Abandoned Shore Lines of Lake Superior, — Taylor. 371 
town on the American side; and it has the same character 
where 1 saw it on the Canadian side. It is also well devel- 
oped on Sugar island and the mainland south of it, and also 
on St. Joseph's island and the Canadian mainland. On both 
sides of the river at the Sault. the Nipissing beach has an old 
sea-cliff or bluff at its back, which is the front edge of a wide 
terrace. On the south side this terrace is composed of finely 
bedded clay and silt in horizontal layers; on the north side it 
is reddish boulder clay. Good exposures may be seen in the 
ditches by the roads where they ascend to the tops of the ter- 
races. These beds are postglacial deep water sediments like 
those at Superior, Wisconsin. From Sault Ste. Marie east- 
ward along the shore of the North Channel fragments of this 
shore line were seen near Algoma Mills and at several points 
SO to 100 or more feet above lake Huron. West of Worthing- 
ton on the C. P. railway is a great sand and gravel delta of 
Spanish river, which probably marks this beach. It is there 
about 120 or 130 feet above lake Huron. None of these points 
east of Sault Ste. Marie were closely examined, except those 
near lake Nipissing, but I have no doubt that this accentuated 
beach is one continuous shore line from Duluth to the Nipis- 
sing pass. Its altitude near North Bay on lake Nipissing is 
about 160 feet above lake Huron, or about 140 feet above lake 
Superior, showing a rise of about 12.5 tit 130 feet from Duluth. 
As is shown in the paper previously referred to. this shore line 
is definitely related to the ancient river outlet at Nipissing. 
For this reason I have called this whole line, which seems to 
be continuous to the west end of lake Superior, the Nipissing 
beach. 
Highek Beaches. 
Marquette. Fragments of beaches were found in a number 
of places above the Nipissing beach, but over considerable 
areas where beaches might be expected they appeared to be 
absent. The hills back of Marquette are mostly cleared and 
cultivated up to about 500 feet above the lake, and we ex- 
amined them pretty thoroughly. The soil is of a gravelly, 
sandy character, strongly suggesting wash by wave action, 
but hardly anything having definite form as a beach or a ter- 
race was found except near the highest beach. This same 
washed character of the soil prevails all along this part of the 
