866 Glacial Origin of Presque Isle, Lake Erie. [September, 
and after his victorious battle the Lawrence and flag-ship Magara 
lay in the bay until the centennial year, 1876, in front of the old 
block-house on Garrison hill, where General Anthony Wayne . 
died and was buried in 1796. 
When the peninsula was first occupied by Government soldiers 
it was several feet broad at the junction with the mainland and 
covered with large forest trees, but the constant action of waves, 
since that time, has reduced that portion to a narrow neck of 
land over which the waves have, during the past year, rolled into 
Presque Isle bay. There is a strong probability that before the 
expiration of the year this tract of land will be transformed into 
a traveling island en route to Niagara falls, unless something is 
done to protect it from lake storms. * For a consideration of this 
matter there was a meeting of the Erie Board of Trade on Janu- 
ary 5, 1885, at which Ex-judge John P. Vincent said: 
“Since I came to Erie, in 1839, the north arm of the penin- 
sula has moved several rods, and the east end extends fully a mile 
further than it did then. If something be not done the peninsula 
will waste away at the head and build up at the foot, and eventu- 
ally the harbor will be below the city.” 
Engineers, however, have estimated the increase of land at the 
lower end to average only thirteen feet per annum. All this 
material—sand and pebbles—has been washed from the north 
shore, principally from that portion near the head, and when it 
reached the foot an eddy was formed around it, the sand falling 
to the bottom and becoming new-made land. Sometimes this 
material was carried past the peninsula too far for a union with 
the foot, and a bar and perhaps an island was formed, against 
which other sands lodged. At some subsequent time we may sup- 
pose that the eastern portion of the new formation was broken 
up by opposing easterly gales, and the sand carried along both 
sides of the new island toward the west until a union was 
formed with the peninsula, shutting in between the two connect- 
ing bars of sand a pond of water, and the island thereby became 
the foot of the peninsula, receiving further increase. In this way 
it is supposed that several fish-ponds, now in existence on the 
peninsula, have been formed. 
_ From the briefly sketched history of Presque isle the reader 
_ May naturally be led to inquire into its origin. The writer at one 
time imagined that there might have been a small uplift of rocks 
under the surface such as he had seen on the mainland in the 
