A SHIFTING BEACH LINE. 219 



The northwestern limit of the State comprises 

 forty-three linear miles of the southern beach 

 line of Lake Michigan, one of the grandest 

 bodies of fresh water on the globe. Along this 

 beach was for years the only public road in the 

 region, all overland communication between 

 Fort Dearborn, now Chicago, and Detroit, in 

 the early part of the past century, having been 

 along its sands. The limits of this beach line 

 are ever changing. Water and wind are, every 

 second, tearing from it in one place and adding 

 to it in another. From Michigan City, south- 

 'west for ten miles, the removal is probably 

 greater than the accumulation, but along the re- 

 mainder of the Indiana shore the beach line is 

 being widened. In the latter portion a person 

 walking along the margin of the water can see 

 that each wave throws up a minute ridge of 

 sand, so minute, in fact, that it is scarcely vis- 

 ible. Perhaps the next succeeding wave carries 

 it away. But if it be thrown high enough to re- 

 main unmolested until it has time to dry, its 

 particles are caught up by the wind and carried 

 farther inward. In most cases they are piled 



