Correlation of Moraines with Beaches. 
235 
The altitude of the Van Wert beach throughout its course in Indiana 
and Ohio, has a variation of scarcely ten feet, the general altitude being 
very nearly 210 feet above Lake Erie. In Michigan it has been examined 
by Dr. J. W. Spencer, who reports a marked northward differential up¬ 
lift between Ypsilanti and Berville, its altitude being 211 feet at Ypsi- 
lanti, and 244 feet at Berville.* 
The Van Wert ridge, so far as I have examined it, consists in the main of 
a deposit of sandy gravel. It is not a strong beach, its usual height being 
three to five feet and its breadth but ten to twelve rods. Its pebbles are 
often but slightly worn, an indication that wave action was not strong. It 
is not improbable that throughout a larger portion of the year than at 
present the lake shore was fringed by ice. Fossils are extremely rare if 
not entirely absent from this beach, a feature which accords well with 
the view that the beach was formed during the low temperature of the 
glacial period, though it is merely negative evidence, since the ab¬ 
sence or scarcity of fossils is not always due to the original absence of 
life, but often to the lack of conditions for preservation. 
(b) The Blanchard Moraine .— The Blanchard is the latest moraine of 
the series in Ohio, that can be traced around the western end of Lake 
Erie. Westward from Findlay the moraine, though a less conspicuous 
feature than eastward from that city, was recognized and mapped by Mr. 
Gilbert more than twenty years ago.| It is, therefore, one of the earliest 
recognized moraines on this continent. From near the meridian of 
Findlay eastward it resembles the earlier moraines in presenting a 
broadly ridged and slightly undulatory tract of till, standing twenty to 
forty feet above the plain south of it, and having a breadth of one and 
one-half to three miles. Near the meridian referred to it assumes a 
very different appearance, that of a knob and basin topography of sub¬ 
dued type in which knolls of conical form rise abruptly five to ten feet 
and cover an acre or less each, and among which are sharp basins occu¬ 
pying usually but a small fraction of an acre each, though frequently 
several feet in depth. The crest of the moraine is no longer well de¬ 
fined though it continues to be a water shed-between tributaries of the 
Maumee, all the way to that stream near Defiance. 
The structure presents as marked a change as the topography. In¬ 
stead of a uniform deposit of till at the surface, there is a variety of for¬ 
mations remarkable for the abruptness of their alternations. In one 
knoll a fine sand may occur while its neighbors are composed of clay, or 
a portion of a knoll may be sand and the remainder clay, the whole 
being moulded together in a symmetrical knoll, like the gravel and till 
in ordinary kames. A few knolls contain gravel but as a rule pebbles 
are rare, and no surface bowlders or large pebbles were observed. The 
nlays are very calcareous and abound in nodules in nearly every exposure. 
* Am. Journ. Sci. March 1891. 
+ Am. Journ. Sci., May 1, 1871, pp. 339-342. 
