An Ecological Study of Buckeye Lake. 33 



THE ISLANDS IN BUCKEYE LAKE. 



The islands of Buckeye Lake number fully fifty and vary 

 in size from a mass of peat a few feet square to Cranberry Is- 

 land with an area of approximately 45 acres. According to 

 the manner of formation they may be placed in five classes. 



I. Cranberry Island stands in a class by itself. It is a 

 Sphagnum peat bog, which by the character of its flora and 

 from the study of soundings shows that it antedates the lake 

 and perhaps the Big Swamp. 



II. There are about 20 islands, all tree covered ranging 

 from Circle Island with an area of one-fifth of an acre; (there 

 may be smaller ones) to Lieb's Island, 33.59 of an acre in area. 

 Many of them are used as dwelling places. These were eleva- 

 tions in or were beyond the original swamp, and have never 

 been submerged. They all bear large trees which are more than 

 eighty years old, the age of the present reservoir. 



III. Islands built on a foundation of exposed peat masses. 

 During the latter part of every summer when the water has be- 

 come thoroughly warmed and when the level is always low, 

 masses of peat rise to the surface. The warming of the gases 

 generated in the peat cause it to rise and at low water it soon 

 becomes exposed. The surface is speedily covered with vegeta- 

 tion. Some of these peat masses remain permanently exposed; 

 then shrubs and even trees gain a foothold in a few seasons and 

 the peat mass becomes an island. Other peat masses are from 

 time to time added to it and drifted logs lodged against it also help 

 to build it up. Such islands are in their youth characterized by 

 an aggregate of small masses with open pools between. 



IV. Islands which have been built up in shallow water 

 from the bottom of the lake. 



V. Islands formed from the fragments of other Islands. 

 During storm winds of fall and spring, a part of an island may 

 be torn loose, drift with the wind until it is caught against a 

 stump or logs or becomes anchored in shallow water. In the 



