PAPERS ON GEOGRAPHY AND GEOLOGY 397 



The farms in the vicinity have been drained. For 

 years the farmers had lawsuits pending against the Big 

 Four Railroad Company, claiming that the tracks pre- 

 vented the drains from carrying off the water. The rail- 

 road company had built an arch under its tracks, which 

 rests on oak timbers eighteen inches square that were 

 sunk into the ground below the Lake outlet. As year by 

 year the drains failed to carry off the water, the farmers 

 blamed the railroad company, not realizing that when 

 their land was drained the muck soil had shrunken and 

 sunk below the level of the timbers, which are now ex- 

 posed at the foot of the arch. The drain is consequently 

 nearly four feet below the timbers, since the general level 

 of the muck has sunk from four to six feet. The lake, 

 however, is still at its former level, except that it is grad 

 ually filling up. 



Vegetation about Lake Abram consists of alders, elms, 

 ashes, maples, pond-lilies, cat-tails, and mosses, which 

 have formed the muck. The region to the north- 

 east of Berea, although at present dry land, was 

 a swamp in the recollection of the older citizens. 

 Podunk Swamp, as it was called, extended to the 

 present town of McKinley, about half the distance 

 to Cleveland. The country was so low and wet that 

 corduroy wagon roads were once in evidence. Heavy for- 

 est timber extended along the Big Four tracks, and when 

 the Railroad used wood for fuel in its locomotives,, cord 

 wood that the Company bought up was piled along the 

 tracks for long distances. 



A few years ago a railroad line was surveyed to con- 

 nect Youngstown, Cleveland, and Lorain. The plan was 

 to make a fill at the northern end of Lake Abram. Thou- 

 sands of yards of dirt were taken from lots in Berea and 

 dumped upon the muck; but it soon sank in, forced it- 

 self down, and disappeared beneath the surface, leaving 

 a water-hole. As the dirt went down it crowded up the 

 muck a distance away. Although quite an excavation 

 still exists in Berea where the dirt was removed, no ef- 

 fect was visible at Lake Abram and the project had to 

 be abandoned. 



