8 BULLETIN 142, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
The small detached area in the Traverse Bay region occupied by 
soils of the Miami series ranges in elevation from about 600 feet to 
approximately 900 feet above sea level. The elevations within small 
areas vary more widely in this section than in any other part of the 
more eastern development of the Miami soils. It is a territory of 
undulating to hilly topography, with small areas of nearly level 
land. The nearly level areas are chiefly occupied by soils of other 
series. 
In general, the areas occupied by the soils of the Miami series in 
southern Michigan may be characterized as rolling to ridged in the 
more elevated portion as described, and as gently undulating plains 
through the greater part of central Michigan from Howell to the 
vicinity of Grand Rapids. The western and southwestern part of 
the lower peninsula is occupied by broad, low ridges parallel with 
the lake shore, with intervening extensive outwash valleys which do 
not usually comprise large areas of Miami soils. 
The small sections of northwestern Indiana and northeastern 
Illinois included within the region of mainly Miami soils consist 
chiefly of broad, flat ridges whose highest elevations do not exceed 
800 feet. The local variations in altitude are usually slight, and the 
slopes are gentle, except in minor areas. 
In the portion of eastern Wisconsin which is largely occupied by 
soils of the Miami series the topographic features differ materially 
from those within the territory already described. The land along 
the western shore of Lake Michigan from Racine to the mouth of 
Green Bay has an altitude of about 600 feet, or an elevation of 20 
to 40 feet above the level of the lake. From the shore of the lake it 
rises rapidly toward the west, elevations of 900 feet or more being 
attained along a line from the center of the Door Peninsula south- 
westward to the vicinity of Beloit, Wis. In part this altitude is 
caused by the elevation of the underlying rock floor; but the minor 
differences in elevation and slope, and to some degree the absolute 
altitude, are determined by the thickness of the superficial deposits 
which cover this region. The central ridge is marked by choppy, 
steeply sloping ridges with large and small intervening hollows and 
plains, which give an appearance of rugosity in marked, contrast with 
the surface of the areas occupied by the soils of the Miami series in 
Indiana and Ohio. The rolling topography typical of southeastern 
Wisconsin is shown in Plate I, figure 1. Over a large part of the 
section in southeastern Wisconsin immediately west and northwest 
of the high central ridge there are long, rounded, nearly parallel hills 
which, with the intervening hollows, give a fluted aspect to the 
surface. 
