49 



Williams and Pleasant Grove Brooks (Plate II). At present 

 this bar rises a few feet above the lake on one side and the 

 marsh on the other, and is covered with a growth of willows 

 (Salix nigra) and alders (Alnus incana). The marsh continues 

 southward up the Inlet Valley for a distance of two miles, 

 as a series of more or less interrupted flood plains. Omitting 

 from consideration the southerly two-thirds of this stretch, 

 which has been greatly modified by human agencies, we shall 

 confine our observations to that area north of the junction 

 of Cascadilla Creek and the Inlet, about seven-tenths of a mile 

 from the lake. From this point the Inlet continues almost due 

 north through what is here recognized as the marsh proper. 

 In former years each of these streams undoubtedly pursued 

 a much more meandering course, as is evidenced by various 

 long, narrow ponds and lagoons still in existence. The straight- 

 ening and dredging of the Inlet for navigation have doubtless 

 modified the marsh to a great extent. The change is most 

 evident at present in that part west of the Inlet. Into this 

 portion flow several small tributaries from the hill on the west. 

 Before the banks of the Inlet were thrown up at the time of 

 dredging, these tributaries probably had well-worn channels 

 by which they made their way to the Inlet. The banks 

 formed by the dredge then dammed the channels, and forced 

 the water to spread over the marsh before finding an outlet. 

 Consequently a grove of elm and ash, which had established 

 itself over a large portion of the western border, became too 

 greatly inundated and was gradually drowned. All that 

 remain of these woods to-day are a few dead trees still standing, 

 and numerous fallen trunks. It has been largely replaced 

 by a growth of cat-tail, a reversion of the process which is 

 taking place elsewhere in the marsh, where the trees are 

 crowding upon the cat-tails. 



Fall Creek, entering from the east, north of Cascadilla 

 Creek, fiows in a northwesterly direction to the lake. Its 

 delta has been built up considerably higher than the rest of 

 the marsh, and is now covered with a growth of large elms, 

 maples, and sycamores. Discussion of the various meanders 

 of this stream and of the radical changes in its course, which 



