THE OTTAWA NATURALIST 



VOL. XXIV. OTTAWA, JUNE, 1910 No. -^ 



PLANTS GROWING WILD AND WITHOUT CULTIVA- 

 TION IN THE COUNTY OF LAMBTON, ONTARIO. 



By Charles K. Dodge, Port Huron, Mich. 



The County of Lambton is situated at the foot of Lake Huron 

 and east of St. Clair River, having about 40 miles of Lake Huron 

 shore and about the same amount of St. Clair River shore, and 

 extending east from the river over 30 miles. One fact not gener- 

 ally known is that on the south it includes the Delta Islands of 

 St. Clair River, belonging to Ontario, and lying immediately 

 west of the northern part of Kent County, the largest being 

 Walpole Island, Squirrel Island and St. Ann's Island. These 

 islands include a number of miles of Lake St. Clair shore. The 

 surface of Lambton County is generally low and level, there be- 

 ing very few hills and very little rolling land. The small rivers 

 and creeks especially in the eastern part are often sunk below 

 the general surface and have narrow flood valleys. The mouths 

 of those flowing northerly into Lake Huron are usually closed 

 during the dry seasons of summer with gravel and sand thrown 

 up by wave and wind. The Aux Sables River, the largest of the 

 small streams, and entering the county at the north-east, appears 

 to flow continuously, but its sinuous course and the large number 

 of its old and aljandoned vStream beds show conclusively that its 

 course to Lake Huron has often been obstructed and changed. 

 Many small streams flow southed v into Lake St. Clair. Out- 

 croppings appear at Kettle Point, Rock Glen and a few other 

 places, expo.sing fossil-bearing rocks of great interest to geologists. 

 The Delta Islands of St. Clair River without doubt were mostly 

 formed by the deposit of material carried down by the river 

 into Lake St. Clair, and it has been estimated that about one- 

 fourth of the original area of the lake has thus been filled up.* 

 On the north shore bordering on the lower ends of these islands, 

 the water for some distance is very shallow and the adjacent 

 land recently made \'ery wet and boggv. Parts away from shore 

 are prairie-like, usually very wet in spring and fall, but very 



*See report of Leon J. Cole on "The Delta Island.s of St. Clair River." 

 Geological Survey of Michigan, Vol. IX, Part I. 



