12 Proceedings of the Ohio State Academy of Science. 



water level of the old lake after the opening of the outlet to the 

 north could not have been much higher than it is now. 



The South Fork of the Licking River rises in Jersey Town- 

 ship near the western border of Licking County, follows a gen- 

 erally southeasterly course, passes into Fairfield County until a 

 short distance northwest of Buckeye Lake where it describes a 

 narrow loop and flows northeast to Newark. The old lake in the 

 Big Swamp drained into the river at this loop. 



Surrounding the old lake was a wooded swamp, ^- bearing 

 "White and Black Oak, Black Jack, Elm, Red Maple, Sugar 

 Maple, Beech, White Ash, Hickory, Ironwood, Wild Cherry, Box 

 Elder, Gum, Black Walnut and Dogwood, and many of them 

 were large trees." Stumps four feet in diameter have been taken 

 from the reservoir. Besides these larger forests trees, there was 

 an abundance of "Wild Plum, Hawthorn, Alder and Sumac." It 

 is also reported that cranberries grew plentifully in the swamp. 



In the history of Perry County,"^ the statement is made that 

 wild plums, wild cranberries and the red thorn berries were in 

 early times, very plentiful in the northern part of the swamp. 

 The Indians are said to have resorted to the lake in considerable 

 numbers for the purpose of fishing and to the swamp for the 

 various berries. 



This swamp was chosen for the site of the reservoir for the 

 Ohio Canal. ^^ The "old reservoir" was begvm in 1825 and com- 

 pleted in 1828. Then because the water level in the canal was 

 not high enough to permit the carrying of even half a load dur- 

 ing the drier summer months, an additional 500 acres, known as 

 the new reservoir was added in 1832 to the west end of the 

 old one. 



The size and shape of the present reservoir conforms in gen- 

 eral, to that of the "Big Swamp" as shown in the surveys of 

 1799 and 1801. There are striking disparities in the size and 

 outline of the swamp areas in these two early surveys. That 

 of 1799 conforms more closely to the size and outline of the 

 present reservoir. 



In Fig. 3, Plate II the map of the survey of 1799 has b-een 



