THE AUDUBON BULLETIN 



wide continuously to the state line. This 

 is really an ancient terrace corrugated 

 by sand ridges which represent sand bars 

 of the glacial lake whose waves lapped 

 against the cliff walls and spread out the 

 materials for the beach plain of today. 

 For much of its extent this sandy beach 

 is bordered by low but more or less 

 active sand dunes which form a belt 

 sometimes one hundred yards wide. Be- 

 hind the dunes the terrace for several 

 miles is more like a marsh broken by 

 low sand ridges. Sloughs or lagoons 

 of more or less stagnant water alternate 

 with these ridges while occasional water 

 courses drain at high water into the 

 lake. Dead River is one of the largest 

 of these sloughs and into it the over- 

 flow from Dead Lake pours. It should 

 be added that these names are dis- 

 tinctly libelous and should be sup- 

 pressed. 



On the accompanying detail map of 

 the region being described the arrows 

 pointing shoreward indicate respectively 

 the northern and southern limits of the 

 proposed reservation. This includes all 

 the area that has its drainage through 

 Dead River. Native alders and birches 

 occur in this particular area with a cred- 

 itable showing of tamarack and white 

 pine and there is a scattered but inter- 

 esting grove of introduced pines which 

 represent a nursery experiment under- 

 taken many years ago by Robert Doug- 

 las of Waukegan. There are many 

 delightful spots suitable for camp sites 

 here and it is easy to imagine what this 

 area with recreation facilities developed might in time come to mean 

 to the inhabitants of the near-by manufacturing city alone. 



The flora of the Flats has many of the features that characterize 

 that of the more widely known sand dunes of the southern end of Lake 

 Michigan. Certain plants such as the buckbean, the alder, bog willow, 

 dwarf birch, trailing juniper, tamarack, and kinnikinnik give it a 

 rather northern aspect while the prickly pear cactus and false worm- 

 wood suggest the cactus and the related sage bush of the western plains. 

 Hosts of water-loving plants, grow here and prairie-like expanses dis- 



MAP OF THE "WAUKEGAN 

 FLATS" 



