304 Annals of the Carnegie Museum. 



to the mainland farther to the southwest, would indicate a gradual 

 shifting of the whole peninsula along the coast to the northeast. The 

 circular Chimney Ponds have thus evidently been derived from 

 bodies of water, like those in the vicinity of Misery Bay, created by 

 the wearing away of the main body of the peninsula to the west, and 

 the subsequent piling up around them of sand by the wind. The 

 present indications are that, unless the eroding and land-building forces 

 are kept in check by man, history will repeat itself, and that in perhaps 

 another six hundred years, the present wider portion of the peninsula 

 will have been washed away to form new land farther to the east, and 

 Misery Bay and Horse Shoe Pond will have been transformed into 

 counterparts of the present Chimney Ponds, with the main body of 

 the peninsula stretching away to the northeast of them. 



The forest covering in the vicinity of the Chimney Ponds is indica- 

 tive of considerable age, as it consists of large white elms, white 

 ashes, black oaks, cucumber trees, sassafras trees, etc., and between 

 V and S there is considerable hemlock, one tree being fourteen inches 

 in diameter. The sandy soil is covered with humus, in places more 

 than three inches deep. This portion of the peninsula is surely not 

 less than six hundred years old. 



That portion of Presque Isle between the Chimney Ponds and the 

 "Head," as the junction of the peninsula with the mainland is 

 called, has been changed very greatly from time to time within the 

 last century. " The neck or west side in 1812 was two or three hun- 

 dred feet in width," ^^ and " it is said that in 1821 the peninsula was 

 covered with timber from the mainland, at the head, to its southeastern 

 point." ^^ During the winter of 1828-1829 the lake broke through 

 the narrow portion near the Head, but the Government promptly 

 closed the breach. During the winter of 1832-1833, however, 

 another breach occurred at the same point and this widened each year 

 till in 1835 it was nearly a mile wide. From 1836-1839 about 3,500 

 feet of crib-breakwater was constructed as a protection to a proposed 

 harbor entrance at this point, but the work was finally discontinued. 

 In 1 83 1 vessels drawing 7^ feet of water passed through the opening. 

 In 1844 the gap was 3,000 feet wide and some crib-work was erected. 

 In 1 853-1 856 brush and stone were used, and in 1864 the gap was 

 reported closed by the drifting sand, although exceptionally heavy seas 



'3 Sanford, L. G. ''History of Erie County, Pa.," p. 250, 1894. 

 2" Nelson, S. B, /. c, p. 415. 



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