General Description of Lake Erie. 369 



rocky cliflf thirty or forty feet high, and is an improving and 

 pretty place. There is another much smaller, but useful in- 

 dention, fifty miles to the east, with a bar across its mouth 

 drawing seven feet water. The village which it has created is 

 called Dunkirk. 



The islands of this lake, excepting two, iare at its southern end. 

 They amount to twenty-six including the cluster of five, called 

 the Hen and Chickens, three of which are mere rocks. Point 

 Pele Island is the largest, being 8| miles long by 4J miles 

 in greatest breadth. It is compact, swampy within, and sur- 

 rounded by a belt of trees. It is 7 J miles S.W. of Point Pel^, 

 and has Middle Island If miles on its south ; the latter being 

 oval and two-thirds of a mile long. It is just within the British 

 territory, and is 16 miles from the north main, and 10 from the 

 south. A mile and two-thirds south of Middle Island is Ship 

 Island, a mere rock, just within the jurisdiction of the United 

 States. Cunningham Island 3^ miles N.E. from Sandusky 

 Peninsula, is 3^ miles long, by If in greatest breadth. North 

 of Hat Point (the most northerly part of the Peninsula) is a 

 groupe of nine islands, called the " Bass," '' George," or •' Put- 

 in-Bay Islands" — valuable for the excellent anchorage and 

 shelter they afford. Three of them are much larger than the 

 others, and lie south and north of each other, and are therefore 

 named in the Boundary Commission, *' south, middle, and north" 

 Bass Islands. The first is 2f miles from Hat Point, and is 4 

 miles long, by 1^, where broadest ; but it is often very narrow. 

 Distant from this, only half a mile, the Middle Bass, is 2|- miles 

 long, by a mile in greatest breadth, but its shape is also very 

 irregular. Not quite a mile from the Middle Bass, the northern 

 island of the three is a mile and three-quarters by one mile 

 broad. 



Moss Island, of this groupe, is to be noticed for its large de- 

 posit of strontian. It is 1000 yards long and a mile west of the 

 South Bass. 



Of the detached islets, the " Eastern," *♦ Middle," and 

 ** Western Sisters," are useful in stress of weather; the East- 

 ern Sisters are two in number, each 500 yards long or there- 

 abouts, and 6J miles N. by W. from the North Bass. The 

 Middle Sister is half a mile long, and 12^ miles N.W, from 



