A PHYSIOGRAPHIC AND ECOLOGICAL 



STUDY OF THE LAKE EAGLE (Lake 



Winona) REGION, INDIANA 



Eagle Lake or Winona Lake, which, together with the ad- 

 jacent area is the subject of this paper, is located immediately 

 southeast of the junction of the P. Ft. W. & C. Ry. and the C. 

 C. C. & St. L. Ry., in the northern part of Kosciusco Co. Ind. 

 At present it consists of one main body of water about one 

 square mile in area although formerly it was much more ex- 

 tensive. The area drained into the lake or"catchment basin"' is 

 unusually large when compared with the lake body. The trib- 

 utary streams are two; Cherry Creek from the southeast and 

 Clear Creek from the south. The amount of inflow from these 

 two streams is quite insignificant when compared with that 

 supplied by the numerous springs about the lake. These 

 springs with one or two exceptions, are more or less regularly 

 distributed along the eastern shore of the lake. The outlet is a 

 small stream leaving the lake at the southern end of the north- 

 west embayment and finds its way, after a sluggishly mean- 

 dering through heavy growths of semi-aquatic vegetation, to 

 the Tippecanoe River, about a mile west of Warsaw. 



Recently a canal has been dug connecting the lake in a 

 more direct way with the Tippecanoe, by which a more effect- 

 ive drainage is furnished. By this means it is intended to 

 drain off the lake water from all the low lying lands so that 

 they maybe utilized for agricultural purposes. The shores of 

 the lake, in general, are ,low and marshy, beaches being few 

 and chiefly on the southern and eastern sides. Elsewhere, th e 

 shores are over run by luxuriant growths of aquatic and semi- 

 aquatic vegetation. The bulrush, thriving in extensive beds 

 of peat and marl, is found in the shallow waters qf the lake 

 far from the shore. Thick beds of Chara occupy the shallow 

 waters in other parts which, together with the heavy beds of 

 water lillies (Nymphaea) and pond lillies (Nuphar) are rapid- 

 ly reclaiming the lake bottom. 



