226 Proceedings of the Ohio State Acadeinv of Science 



1796, drew a map of northeastern Ohio; on this map, he makes 

 the first reference, so far as I can ascertain, to the Lake Erie 

 shore Hnes. Accompanying the map is a brief description in 

 which he refers more in detail to some of the deposits, now 

 known to be of glacial and lake origin, about the lower part of 

 Cuyahoga river. 



In the second annual report of the Geological Survey of 

 Ohio, published in 1838, on p. 55, Col. Charles Whittlesey refers 

 to the beaches skirting Lake Erie. It would indeed be surpris- 

 ing not to find in these early documents references to the lake 

 ridges — they are so conspicuous a feature of the landscape. 

 The Indians selected these ridges for their paths, and the first 

 settlers located their highways and dwellings on them. Colonel 

 Whittlesey's comments are very brief. 



The first even casual study of these beaches was by Sir 

 Charles Lyell, the British geologist, in 1842; he followed two of 

 the ridges for much of the distance between the Cuyahoga and 

 Rocky rivers. He suggested methods by which they might be 

 more correctly interpreted, lamenting that he did not have the 

 time to ascertain whether fresh or marine shells were to be found 

 with the gravels. He gave it as his tentative opinion that the 

 "Middle Ridge"- (fig. i) in particular appears to be subacjueous 

 in origin. 



In 1870, G. K. Gilbert studied the raised beaches in the 

 ^I aun.ee valley; this work is probably the first rigorous study of 

 shore-phenomena associated with ice-front lakes. Gilbert mapped 

 the four beaches which indicated the levels of Lake Maumee 

 and the succeeding bodies of water held up by the Erie lobe. 

 Since his field of investigation was limited to the northwest coun- 

 ties of the State, he did not follow the beaches very far to the 

 east nor to the north. Gilbert's methods of studying these 

 ridges, as well as many of his conclusions, were entirely new to 

 the science of geology ; some of his interpretations he himself 

 altered later. 



"The discussion of these beaches can be followed to better advantage 

 if you have at hand the three topographic sheets involved. 



