400 
The American Geologist , 
June, 1896 
them north of Alpena on the west shore of lake Huron. Nor did I find 
any beaches above the Algonquin beach north or east of Petoskey or 
north of Menominee in the ba'sin of lake Michigan. During the past 
season I looked for these beaches on the slopes above the Algonquin 
shore line west and northwest of Alpena; about Bolton. Posen and Ha- 
genville; on the high ridges south and west of Rogers City and near 
Ocqueoc and Onaway. From Indian River on the Michigan Central 
railroad I ascended the high drift hills to the southeast, up to hights 
two hundred and fifty to three hundred feet above the Algonquin beach 
and also drove over the hills east of Petoskey. All the beaches of lake 
Warren in the Erie basin and in the southern part of the Huron basin 
lie above the Algonquin beach. The highland slope between Petoskey 
and Alpena is a critical, test place for these beaches. They may be 
there. But I failed to find a sign of them, although they were made 
the particular object of search. 
Mr. Upham’s ideas of the lake history seem to have sprung from his 
hypothesis of the eastward retreat of the ice front, and ultimately from 
his belief in the unity of the Ice age. He has taken pains to explain 
this fully and to illustrate it by maps. So far as my observations in the 
north go, the predominant direction of striae and of bowlder transporta¬ 
tion and the positions of such fragments of terminal moraines as I have 
seen do not support this idea. One of the most convincing evidences 
on this point is that of the jasper conglomerate. The direction of 
transportation of these bowlders leaves no doubt as to the order of 
retreat for that area. They show that it was somewhat to the south of 
southwest across the central and north-western part of lake Huron. 
Again, striae, bowlders and moraines show that at North bay and in the 
Mattawa valley the direction of ice motion was almost due south — gener¬ 
ally from a point five to ten degrees east of north, but occasionally from 
a few degrees west of north. I would, therefore, question the very 
foundation of- Mr. Upham’s hypothesis. In order to bring the lake his¬ 
tory into accord with his idea of the unity of the Ice age and the order 
of glacial retreat he has made assumptions which are clearly untenable 
because they do plain violence to a large body of well settled facts. 
There is nothing to be gained by anybody by persisting in a demonstra¬ 
ted error. If Mr. Upham could make himself acquainted with the facts 
at first hand, I feel perfectly certain that he would agree with me on 
them, however much we might continue to differ on matters of theory. 
Fort Wayne , Ind., Apr. 29, 1896. F. B. Taylor. 
Beaches of Lakes Warren and Algonquin. The foregoing letter 
by Mr. Taylor seems to call for some defense of my opinions concerning 
the Laurentian glacial lakes, which were given in the April American 
Geologist (pp. 238-241) and more fully in the paper and map there 
cited (Geol. and Nat. Hist. Survey of Minnesota, Twenty-third Annual 
Report, for 1894, and the Am. Jour, of Science for Jan., 1895). Mr. 
Taylor holds that the highest ancient shore lines, marked by distinct 
beaches and deltas, in the greater part of the lake Superior basin (ex- 
