346 M. JEFFERSON LATERAL EROSION ON MICHIGAN RIVERS 



the outside of each meander; such are all the scaurs there are. Some- 

 thing like 50 per cent of these are on the right, but no significance is 

 attached to that. Apparently the undeveloped valley is due, as at Milan, 

 to the fact that the Warren beach crosses the river along here and gives 

 greater depth of material to be handled. 



Paw Paw Eiver 



It was regarded as of especial interest to examine some west-flowing 

 streams on the other border of the state. The coimtry has had no de- 

 tailed mapping, but it appears from the plate referred to in Leverett's 

 monograph that the Paw Paw flowed to the soutliwest on a plain of 

 gravel, a line of glacial drainage between morainic hills. The stream had 

 limits set to its valley by the moraine, but it seemed as if it should be free 

 to express a preference for a course to right or left by attacking either 

 valley wall. It was known to meander strongly, having been described by 

 students in connection with the outlet stream from Paw Paw lake, which 

 flows out to the river in dry weather, in to the lake in wet, as in the cases 

 described by Burr and Ganong. 



The Paw Paw was visited at Watervliet in August, 1906, and about 8 

 miles of its bank examined, mostly upstream from that place. The bluffs 

 are densely overgrown with thickets and woods, so that the river was not 

 only rarely in scaur, but access to it was very difficult. Of bare scaurs 

 only four were counted, all well toward the first bridge east of Watervliet. 

 They measure — right, 35; left, 48; right, 44, and right, 70. If, how- 

 ever, the strong bluff standing at the water's edge, 45 degrees steep, is 

 counted, two-thirds of it is on the left. This includes in the count 975 

 paces of bluff on the left, within the village of Watervliet, that is now 

 abandoned course, since the Syms, Dudley Paper Company cut through 

 it in 1895. Then 11 per cent of the bluff is in scaur. Grouping the 

 scaiirs or slipping bluffs in fives, we have : 



Scaurs. 



Paces of slipping 

 blufif on- 



Per cent of slip- 

 ping bluff to left. 



Right. 



Left. 



1- 5 



6-10 



11-16 



475 

 785 

 149 



503 



2,122 



279 



51 

 73 

 65 



All 



1,409 



2,904 



67 



