tup: outlet-dklta of lake utopia. 45 



it is highest, but slopes off very gradually on the lake 

 side, a characteristic of banks built up by the overflow of 

 sediment-carrying streams. About two hundred yards 

 from its apex, the southern point, the only one I Avas able 

 to study, is forty to flfty yards broad, and here the sand, 

 which is being gradually washed up by the lake over the 

 mud, reaches the canal bank. Here low bushes appear 

 and some forty yards further in the trees begin. After 

 this the point broadens rapidly. Still further in is a dense 

 alder swamp, from which arises in one place a high rocky 

 island Avliich has been surrounded by the delta in its 

 growth. All along on the lake side is a splendid sand 

 beach sweeping away in a grand curve to the main shore. 

 But the explanation of the presence and form of the 

 delta is not difficult. It is at times at the mouth of a 

 stream. The relation of the lake to the Magaguadavic 

 Kiver is peculiar, and happens to be so adjusted that at a 

 certain height of water, both are on the same level and 

 there is no movement through the thoroughfare. But, 

 as the water rises after rains, it rises far more rapidly in 

 the river than in the lake, which has but a small drainage 

 basin, and pours into it through the thoroughfare. It 

 then of course drops its sediment as it meets the still 

 water, the chief requisite for delta-formation. As the 

 water falls it flows out from the lake, but too gently to 

 remove much of the sediment which has already settled 

 to the bottom. It seems plain from the structure of the 

 points, that the canal forms uiDon each side, by its sediment, 

 only a bank of some forty to fifty yards broad, and that 

 the remainder of the delta has been formed by the lake 

 which is incessantly washing up sand, working it out along 

 the lake-faces of the points and filling in the angles be- 

 tween them and the main shore. The very swampy 

 character of the older parts of the delta is due of course 



