^ DEVILS LAKE, NORTH DAKOTA. 



This beautiful section teemed with pickerel prior to 1889. In 

 the " narrows " directly north of Roque Island these fish were 

 speared and taken by hook literally by tons until their remark- 

 able disappearance that year. They averaged 5 pounds, many in- 

 dividuals attaining a weight of 17 to 18 pounds. The northern 

 end of Creel Bay beyond the " narrows " (marking the present 

 limit of the bay) was perhaps the largest spawning ground for 

 pickerel, though Large Mission Bay, now dried up, was also im- 

 portant. Six-Mile Bay shows no evidence of having furnished 

 spawning beds, unless to a very limited area of the extreme north- 

 ern end. 



The maximum depth found was Jiot greater than 25 feet. It was 

 85 feet in 1883, the date of the survey by the Department of the 

 Interior. In general the bottom is composed of soft black mud, is 

 very level, and gradually ascends to the sandy, gravelly, or rocky 

 shores. The average density of the water in this section is l.OOG. 



Creel Bay. — This, the most important arm of the main section of 

 Devils Lake, extends in. a northeasterly direction for about 3^ 

 miles, with an average width of one-half to three-fourths mile. 

 Soundings showed an average depth of about 15 feet, with a maxi- 

 mum of 23 feet at the mouth of the bay. In general the shores are 

 gravelly and rocky. Meteorological and other observations were con- 

 ducted at the grounds of the North Dakota Chautauqua Association, 

 where also was established the bench mark and tide gauge of the U. S. 

 Geological Survey described in later pages of this report. 



In this bay a remarkable wealth of plankton was obtained both in 

 the deeper portions and along the shallow and weed-grown rocky 

 shores, in certain localities being so abundant that the water was as 

 if filled with sediment. A species of light-green alga attached itself 

 to many of the stones and bowlders submerged along the shores. The 

 iiverage density of the water was 1.006. 



Six-Mile or Tellers Bay. — The name is due to the original length 

 of this bay, which extends in the same direction as Creel Bay and is 

 of the same general character. Soundings show a maximum depth 

 of 10 feet, shoaling gradually to the muddy and weed-grown 

 northern end. The density on July 23, 1907, was 1.0056. 



Mission Bay. — This part of the southeastern portion of the main 

 section of the lake has only a fraction of its original area. It ex- 

 tends south by west for about three-fourths of a mile, with a 

 breadth one-half as great, and nearly surrounded by high, wooded, 

 morainal hills ; is landlocked in all directions except the north, where 

 its entrance has a width of 463 feet and an average depth of not over 

 3 feet, with a channel 5^ feet deep and about 10 feet wide. The total 

 area approximates one-third of a square mile. The deepest water in 

 the bay is 11| feet, shoaling uniformly in all directions to the shores. 



