moraine is evident from 

 the fact that they are composed of loose material such as, 

 both from the nature of the case and from observation, we 

 know is actually deposited wherever the front of a glacier 

 rests for any great length of time. A considerable portion 

 of them consists of material which has been transported 

 from various localities to the north, and deposited without 

 any stratification. Some of the bowlders are unworn and 

 angular, as if having been carried upon the back of the gla- 

 cier. Others are partially rounded and scratched in such a 

 manner as to show that they have been forced along through 

 the mass of sand and gravel which everywhere underlay the 

 moving h'eld of ice. Sections, however, frequently show in 

 these hills a limited amount of stratification. But this is not 

 at all surprising, when we consider the manner of their forma- 

 tion ; for the ice itself to a certain extent forms barriers to, 

 and furnishes channels for the running water which its own 

 melting provides, and so would itself afford the conditions 

 necessary to a partial stratification of its own deposits. 



The terminal moraine where best developed may almost 

 be said to consist of innumerable ridges, knolls, and kettle- 

 holes. The kettle-holes are of all sizes, and are situated in 

 every imaginable position with reference to the general de- 

 posit ; some of them, low down toward the base of the 



