Todd : Birds of Erik and Presque Isle. 489 



which may be mentioned wild celery ( Vallisneria spiralis'), which 

 is particularly in evidence about Crystal Point, at the entrance to 

 Misery Bay. 



The proximity of a large body of water such as Lake Erie neces- 

 sarily exerts a marked influence upon the climate of the adjacent 

 region. These climatic ])eculiarities were described in detail many 

 years ago by Dr. J. P. Kirtland {Aiiicrican Journal Science and Arts, 

 Second Series, XIII., 1852, 215-219), with whose observations at 

 Cleveland, Ohio, tho.se of the writer agree so far as they go. In gen- 

 eral, it may be said that the lake exerts a tempering:; effect u])on the 

 climate. As a rule, neither the cold of winter nor the heat of summer 

 reach the extremes felt by localities .south of the lake shore and removed 

 from its influence. Moreover, on the other hand, the several seasons 

 are successively later. During the winter Lake Erie is entirely frozen 

 over, and the presence of such a \ast (juantity of ice, yielding as it 

 does very slowly to the influence of returning warmth, absorbs the 

 bulk of the atmospheric heat in the melting, and thus keeps the air 

 cold and raw and the weather inclement until the com])letion of the 

 process. So long, therefore, as there remain any considerable bodies 

 of ice on the lake, spring will make but little advancement, but "no 

 sooner do they disappear than spring sets in with a reality, and vege- 

 tation puts forth with sub-arctic rapidity." Thus, in the season of 

 1900, the spring seemed to the writer, accustomed to a locality only a 

 hundred miles to the south, exceedingly cold and backward (May 23 

 having been the first moderate day), yet it would seem that this 

 particular season was not exceptional in this res])ect. Then, too, the 

 hot weather persists much longer in the fall, and killing frosts are usu- 

 ally later by a month or more, than in the region just to the south. 

 Indeed, the woodland, shrubbery, and most of the herbage on the 

 Peninsula presented almost as green and fresh an apjjearance the first 

 week in November, 1900, as in September along the Ohio River, 

 while the first destructive frost did not come until November 14. 

 Previous to this date, however, snow could be seen covering the high 

 ridge south of the lake shore plain, and the foregoing remarks are evi- 

 dently applicable only to the narrow strip of comparatively low land 

 contiguous to the lake. 



In sjiite of these peculiar climatic conditions, the dates of the migra- 

 tion of birds seem not to be appreciably afi"ected thereby, correspond 

 ing very clo.sely to similar dates from adjacent regions. The only 



