May, 1912.] A Study of Buckeye Lake and Vicinity. 523 



who says: "The reservoir occupies a great kettle-hole, the rail- 

 road which here cuts through the moraine follows for several miles 

 towards the southeast an outlet for the glacial floods. " 



The overflow channel is 900 feet above sea level, whereas the 

 surface of the present lake is 892 feet. This eastern outlet could 

 drain the lake only when the water surface exceeded the 900 foot 

 level. During the time when the water stood at or slightly above 

 the 900 foot level, the area covered was much greater than the 

 present one. The broad plain to the north between the present 

 lake and Newark is less than 900 feet, with small irregular isolated 

 areas from 900 to 960 feet above sea level. It is 10 miles from 

 north to south. At the southern limits of Newark it is 3 miles 

 from east to west and 10 miles from east to west at the northern 

 margin of Buckeye Lake. When therefore the ice receded from 

 this plain the latter was covered by a body of water measuring 10 

 miles rom north to south by 10 miles from east to west at the south- 

 ern and 3 miles at the northern end. This lake, if lake it can be called, 

 stood at or above the 900 foot level for so short an interval that 

 careful search has disclosed no beaches, deltas, lake sands or clays. 

 The soil in the fields south of Thorn ville station at the 920 foot 

 contour line, contains some fine sand, it is fine grained sandy loam; 

 and there is also sand in the banks of a small stream which flows 

 north and enters the southwestern lobe of the lake at Thornville 

 station. There is however so little sand that it certainly does not 

 form a well defined beach. 



The water must have very soon drained away to the 

 northeast and must have been in the nature of a broad river, 

 rather than a lake over the plain southwest of Newark. 



The recession of the ice from this plain uncovered an outlet 

 lower than the 900 foot level and the southeastern one at Thorn- 

 ville station was abandoned. This new outlet was not deep 

 enough nor w th sufficient fall to completely drain the basin; for a 

 long, narrow, irregular, typical finger lake, conforming in shape to 

 the old river valley remained in the western portion of the pre- 

 glacial valley of Jonathan creek. All of this lake but a narrow 

 channel near the center had been reduced to a swamp by the close 

 of the 18th century. 



That this swamp, which was known as the "Big Swamp," 

 dates from early post-Wisconsin time is shown by the presence of 

 a cranberry-sphagnum bog which still exists in Buckeye Lake. 

 This bog, locally known as the Cranberry marsh, lies in the eastern 

 part of the lake, close to and parallel with the north shore. It is 

 3,250 feet from northeast to southwest by 750 feet from northwest 

 to southeast, and has an approximate area of 45 acres, according 

 to the survey made in the winter of 1910 by Professor Chamberlain 

 of the Civil "Engineering Department of the Ohio State University. 



