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A General Description of Lake Erie. Communicated by John J. Bigsby, M.D., &c. &c.

GENERAL REMARKS.

THE following pages will present a rapid view of the position and dimensions of Lake Erie, and of the leading features of its vicinity. The course of the heights surrounding its tributary streams are next described; and then the shores, islands, and a few of the rivers of this body of water. For topographical and statistical details, not necessary to geological description, the reader may consult with advantage the writings of Bouchette*, Howisont, Gourlay‡, Darby§, and Kilbourne ||.

Lake Erie has few of the fascinations of scenery to boast of, apart from the large mass of waters it exhibits—in tranquillity, or in motion, sometimes most vehement. It is only at its west end that it is adorned by islands. The morasses, earthy scaurs, or gentle uplands of its coasts, are only remarkable for their large walnut and buttonwood trees, which, in a dense umbrageous belt, shut out all view of the interior from the traveller on the lake, except at the partial clearances.

Neither is the vicinity of this lake agreeable as a residence, in the western half, at least in the summer. The heat then, although not thermometrically extreme, is peculiarly oppressive, relaxing, and long continued. The steaming swamps T, which are almost universal, are full of putrifying substances, occasioning the bilious remittents there so prevalent. The

Topography of the Canadas.

+ Sketches of Upper Canada. Statistical Account of Upper Canada.

Gazetteer of Ohio.

§ Tour from New York to Detroit. Clearances, by affording a free access of the air to swamps, greatly diminish their size. It has been found also, in Ohio, that the progress of cultivation tends, at the same time, to increase the dimensions of the rivers. Thus, Todd's Fork of the Little Miami River was formerly often dry in the summer, but is never so now; and the same has taken place with Kinnickinnick, in the County of Pickaway. Attention has been drawn to these subjects by the frequent want of water for mills and navigation.-KILBOURNE.

water in common use is heated, and ill tasted. Moskitoes, sand, and black flies abound, and, extending their attacks to the domestic animals, aided by a fly nearly an inch long, almost drive them distracted. There are circumstances also, in social life, which render this region a disagreeable residence, but which are gradually disappearing. Its extreme fertility, the moderate sum of its annual heat, and its facilities of communication with other countries, will, in progress of time, render it the seat of a dense population, and a principal granary of the western continent. Wheat, maize, and tobacco, are cultivated with equal success. The returns of the agriculturist are large, secure, and of excellent quality. The last-named article has been grown in considerable quantity about the river Detroit, near the head of the lake, and favoured, in a small remission of duty, by the British Government, is sent to England, after having undergone an inland carriage, to Quebec, of 814 miles. Salt springs exist in almost every township, accompanied, in one or two cases, by large beds of gypsum. Bog iron ore is common on the north-east side of the lake, and is worked. The water communications of these countries are astonishingly easy. Canoes can go from Quebec to the Rocky Mountains, to the Arctic Circle, or to the Mexican Gulf, without a portage longer than four miles; and the traveller shall arrive at his journey's end as fresh and as safely as from an English tour of pleasure. It is common for the Erie steam-boat to take goods and passengers from Buffaloe, to Green Bay and Chicago, in Lake Michigan, a distance of nearly 900 miles, touching, at the same time, at many intermediate ports. In about three years, in addition to the canal connecting Lake Erie with tidewater in the Hudson, another will be excavated across the southern dividing ridge, to communicate with the Ohio. Near its place of junction with this river, a canal from the Atlantic, across the Alleghanies, will enter the Ohio. Lake Erie will then also have a steady line of water transport to Baltimore, on the Chesapeake, and New Orleans, on the Mississippi. The surveys, preparatory to these projects, have been in execution for two years; there is no doubt of their practicability.

I cannot even hazard a conjecture as to the number of inhabitants around Lake Erie. They are numerous, and daily

augmenting; but with incomparably greater rapidity on the south side of the lake, distributed between the States of New York, Pennsylvania, and Ohio. Ohio, which occupies the largest portion, in 1800, had 45,000 inhabitants; in 1810, 250,760, and, in 1820, 581,434. At present, it cannot have less than 750,000 inhabitants, and there is ample room for more. There are few or no Indians on the north borders of the lake. The Mohawks are placed high up the river Ouse, and the Hurons, from four to ten miles up the river Detroit.

