18 SANDUSKY FLORA. 



cut by the river when its waters continued to descend 

 to Huron and beyond, but this must have been when 

 the lake was not less than 32 feet lower than now, for 

 the bottom of the channel is 32 feet below the present 

 lake level at a point more than four miles from the lake, 

 and the depth of the water above the mud is between 

 17 and 32 feet all the way from this place to the lake. 



Even Mud Creek, a small tributary of the Huron, 

 has all the lower part of its channel deep below the 

 present lake level. The entire drainage area of this 

 creek is only about four square miles, yet its waters 

 reach the present level of the lake nearly a mile 

 measured along the valley of the stream above its 

 junction with the Huron, and at a bridge about three- 

 fourths mile up the valley the water and mud are 12 or 

 14 feet deep. 



EVIDENCE OF THE WATER'S DEEPENING IN THE 

 PRESENT CENTURY. 



Records of the lake level kept at different places 

 show that at four times in the first half of the century 

 the water was lower than at any time in the last half. 

 In 1810 and in 1819 it was lower than any time since 

 1820, in 1841 and 1846 lower than at any time since 

 the latter date. In the absence of any record of exact 

 measurement of lake levels west of Cleveland we have, 

 nevertheless, evidence that the water about Sandusky 

 and the islands was lower in the early part of the 

 century. Mr. Shook, now living at Port Clinton, 

 remembers that in 1828 Mr. Ramsdell made hay of the 

 wild grass that grew on what is now the harbor west 

 of Lakeside, and that there was very little water then 

 where it has since been four feet deep. Similar state- 

 ments are made by other persons regarding this and 

 other places in this region. 



When Harrison's army passed near Huron in 1813 



