Project Gutenberg's The Mammals of Washtenaw County, Michigan, by Norman Wood

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Title: The Mammals of Washtenaw County, Michigan
Occasional Papers of the Museum of Zoology, No. 123

Author: Norman Wood

Release Date: August 23, 2010 [EBook #33507]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

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NUMBER 123 JULY 10, 1922

OCCASIONAL PAPERS OF THE MUSEUM OF ZOOLOGY

UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN

ANN ARBOR, MICHIGAN PUBLISHED BY THE UNIVERSITY

THE MAMMALS OF WASHTENAW COUNTY, MICHIGAN

BY NORMAN A. WOOD

Three natural physiographic divisions cross Washtenaw County from
northwest to southeast. The northwestern part of the county is occupied
by the rough interlobate moraine of loose-textured soil, the Interlobate
Lake District; a broad Clay Morainic Belt occupies most of the central
part of the county; and in the southeastern corner of the county is
found a low Lake Plain, once the bed of glacial Lake Maumee.

The Interlobate Lake District has a conspicuous system of moraines,
making up a most irregular land surface. Steep knolls 100 to 200 feet in
height are closely associated with basins, which are often deep, and
some of which are occupied by lakes. Small, undrained depressions occur
everywhere, producing thousands of acres of swamp and marsh land.

The Clay Morainic Belt occupies the region from just below Portage Lake
to Ypsilanti. It is composed of glacial till plains and clay moraines
extending from northeast to southwest. This area includes the highest
land in the county, one hill exceeding and several approaching 1100 feet
in altitude. Most of the area is high and rolling.

The old beach, marking the limits of the Lake Plain District, runs
northeast from Ypsilanti to the county line above Cherry Hill, and
southwest through Stony Creek to a point on the county line about eight
miles west of Milan.

The native upland forests of the Interlobate Moraine District were
composed chiefly of red, yellow, and white oak,