The winds are generally either up or down the lake, and in summer they are in the former direction for two-thirds of the time. In the middle of this season they are commonly mild, but occasionally in perfect tornadoes, accompanied with tremendous lightning and heavy rain. The gales begin in October, and are both violent and dangerous. Many lives are lost annually. The winters are mild and short. The inhabitants do not reckon on the ground being covered by snow more than three or four months. They turn their cattle into the woods in March and April, but the lake remains full of floating ice until May. On the 12th of May, 1821, the steam-boat could not proceed on account of the ice. From an adjacent eminence, the lake was seen to be covered with it in one compact mass, as far as the eye could range. As might be expected, remittent and intermittent fevers are very prevalent in the autumn. The febrile action rises high, and there is usually a topical affection conjoined to this the stimulating diet and frequent use of spirituous liquors, and exposure to heat, mainly conduce. In the year 1819, these diseases raged with particular violence. The British and American Boundary Commissioners, consisting of thirty-five individuals, were then encamped among the small islands at the west end of the lake. Scarcely one escaped an attack of remittent fever. In three instances it proved fatal, one of which was the British commissioner, Mr. Ogilvy, a man of great worth, activity, and talent. Most of the others recovered with difficulty, and remained, during the whole of the following winter, in a sickly state. The disease made its appearance in September. During the years 1820 and 1821, the united commissions pursued their surveys at the west end

of the lake, and along the water communication between Lakes Erie and Huron. Their officers and men were then attacked by mild intermittents, and, in one case, a severe remittent.

GEOGRAPHY.

Lake Erie is placed on the north side of the hilly country giving rise to the principal tributaries of the Ohio, and at the south edge of the fertile peninsula included by the waters of Lakes Huron, St. Clair, Erie, Ontario, and Simcoe.

The part of Lake Erie nearest to Lake Huron is Port Talbot (about the middle), and it is 57 miles distant. It is 21 miles from Lake Ontario, at Sugar-loaf Hill, and 15 miles from Lake St. Clair, at the township of Tilbury East.

This lake extends (in a narrow, oblong form, and much contracted at its north-east end) 231 miles from S.W. to N.E., according to Bouchette, and from long. 78° 16' to long. 82°. This estimate agrees closely with data I received from my friend, Lieutenant J. Grant, R.N.* Mr. Bouchette adds, that Lake Erie has its greatest breadth of 633 miles (lat. 41° 1042.3) at Port Talbot, and that it is commonly 30 to 40 miles broad, but is little more than 20 at Long Point, on the north shore, 70 miles from the lower end.

The distance between Point Pelé and its opposite headland on the south shore, the peninsula of Sandusky, is very incorrectly represented in the usual maps, which are, indeed, inaccurate in every thing respecting the head of the lake.

Purdy's Map of Cabotia makes it an oblong cul de sac, 17 miles broad, at the mouth of the Detroit river; whereas it is a short oval, 30 miles in breadth at that spot, and 423 miles long, measuring W. by N., from midway between the two headlands. He gives 13 miles as the interval between these promontories, while it is 25 miles. Mr. Tanner, a skilful geographer of Philadelphia, assigns to this last space 36 miles in his Map of the State of Ohio; and Mr. Carey, of the same place, makes it 50 miles, in his Maps of the Michigan Terri

* According to Mr. G., who was stationed on this lake in 1820, Middle Island is 190 miles, by ship's course (nearly direct), from the lower end of Lake Erie; and it is 384 miles direct from the upper end, by the maps of the Commission: thus making a total of 2284 miles.

tory*. Lieutenant J. Grant, R.N., found its general depth to be 15, 18, and 25 fathoms, and in one place only three fathoms-bottom sandy. The Canadian shore is bolder than the American, which, in some parts, runs out shoal for two or three miles.

Compared with the other lakes, this is shallow. In a gale of wind it is rendered turbid, by the sand and mud washed from the bottom, as I have myself witnessed. The sounding-lead frequently brings up clayey mud, into which it sometimes sinks entirely. Horizontal rocks now and then form its floor-most frequently at the S.W. end of the lake, where reefs and shallows are common, The water is always good, some distance into the lake; but in summer, near shore, it is much contaminated with animal and vegetable matters in a state of putrefaction. In that season, in the middle of the day, the shoal water is heated to 90-95° Fahrenheit.

The height of Lake Erie above the Atlantic Ocean has been ascertained to be 565 feet. The barrier which contains it is so low, that, were it to rise only six feet, it would inundate, on its northern and western borders, several millions of acres, now partly occupied by towns, villages, and farms; and it is estimated that a further rise of six or eight feet would precipitate a vast flood of waters over the state of Illinois from the south end of Michigan; the great Canadian lakes then discharging also into the Mexican Gulf. This last idea originated, I believe, with Mr. Stickney, a very intelligent resident on the river Maumee.

This barrier, the height of land surrounding the basin of Lake Erie and its rivers, by no means follows the shores of that body of water with fidelity-the great departure taking place about its S. W. and N.E. extremities. I shall now trace its course in a general, but sufficiently accurate, manner; and, in so doing, shall present a rapid sketch of the region in which this lake is placed.

The peninsula which it traverses on the north is an east arm of the levels, bordering the south shores of Superior, Michigan, and Huron, which are themselves parts of the vast plains of

*Atlas of the United States.