











144 THE LAKES OF IOWA,—PAST AND PRESENT. — 
human affairs. Such fantastic stories have been frequent in 
our newspapers for several years, rendering those modest 
little lakelets so famous that many pilgrimages have been 
made to their borders with the hope of finding something to 
aid in penetrating the mystery that shrouds the early human 
history of our continent. a 
It is such lakelets as these and their origin that will now 
in part engage our attention; and while showing the ground- 
lessness of the stories referred to, we hope to present still 
more interesting and wonderful facts, because in the realm 
of Nature truth żs stranger than fiction. : a 
First, let us go back to their origin, for they originated 
from causes so definite that we are often able to comprehend 
them as clearly as if we saw them in operation ; and the time 
of their formation in relation to other geological changes is 
as accurately determined as that of any other. Not only 
have the lakes had a definite origin, but, as we shall presently 
vs 
H 
IA 
ey 
či 
by any rivers or streams. Shallow depressions only = 
were filled with water from tho rains and the melting 
marked the surface. These were the primitive lakelet® 
