274 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1926 
Mr. G. K. Stuntz, who in 1870 published a brief paper on observa- 
tions made by him in the years 1852 and 1853 about Lake Superior.®° 
Stuntz had noticed that on the northern shore of Lake Superior there 
were evidences that the land had recently risen, whereas on the south 
shore there were as clear signs of recent overflow. It was as though 
one were to take in the hands a partly filled basin of water and by 
tilting it cause the water to withdraw from one side, where in con- 
sequence the bottom of the basin rises out of the water; and to flood 
the opposite side. Additional observations from Lake Superior 
which confirmed these observations by Stuntz were made by Lawson 
in 1891.*1. The attention of geologists was first strongly directed to 
this tilting by Gilbert in 1898, when he investigated the series of 
records of the several gauging stations about the Great Lakes and 
found additional confirmation of the uptilt.** 
Upon the south side of Lake Superior in Michigan the evidences 
are especially easy to read. The rivers of this coast have estuaries 
especially marked in the stretch from Ontonagon westward. At 
some points in the Porcupine Mountain district the trees along the 
shore of the lake stand 6 to 8 feet out from the shore in 6 to 8 inches 
of water. At other points where the trees are at the shores, the 
waves are beating against them and removing the bark. Here the 
lake has already encroached upon roads so that they have had to be 
abandoned.** 
Evidences of a somewhat similar nature to those found character- 
istic of Lake Superior belong also to Lake Erie. They 
show that here also the tilt of the land is upward toward the north. 
From the rate of flooding of the shores of Sandusky Bay Moseley has 
estimated that the rate of submergence on this shore is 2.14 feet 
per century.** 
Lake Michigan-Huron, for this is a single body of water, has its 
outlet at Port Huron far to the south and now to the southward of 
the hinge-line of uptilt. Were this not the case, flooding of the Chi- 
cago shore of Lake Michigan and of Bay City shore of Saginaw Bay 
would be going on. 
30 G. K. Stuntz, “On some recent geological changes in northeastern Wisconsin,” Proc. 
Am. Assoc. Adv. Sci., vol. 18, 1870, pp. 206-207. 
81. A. C. Lawson, ‘“‘ Sketch of the coastal topography of the north side of Lake Superior 
with special reference to the abandoned strands of Lake Warren [Lakes Nipissing and 
Algonquin, W. HM. H.], 20th Ann. Rept. Geol. and Nat. Hist. Surv. Minn., 1893, pp. 181— 
289. 
%2G. K. Gilbert, ‘ Recent earth movement in the Great Lakes region,” 18th Ann. Rept. 
U. S. Geol. Surv., 1898, pt. 2, pp. 595-647. 
383, E. Wright, ‘“ Report on the progress made by the Porcupine Mountain party during 
the summer of 1903,’’ Rept. Geol. Surv. Mich. for 1903 (1905), p. 37. 
% This is notwithstanding the fact that the present hinge line of tilting now crosses the 
northeastern half of the lake. Gilbert’s earlier estimate of the rate of uptilt (18th Ann. 
Rept. U. S. Geol. Sury., 1898, pt. 2, p. 637), even as corrected by Lane (Geol. Surv. Mich., 
vol. 7, 1900, pp. 36-39), is in error and much too large, since he conceived the entire area 
about the lakes to be tilting like a plane without recognizing the positions and the migra- 
tions of the hinge lines (Mich. Geol. and Biol. Surv., Pub. 5, 1911, pp. 40-41). 
