234 Procccdiutjs of the Ohio State Acadciuy of Science 



cussed. Between this Ijarricr and the cus]), a lagoon nia}' appear. 

 The barrier may or may not border the entire cusp. 



Islands, and shallow places due to irregularities of the 

 lake bed. interfere with the movements of the water; the former 

 undergo wave and current erosion, thus supplying materials for 

 the construction of spits, etc. ; the latter, when rising sufficiently 

 near to the surface of the water, may check its velocity and thus 

 grow^ upward through the accession of deposits. With the con- 

 tinuation of this process, an island may appear, and from it spits 

 will develop with the course of the prevailing winds. 



LAKE MAUMEE LEVEL. 



I will describe these beaches from west to east across the 

 Cleveland area (fig i). The altitude usually assigned to the 

 Maumee level ranges from 765 to 785 feet. This lake was about 

 200 feet deeper than Lake Erie. Two stages are indicated by a 

 higher and lower beach varying 15 to 20 feet in altitude. 



From Fields east to the Elyria traction line this shore con- 

 sists of a cliff and terrace cut in the glacial drift (fig. 2, A) ; the 

 terrace bears some gravel ; thence to the vicinity of Kamms, 

 which is just east of the Rocky river, it is made of gravel and 

 sand. In places this beach has a steep back-slope ; throughout 

 most of the distance, the front slope rises from 15 to 20 feet (fig. 

 2, B, C, D). Southeast from North Olmsted its constituents 

 are fine to coarse sand, and less gravel. For a long ])eriod the 

 region about North Olmsted must have formed a point or cape 

 in the shore line as it marked the western limit of the Rocky 

 river embayment. There is evidence of vigorous wave-action 

 here ; a few rods south of the corners at North Olmsted is a 

 gravel ridge with a front-slope 3 feet and a back-slope 7 feet 

 high, and containing stones as large as 3 inches in diameter. 



The first barrier built in this embayment is traversed by a 

 south-east-trending road connecting the two north-south high- 

 ways south-east of North Olmsted ; this barrier is about three- 

 fourths of a mile long and consists chietly of fine deposits. Its 

 discontinuance westward where we would normally expect it to 

 join the main ridge may be partly due to removal by erosion; 



