CHAPTER III. 



THE TOPOGRAPHY OF LAKE SHORES. 



The variety and beauty of a landscape, embracing mountains and hills, 

 valleys and ravines, is mainly due, as is Avell known, to the action of 

 running- water. The lines resulting from this mode of sculpture are more 

 or less vertical. The waters of lakes also engrave their histories on the 

 rocks, but the writing conforms with the water surface and is in horizontal 

 bands. Two strongly contrasted types of relief are thus produced, which 

 may be distinguished at a glance. The details in each type may be 

 separated and their mode of origin explained. Each feature of the land 

 is thus found to have a meaning, and the pleasure derived from even the 

 most sublime and Ijeautiful landscapes is vastly enhanced to those who 

 can read their histories. 



The work of rain and rivers is outside the scope of the present book, 

 but the principal topographic features characteristic of lake shores will be 

 briefly described and their mode of origin indicated. 



The sea cliff. — Usually the first features of a lake shore to attract 

 attention are the steei^ slopes which rise from the Avater's edge and seem 

 to mark the boundary beyond which the waves cannot pass. That the 

 slopes here referred to have been produced by the watere of the lake eat- 

 ing into the land, is so apparent that it seems almost a waste of words to 

 explain the process by wliich they are formed. Their declivity varies accord- 

 ing to the nature of the material forming the land and also in conformity 

 with atmospheric conditions. When the shores are of soft rock or loose 

 unconsolidated material, the slopes are gentle, but when the shore is of 

 hard rock they may become vertical or even overhanging precipices. In 

 regions where weathering is progressing actively, the waste of the land, 

 owing to the com])ined influences of rain, frost, etc., may be more rapid 

 than the erosion of a lake shore by Avaves and cnrrcnts: under these con- 

 ditions the bluffs l)ordering a lake will have a more gentle slope than 

 where atmos[)heri(' agencies are relatively less destructive. The name 

 "sea cliff" is a})]ilicd to the slopes ]»r(Hhiced by the under-cutting of lake 

 shores without reference lo tlicji- dcclivitv, and lias been borrowed from 



