Nipissinrj Beach on the JV. Sirperior Shore. — Taylor. 313 
Superior basin remain parallel with the water level of to- 
day."* Mr. Upham's belief appears to be based upon correla- 
tions made parti}'' by Prof. Lawson and partly by himself. 
But in neither case, as it seems to me, is there safe ground for 
such correlations. In order that Prof. Lawson's classification 
of the strands in horizontal series might be true and valid as 
applied to the lower shore lines, the fact of horizontality 
should first have been ascertained by substantially continuous 
tracing of some strongly formed, persistent strand, like the 
Nipissing beach. In his table of strands the maximum dis- 
crepance from horizontality is about 13 feet. In general, then, 
if the strands vary more than this amount from horizontality 
anywhere in the whole Superior basin — if they rise or fall 
more than this from Duluth to Sault Ste. Marie or from Mar- 
quette to Jackfish bay — the significance of the table as a true 
classification is destroyed. The method itself is one which 
cannot be safely used without a thorough fore-knowledge of 
the exact position of the strands; and even then, if they are 
not horizontal, it is useless. If the correlations pointed out 
in this paper are true, then the Nipissing beach rises some- 
what more than 80 feet from Poplar river to Jackfish bay, and 
crosses seven of Prof. Lawson's strands; from Duluth it rises 
about 125 feet, and crosses about a dozen strands. This, to be 
sure, is a small amount of inclination as compared with that 
of some beaches at other places. But it lacks a good deal of 
being "parallel with the water level of to-day." 
Dr. A. C. Lane, of the Michigan Geological Survey, also re- 
ports deserted beaches on Isle Roj^ale and on Keweenaw point, 
which agree in a general way with the results of the writer. 
If the Nipissing beach has been truly made out from Prof. 
Lawson's observations, it adds largely to the known area of 
very recent terrestrial deformation. The basin of lake Supe- 
rior bears about the same relation to James bay at the south 
end of Hudson bay that lake Erie does to the lower St. Law- 
rence valley. The distance between their eastward shores is 
*Am. Jour. Sci., Ill, vol. xlix, .Tan.. 1895, p. 7. Mr. Upham's detailed 
correlations of the shore lines around lake Superior, and north of lake 
Huron and Georj^nan bay to lake Ni))issiny-, are jriven in tlic Twenty- 
second Annual Report, Minn. Geol. Survey, for 1S!);{, pp. 57 ()5; and in 
Bulletin Geol. Soc. Am., vol. vi, pp. 21-27, Nov., 18!)4. He regards the 
.shore lines as now considerably inclined, but less for the Nipissing i)lane 
than is indicated in this pajjer. 
