Submerged Valleys in Sandusky Bay 



4°3 



(see figure 3), have been traced across 

 to Cedar Point and the valleys of five 

 other streams entering the bay or marsh 

 traced for short distances or intersected 

 by lines of holes at one or more places. 

 The submerged valley of Sandusky 

 River, which empties into the west end 

 of the bay, was intersected by six north 

 and south lines. It reaches a depth of 

 more than 40 feet before entering the 

 lake. 



The valley extending under the marsh 

 from Guston Inlet to Cedar Point was 

 one of the easiest to trace. Along the 

 belt indicated on figure 4, not much 

 wider than the valley of the brook be- 

 fore it enters the marsh, 35 holes were 

 made through the muck. At all of them 

 the hard bottom is deeper than at the 

 nearest holes outside the lines. The 

 present channels through the marsh do 

 not follow the buried valleys. 



In the deeper parts of these valleys in 

 the marsh the auger penetrates 20 feet 

 of organic matter, and with an extension 

 piece this would doubtless be found to 

 extend several feet lower. In the open 

 bay the valleys are filled with mud, the 

 lower portion of which contains an abun- 



dance of molluscan shells and vegetable 

 matter. 



In some places, even at a depth of 32 

 feet, the peat shows that a marsh existed 

 there when the lake was that much 

 lower. These buried marshes seem to 

 indicate that the depression of the land 

 has not been interrupted by any periods 

 of elevation sufficient to allow the 

 streams to carry away the remains of 

 the marsh vegetation. 



In attempting to trace the valley of 

 Mills Creek I found a small valley north 

 of Sandusky which I supposed for some 

 time to connect with Mills Creek, but 

 which proved to be an extension of a lit- 

 tle stream that formerly flowed through 

 the city, whose water was long ago di- 

 verted to sewers. Along its course the 

 streets had been graded and the yards 

 filled, so that probably very few, except- 

 ing the older residents, knew that a nat- 

 ural stream once flowed past their prem- 

 ises. 



The discovery of these submerged 

 vallej-s in Sandusky Bay is an additional 

 verification of the theory that the post- 

 glacial tilting of the Great Lake basins 

 has not yet ceased. 



PLACE NAMES OF THE UNITED STATES 



THE origin of some ten thousand 

 place names in the United States 

 is given in a recent bulletin by 

 Mr Henry Gannett, published by the 

 U. S. Geological Survey. The names 

 are well distributed throughout the 

 country. The author, in his preface, 

 disclaims universal accuracy, but hopes 

 that the work may arouse interest and 

 criticism, so that all possible informa- 

 tion on the subject may be obtained and 

 published in a later edition. There is 

 much difference of opinion about the 

 origin of many names, as the follow- 

 ing extracts from the bulletin well illus- 

 trate : 



Chicago ; city and river in Illinois. 

 The origin of the word is from the In- 

 dian, being a derivation by elision and 

 French annotation from the word Chi- 

 kaug-ong. Col. Samuel A. Starrow 

 used the name in a letter to Gen. Jacob 

 Brown, in 1S16, as follows: "The 

 River Chicago (or in the English, 

 Wild Onion River)." Schoolcraft in 

 1820 said: " Its banks . . . stated 

 to produce abundantly . . . the 

 wild species of cepa or leek." Bishop 

 Baraga gives : ' ' From Chicag, or Sikag, 

 'skunk,' a kind of wild cat." John 

 Turner defines skunk as she-gahg ; 

 onion, she -gau-ga- winzhe, "skunk 



