Physciography and Glaciation

area, apparently much stagnant ice occupied the low areas but in the northwest
half ice retreated in the usual manner.

The final break-up and melting of the glacier is thought to have been rapid.
Gigantic meltwater channels—far greater than the streams now occupying them
—sSuggest torrential floods of meltwater rushing through any avenue of escape.
The hundreds of eskers and thousands of small channels trending in all directions
suggest rapid melting, short-lived streams, and no organized drainage system.
The course of many meltwater channels can only be explained by the presence
of ice and in most places this ice is considered to have been stagnant.

Whether there were any complete withdrawals of ice followed by re-advances
is a question that cannot be answered as yet, but there is evidence that
ice withdrew briefly from the northeast quarter, lake deposits were laid down,
and ice re-advanced over part of these lake deposits. The fact that this lake
basin was not a second time completely covered by ice, points to a brief re-
advance only.