792 The American Naturalist. 



[September, 



THE SWAMPS OF OSWEGO COUNTY, N. Y., AND 

 THEIR FLORA. 



By W. W. Rowlee, 



CORNELL UNIVERSITY, ITHACA, N. Y. 



( Concluded from page 699.) 



THE LAKES. 



In the region of our typical swamps these lakes are frequently 

 of considerable depth. Usually, however, they are compara- 

 tively shallow. Stories are told here, as elsewhere, of " bot- 

 tomless lakes " where a line, no matter how long, would not 

 reach the bottom. The fine mud in the bottom was, in all prob- 

 ability, the cause of the deception. At the bottom of the lake 

 the mud is as mobile as water, and it is difficult to determine 

 where fluid ends and solid begins, and hence the difficulty in 

 sounding. There are at least three lakes in this region called 

 Mud Lake, a fact which testifies to their character. One is 

 Mud Lake in Oswego town already described, another is in 

 Scriba in the same county two or three miles south of the 



