CHAPTER XXII. 



THE NIPISSING GREAT LAKES. 



By Frank B. Taylor. 



LOCATION AND AREA. 



The term "Nipissing Great Lakes" is applied to the waters of the upper three Great Lakes 

 during the stage immediately following the final disappearance of the ice. The name is used 

 in the plural form, because the Lakes at that stage were almost as distinctly separated as they 

 are to-day. Lake Superior was connected with Lake Huron by a narrow strait or sluggish 

 river without falls. Lake Michigan was connected with Lake Huron by the same strait that 

 connects them now, except that the water stood about 50 feet higher, and also by a much 

 narrower, shallower passage eastward from Little Traverse Bay. (See PL XXVII.) The 

 outlet of the lakes, however, was eastward from the northeast angle of Georgian Bay instead 

 of through Lakes Erie and Ontario, as now. 



The area covered by the Nipissing Great Lakes was not very different from that now covered 

 by Lakes Superior, Michigan, and Huron, including Georgian Bay. The reason for this lies 

 mainly in the facts that the water plane of the Nipissing Lakes lay little above that of the 

 present lakes and that the lands bordering their northern parts then, as now, were high and had 

 relatively steep lakeward slopes. 



Knowledge concerning the beginning of the Nipissing Great Lakes and the transition to 

 them from Lake Algonquin is rather meager, but the condition of the lakes themselves and the 

 transition from them to the present lakes is clearly recorded in the beaches. 



EARLY LITERATURE. 



As a distinctly recognized feature the Nipissing beach did not make its appearance in the 

 literature of the lake region until a comparatively recent date. Only one or two of the refer- 

 ences of the early writers to the "lake ridges" in New York, Ohio, Michigan, and Ontario 

 appear to apply to the Nipissing beach. Whittlesey seems to have seen it in the Green Bay 

 region, and early explorers in the northern parts of the area occasionally referred to "terraces" 

 on the shores of Lake Superior that may have belonged to it. 



In his discussion of the relation of the Great Lakes to Niagara Falls, Gilbert presented a 

 map showing the supposed outlines of the upper lakes at the time of their discharge past North 

 Bay to Ottawa River. 1 Gilbert visited North Bay in 1889 and went down the course of the 

 old outlet river as far as Talon Lake. He clearly inferred the existence of such a beach as the 

 Nipissing, but he estimated its deformation as being much greater than that which has actually 

 been found. He identified the beach now known as the Nipissing only at the head of the 

 outlet at North Bay, his outlines for other parts of the lake being wholly different from the 

 true ones. 



Wright visited North Bay and Mattawa in 1892 and saw the beach at the former place 

 and evidences of the outlet river at the latter. 2 



In his earlier writings and even in his description of Lake Algonquin Spencer makes no more 

 definite mention of the Nipissing beach than the general statement that along the south side 

 of Georgian Bay there is " a numerous series of beaches extending from 28 feet down to the 

 water level." Not until a later time did he recognize the existence of the outlet at North Bay. 3 



1 Gilbert G. K. The history of the Niagara River: Sixth Ann. Rept. Commission of State Reservation at Niagara, 1S90, p. 72 and PI. IV. 



2 Wright G. F., The supposed postglacial outlet of the Great Lakes through Lake Nipissing and the Mattawa River: Bull. Geol. Soc. 

 America, vol. 4, 1S92, pp. 423-127. 



a Spencer, J. W., Deformation of the Algonquin beach and birth of Lake Huron: Am. Jour. Sci., 3d ser., vol. 41, 1891, p. 16. 



447 



