MOSELEY. 17 



RIVER CHANNELS BELOW THE LAKE LEVEL. 



In the Huron marsh off the mouth of Plum Brook, 

 a setting pole may be pushed down 12 feet. This may 

 be done along a line extending from the mouth of the 

 creek out into the marsh, but a few rods on either side 

 the pole goes down only two or three feet. When the 

 stream cut this channel Lake Erie must have been at 

 least 12 feet lower. Not only has the lake spread its 

 waters over all the lowland through which this creek 

 formerly flowed, and other creeks, whose submerged 

 channels could doubtless be found by searching, but it 

 has extended far up into the valleys of all the streams. 

 This effect must result from the rise of the lake, for the 

 streams had cut their valleys below the general level of 

 the country, though not below the level to which the 

 water had to flow while the cutting was going on. 

 The Portage, the Sandusky, the Huron, and the other 

 so-called rivers as well as all the smaller streams that 

 enter this part of the lake, have the lower portions of 

 their valleys filled by the water of the lake. Into the 

 valley of the Old Woman Creek the lake has extended 

 two miles farther than the present shore line, into the 

 valley of the Huron five miles measured in a straight 

 line from the present shore, into the Sandusky 22 miles 

 beyond the Cedar Point light house, and more than 25 

 miles measured in a straight line from Rye Beach, for it 

 is probable that the Black Channel at the east end of 

 what is now Sandusky Bay is a part of the old river 

 channel, also that the "Harbor" between Marblehead 

 and Catawba is part of the old valley of the Portage, 

 the lake having spread over the land to the west of 

 Catawba and made an opening for the river at Port 

 Clinton. This is not as yet quite certain, but there is 

 no uncertainty about the valley of the Huron ; it is still 

 uninterrupted from the village of Huron on the lake 

 shore to the place five miles inland where the flowing 

 stream meets the water of the lake. The valley was 



