Where a stream flowed parallel or approximately parallel to the edge of the advancing ice it was sometimes shifted in the direction in which the ice was moving, keeping parallel to the front of the ice. All of these classes of changes took place in this region.
_Wisconsin lake._--Reference has already been made to certain lakes which existed in the region when the ice was there. The largest of these lakes was that which resulted from the blocking of the Wisconsin river. The ice crossed its present course at Kilbourn City, and its edge lay to the west of the river from that point to Prairie du Sac (see Plate I). The waters from the area now draining into the Wisconsin must either have found an avenue of escape beneath the ice, or have accumulated in a lake west of the edge of the ice. There is reason to believe that the latter was what happened, and that a great lake covered much of the low land west of the Wisconsin river above and below Kilbourn City. The extensive gravel beds on the north flank of the quartzite bluff at Necedah, and the water-worn pebbles of local origin on the slope of Petenwell peak (Plate XXXII), as well as the gravels at other points, are presumably the work of that lake. The waters in this lake, as in that in the Baraboo valley, probably rose until the lowest point in the rim of the basin was reached, and there they had their outlet. The position of this outlet has not been definitely determined, but it has been thought to be over the divide of the Black river.[8] It is possible, so far as now known, that this lake was connected with that of the Baraboo valley. Until topographic maps of this region are made, the connections will not be easily determined.
[8] Chamberlin: Geology of Wisconsin, Vol. 1.
Even after the ice had retreated past the Wisconsin, opening up the present line of drainage, the lakes did not disappear at once, for the ice had left considerable deposits of drift in the Wisconsin valley. Thus at F, Plates II and XXXVII, and perhaps at other points, the Wisconsin has made cuts of considerable depth in the drift. Were these cuts filled, as they must have been when the ice melted, the drainage would be ponded, the waters standing at the level of the dam. This drift obstruction at F would therefore have prolonged the history of the lake which had come into existence when the ice blocked the drainage of the Wisconsin. As the drift of the valley was removed the level of the lake sank and finally disappeared.