TAYERNER AND SWALES, ON BIRDS OF POINT PELEE. 41 



taken from the excavation is a stiff blue clay giving an indica- 

 tion of the underlying strata upon which the superficial 

 structure of the Point is built. On top of this clay there are, 

 in places, from two to three feet of solid peat showing in the 

 vertical faces of the cut. 



The eastern shore forming the right hand arm of the "V" 

 is very simple in character, being ^composed of but a single 

 sand-dune, bare of vegetation except for a meager covering of 

 zerophitic plants and a few scattered cottonwoods. Out be- 

 yond the end of the marsh where the two arms join, the 

 forest growth of the opposite shore encroaches on the east 

 side until their roots are almost washed by the waves of the 

 lake. The average width of the dune for the greatest part of 

 its length is but a hundred yards and in some places rises to 

 a height of ten feet above the lake, though in others it is so 

 low that, during storms when the wind is in the right direction, 

 the waves wash completely over the slight sand barrier into 

 the marsh beyond. The plant life is typical of such places and 

 is composed of Sand-drop-seed, Sporobolus cryptandrus; 

 Knot-weed Spurge, Euphorbia poiygonfolia; and Tall Worm- 

 wood, Artemisia caudata. Several scattered clumps of Cotton- 

 wood mentioned before occur on the crest, and patches of Sea 

 Sand-reed, Aimnophila arnndinacca, and Smooth Panic Grass, 

 I\uiicuui I'ir^atinu. 



Just above high water mark the dune rises rather abruptly, 

 especially towards the base of the point, forming a fairly well 

 marked bluff, and then graduallv sinks away into the marsh 

 on the other side, upon which it is evidently encroaching; as 

 between the sand and the bog societies there is usually a long 

 narrow strip of clear water where the blowing sand has 

 smothered the aquatic plants without filling the space up to 

 the water level. In fact there is every evidence that this shore 

 is being eroded, and the time is not very far in the future 

 when Point Pelee will be washed bodily away unless present 

 conditions change or man devises some way in which to stay 

 the natural course of events. The older residents say that 

 some forty years ago this shore was nearly three-quarters of a 

 mile wide and clothed with heavv hardwood timber. Even 



