8z8 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



On passing along the borders of the lake, however, another phe- 

 nomenon was observed that seemed to contradict this hypothesis, or 

 to indicate that the change of level had been the other way. This was 

 the existence of the stumps of large trees, evidently in the position 

 where they had grown, but at this time standing in the water. And 

 again, a living witness was found to corroborate the testimony of the 

 stumps, in the person of an old resident who tells of the willows grow- 

 ing far out on what is now a shallow in the lake, and forming a haunt 

 that the deer used to frequent in the years when this country was first 

 settled. 



That summer (1878), a new trestle was built across the head of the 

 lake for the Chicago and West Michigan Railroad. In building it 

 piles were driven and sawed off beneath the surface of the water for 

 the bottom sill of each bent to rest upon, but before the next spring 

 these piles began to lift their heads out of the water, and, before the 

 summer of 1879 had passed, the sills that rested on them were lifted 

 from ten to fourteen inches above the water-level. During the sum- 

 mer of 1879 an iron swing-bridge was built across the mouth of White 

 River, at the head of the lake, and, as a foundation for the turn-table, 

 a bed of piling was driven in the center of the channel, which was 

 sawed off at a considerable depth below the surface of the water. On 

 this piling a platform of lumber was built, so that its surface, when 

 completed, was at a depth of some six inches below the surface of the 

 water, and on that a tower of stone-work was built for the turn-table 

 to rest on. As the lake was considered to be at a low level at this 

 time, it was supposed that this platform would be perpetually un- 

 der water ; but the bridge was not yet completed when it began 

 to rise above the surface, and, by the next spring, it was some eight 

 inches above the water-level. At this point, however, the water 

 again began to rise, and at present this platform is again under 

 water. 



Another matter must now claim our attention, that speaks of a 

 time somewhat more remote ; but first, perhaps, it will be as well to 

 glance briefly at the immediate border of Lake Michigan. Here, 

 along the border of the low-lying, sandy country, there is generally a 

 strip, varying from a few rods to half a mile or more in width, on 

 which the sand has been piled up by the wind into dunes. Here the 

 surface of the ground is fantastically irregular. Sharp crests, gorges, 

 valleys, and crater-like depressions abound everywhere, and the whole 

 is generally covered with forest and filled in with a rank undergrowth. 

 In places, however, especially at the foot of the river-lakes, the sand 

 is yet without vegetation, except here and there, on some sheltered 

 slope, a few bunches of beach-grass or a stunted shrub ; white and 

 shining, its surface rippled by the wind, and traced at times with the 

 strangely varied tracks of insects, birds, small creatures from the 

 neighboring woods, turtles from the water, and, most numerous of all, 



