J. W. Spencer — Deformation of Lundy Beach, etc. 207 



Art. XIX. — Deformation of the Lundy Beach and Birth 

 of Lake Erie • by J. W. Spencer. 



Contents. — A sequel to the Birth of Lake Ontario and Birth of Lake Huron ; 

 Epeirogenic elevation and dismemberment of Warren water : Formation of Lundy 

 Lake and its Beach; Lundy Lake did not receive the waters from the Huron 

 basin ; Desertion of the Lundy shore, with the formation of Lake Erie and 

 Niagara River ; Deformation of the Lundy shore and the flooding of the head of 

 the Erie basin ; Warping northeast of the Huron basin, and its drainage turned 

 into the Erie valley; Estimated rate of terrestrial warping; The future outlet of 

 Lake Erie. 



The history of Lake Erie is a natural sequel to the Birth of 

 Lake Ontario* and the Birth of Lake Huron,f which have 

 already appeared in this Journal. Deserted strands about 

 Lake Erie have also been made known,;}: but all of them ex- 

 tended beyond the Erie basin, and formerly embraced the 

 greatest of the inland sheets — the Warren water — which prob- 

 ably covered 200,000 square miles, or more than the entire 

 area of the modern lakes. The last of the deserted shores of 

 that body of water was the Forest beach (see map). The 

 subsequent rise of land or subsidence of the waters has been 

 intermittent with episodes of rest long enough for the waves 

 to carve out broad terraces or build up heavy beaches. Still, 

 the instability of the waters is marked by the greater beaches 

 being composed of a series of beachlets rather than one indi- 

 vidual mass. The series is remarkably persistent, although 

 there may be imperfect development of the component parts. 

 Between the different sets of deserted shores, there are often 

 only traces of the receding water-levels. 



In the survey of the Forest beach, fragments of old coast 

 lines were observed below that level, and these have recently 

 been found to form part of a great Erie shore, in age syn- 

 chronous with the Algonquin beach of the higher lakes. This 

 Erie beach, first described here, may appropriately be called 

 the Lundy shore, after the spit near Niagara Falls, which has 

 long been used as a ridge road, and known as Lundy Lane, 

 and where the interpretation of the strand was discovered. 

 The Algonquin and Lundy Lakes were the successors of the 

 Warren water after its dismemberment by the level falling 

 below that of Forest beach. 



* "Deformation of the Iroquois Beach and Birth of Lake Ontario." This 

 Journal, vol. xl, p. 443, 1890. 



•f- " Deformation of the Algonquin Beach and Birth of Lake Huron." The 

 same, vol. xli, p. 12, 1891. 



% " High-level Shores in the Region of the Great Lakes and their Deformation." 

 The same, vol. xli, p. 201 — all by J. W. Spencer. 



