5° 



EDWARD M. SHEPARD 



toms of these streams are usually hard and sandy, with little or no 

 muck, as is usually so common in swamps. 



The elongated lakes are, as a rule, shallow, although there are 

 some exceptions. Reelfoot Lake, in Tennessee, for example, is 

 from 20 to 25 miles long, and from 4 to 5 miles wide, with a depth 

 of from 20 to 30 feet. Its area is perhaps doubled in time of high 

 water. It is deeper at the northeast than at the southwest end. The 

 water of this lake, as. well as of the others in the area under con- 

 sideration, is clear and pure, and not yellow and turbid, like the 

 waters of the Mississippi. On this lake one may float over sub- 

 merged treetops, and on Golden Lake, near Wilson, Ark., as well 

 as on others in the district, the same submergence of trees may be 

 observed. Tyronza and Crooked Lakes are both sunken lakes fed 

 from below by clear and relatively cool water, Crooked Lake being 

 irregular in depth, with many deep holes in the bottom. Mr. C. B. 

 Bailey, of Wynne, Ark., to whom the writer is indebted for personal 

 guidance through a portion of this district and for many valuable 

 notes, states that Little Black Fish Lake, near Parkin, Ark., 1 mile 

 long and 200 feet wide, has a depth of from 50 to 60 feet. The 

 water is clear and cool, and hunters sink their venison into it for 

 preservation. Other lakes in the vicinity are shallow, being only 

 from 5 to 15 feet deep. It is noticeable that these sunken lakes 

 vary decidedly in the amount of subsidence. Maximum amounts 

 are found in Reelfoot and Crooked Lakes, where the forests are 

 entirely submerged. In others we find the timber but half-buried, 

 and in still other instances the surface is lowered but a few feet. 

 Several miles west of Kennett, in the swamps on the Varney 

 River, the line of sinking is marked in a most interesting way. To 

 the east of a north-and-south line at one point in the swamp, the 

 timber grows tall and erect, in its normal position, while on the west 

 it appears to be submerged to a depth of from 10 to 15 feet. There 

 are areas where the land has been sunken, the timber killed, and 

 the depression partially refilled with flood deposits, upon which has 

 sprung up a new vegetation of a character entirely different from 

 the old. In the Big Bay district, north of Wynne, Ark., the dry 

 bayous are covered with stunted trees of willow and honey locust, 

 while on the slightly higher land on either side are the giant cypresses 

 and gums. 



