114 N. J. Mosquito Extermination Association 



The story of Lake Passaic, as the geologists read it, is worth 

 telling. Ages ago, North America had a ''cold spell" that was 

 longer and more severe than that of January, 1918. An enor- 

 mous ice cap started in Labrador and came ploughing its way 

 over the hills and through the valleys, rushing, grinding and 

 carrying earth and rocks with it, and never stopping until it 

 reached New Jersey. There are some places that are too hot, 

 even for a glacier, and here it died, leaving the foot stone of its 

 grave across the state from Perth Amboy to Manunka Chunk. 



Before the ice came the water ran through the Watchung 

 Mountain at Paterson and at Short Hills. As the glacier ad- 

 vanced it stopped up first the outlet at Paterson and then the gap 

 at Short Hills. The water from melting ice and rains filled up 

 the basin behind the Watchung Mountain until it overflowed to 

 the southwest into the Raritan River. 



Centuries later, as the climate changed and the ice retreated 

 past the gap at Short Hills, the water did not find its old outlet, 

 the glacier had filled it up with earth and stones, and until the 

 outlet by Paterson was uncovered, Lake Passaic increased in 

 area. 



With the restoration of the outlet by Little Falls and Paterson, 

 Lake Passaic shrank and finally filled up with sediment, leaving 

 a winding river through the meadows and swamps. 



However, the spirit of the past is not dead. Lake Passaic 

 reappears from time to time for short intervals. Each spring 

 reminders come back, and in O'ctober, 1903, a great rainfall 

 revived it for a few hours and it spread out in its old haunt and 

 covered 36 square miles. 



The practical way to be rid of the sylvestris mosquitoes is to 

 drain the swamps along the Passaic River. The idea of re- 

 claiming these wet lands is not new. 



Some meadow drainage work was done in New Jersey during 

 Colonial times, and at the close of the Revolutionary War, on 

 December 23, 1783, the New Jersey Legislature passed "An act 

 to enable the owners of swamp or meadow ground to drain the 

 same." Another act was substituted for this on November 24, 

 1792. Since then, time after time, one act after another has 



