General Description of Lake Erie, 363 



the Rocky Mountains, and of the valley of the Mississippi. Jt 

 is an undulating tract, declining insensibly from north to south, 

 and abounding in low, rich lands, intersected by numerous 

 prolonged elevatioqs, too broad to be called ridges, which give 

 off on each side, occasionally, large streams belonging to the 

 same or to different lakes. These rivers, and their branches, 

 frequently pass over raised beds, which subside laterally, with 

 more or less rapidity, into mprasses, natural meadows, and 

 moist woods. There is an erninence on the River Thames, in 

 the township of Westminster, 150 feet high (Gourlay). The 

 soil of this region varies, but is chiefly black and often marly 

 loam, with patches of sand, and resting on gray, blue, or red 

 clay ; as is finely displayed in the deep banks of the river 

 Thames, and on the north shore of the lake itself. Its timber 

 is of large size, and consists of hickory, maple, oak, button- 

 wood, walnut, ash, elm, &c. &c. 



In this sort of country, eastward from the River Detroit as 

 far as Port Talbot, this line of heights (so almost nominally) is 

 seldom more than ten miles from Lake Erie ; the River Thames, 

 a large tributary of the St. Clair, during great part of this space 

 being only 13-20 miles from the former lake. The creeks, 

 entering this portion of Erie, issue from extensive marshes, and 

 in many cases flow sluggishly through prairie lands, scarcely 

 raised above the level of the reservoir they seek. From Port 

 Talbot, while the north shore of the lake runs east for nearly 

 70 miles, the line of head-waters runs N.E., or N.N.E., to 

 near Oxford (35 miles from the lake direct), at the upper part 

 of the Thames, and from thence passes north for 60 miles. In 

 the unexamined country thereabouts, the sources of the Ouse, 

 or Grand River, approach streams which discharge, severally, 

 into Huron, Simcoe, and Ontario. 



Having swept to the north and east round these, the dividing 

 line turns abruptly south, and skirts that river at the distance 

 of 5-7 miles to near the mouth of the Ouse — from thence 

 bending eastward to the end of the lake : the interval is still 

 5-7 miles, and is very marshy. Its elevation here is only suf- 

 ficient to determine the course of its streams. 



On the north shore, the eye can discover from the lake only 

 a few scrubby heights about Point Abino 3 but on the south 



