398 
The American Geologist. 
June, 1896 
Huron, and in the same fashion southwestward from Mackinac to Old 
Mission point in Grand Traverse bay where it passes under lake Michi¬ 
gan. In addition to this the fragment previously found at North bay 
was largely extended along the shores of lake Nipissing, the site of the 
old outlet was re-examined and some previous uncertainties were 
cleared up. 
As to the character and identity of this beach I have already spoken 
plainly elsewhere. It is altogether the most remarkable littoral feature 
of the Great Lake region. It is a shore line well advanced towards old 
age. All the other beaches of the lakes are youthful in comparison. 
Except in the northern parts of the basins its elevation above the pres¬ 
ent lakes is so slight that its landscape effect is generally not striking, 
although it is of ten quite prominent. If the country were denuded of 
vegetation and this beach stood two or three hundred feet above the 
lakes I believe that in many places it would not fall far short of the 
grandeur of Gilbert’s Lake Bonneville beaches. Instead of the slender 
spits and barrier bars of the Algonquin and other beaches, the Nipis¬ 
sing beach has what may be called barrier plains, made up of many, 
sometimes forty to fifty, massive beach ridges laid up one against the 
other. Many bays were entirely filled by these beach plains and others 
were cut off, so as to form small littoral lakes. Some of these plains 
are a mile to a mile and a half wide. In some instances the old deltas 
of the other beaches are large and conspicuous, but the constructive 
products of wave action have no comparison with those of the Nipissing 
beach. 
My attention, however, has not been centered mainly on the Nipissing 
beach. On the contrary I should say that ten times as much time and 
laborious effort was given to the search for the Algonquin or highest ” 
beach as to the Nipissing. The observations on the latter have nearly 
always come in merely as incidents in the search for the former. The 
Nipissing beach was everywhere thrust upon my attention when I was 
searching for the Algonquin. I have made very few excursions with the 
special object of seeing the Nipissing beach. But it is generally so 
easy of access and is such a conspicuous and even obtrusive feature 
and is so easy to trace continuously that in the final summing up of all 
my field work I find that as much or more has been learned of the Nip¬ 
issing beach than of the Algonquin. The latter beach, however, is 
always higher up on the coastal slopes and is generally difficult of 
access. Besides it has no such striking individuality of character as 
the Nipissing beach and in some regions, especially where there are 
other higher beaches, is likely to be confounded with them. 
Spencer and Lawson have both done a large amount of systematic 
work on the Algonquin beach, although Law e on did not distinctly 
recognize its identity. But, I believe it is true that as the work stands 
to-day, I have covered a much wider territory than either of them, and 
my observations overlap both of their areas. As to the Nipissing 
beach, it happens that no one else has done any systematic woik upon 
it. Random observations have been made by several others, but all 
