192 OuIO StaTE ACADEMY OF SCIENCE 
plat shows the nearest part of the shore 49 rods away. Charles 
W. White estimates that the shore was 15 or 20 rods farther 
north about twenty-five years ago. Just west of this the north- 
west quarter of section four, Townsend, contained: 
1820 122.21 Acres. 
1886 about 80 $ 
1890 ; 70 sd 
1904 : 65 . 
About an acre of this farm, 1. e., a strip a rod wide, disap- 
peared in the storm of June 29, 1902, already referred to and 
another acre in a northeaster the latter part of March, 1903. 
The whole north shore of the bay from the mouth of the river 
nearly or quite to the bay bridge has receded since 1820, but less 
than twenty rods in most places. The west line of Section 4 
Danbury township is given in the original survey, Wright and 
Mulhall’s, as fifty-seven chains. In 1904 I found it to be but 
47.11 chains, showing a loss of nearly forty rods. The shore line 
in their time was probably near where Presque Isle is now. 
south of section 9, Portage Township, were 21.42 acres of 
school land according to the survey of P. F. Kellogg, 1820. Only 
three acres of this now remain, but some forty rods south of the 
present shore may still be seen at time of low water the remains 
of a chimney marking the site of a house. J. W. Lockwood 
remembers being there about 1835 when there was quite a yard 
between the house and bay. 
Between Venice and the western part of Sandusky the shore 
has receded about twenty rods. 
The amount of land replaced by open water since 1820 may 
be roughly estimated as 223 square miles, without counting any 
west of Eagle Island. The amount converted into marsh, 
including the marshes west of Eagle Island, is probably eight or 
ten square miles so that the total loss of land about Sandusky 
Bay may be as much as twelve square miles. 
MARSHES. 
The recession of the shore line has been due both to erosion 
and higher water, the formation of marshes to the latter cause 
alone. The greatest change has occurred at the head of the bay. 
Seen from the deck of the Steamer Hayes, August 30, 1904, when 
about half a mile west of Winous Point, the marsh and open 
water appeared to extend three miles or more from north to 
south. A great part of this was dry land during the early part 
of the 19th century, but how large a part it seems impossible to 
ascertain. A plat of the region giving the results of a survey 
completed in 1893 by Edgar Brennan, C. E., distinguishes tilla- 
