4 University of Michigan 



Harbert and Bridgman all records from this area are given 

 merely as "Sawyer Dunes." 



The topography of the dime belt consists typically of a 

 broad, gently rising beach sloping up from the lake, succeeded 

 by a number of parallel ridges and valleys having the same 

 general trend as the lake shore. The usual number of ridges 

 is from three to six. but is quite variable ; they do not form 

 continuous rows, but are frequently interrupted, the length 

 of a single ridge seldom exceeding half or three-quarters of 

 a mile. This series of ridges is frequently broken in upon by 

 "blowouts" ; these are broad troughs of nearly bare, wind- 

 swept sand, which slope gradually up to a horseshoe-shaped 

 crest, from which the sand drops away on the landward side 

 with a forty-five degree slope. These blowout dunes are often 

 considerably higher than the rest, several of them in this 

 region rising more than three hundred and one to very nearly 

 four hundred feet above the lake. Many of these blowout 

 dunes are actively advancing inland ; others exhibit various 

 stages of capture by vegetation. In most cases they do not 

 break more than half-way through the dune belt, but in one 

 or two places they cut through almost the entire series of 

 ridges. The distance from crest to shore in some of the larger 

 blowout dunes is half to three-quarters of a mile. 



Along the inland margin of the dune area between Sawyer 

 and Bridgman a series of "dune ponds" has been formed by 

 the damming of small creeks by the drifting sand. Small 

 streams break through the line of dune ridges to the beach at 

 Sawyer and at Bridgman. 



More than seven-eighths of the dune area at this point is 

 forested, the remainder consisting of bare sand and sparsely 

 vegetated areas, grassy clearings, and sandy swamps and 



