The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1872-06-20
LAKE ERIE.
WILL 1T DRY UP +?


Lake Erie will dry up one of these DAYS.
The precise date is not given but the
reader is permitted to calculate for him
self after surveying the indications. We
copy from correspondence of the Boston
Globe But intensely as I enjoy this lake
view, and confidently as I expect to have
my lake, my river in heaven, I propose to
show reasons for my believing that Lake
Erie-the path of mighty commerce, and
the admiration Of the travelsr and the
dweller on It's shore-will not continue
always. The time will doubtless come
when it will be a vast marsh-eYen when
it will became the home Of teemino
population, and covered with vineyards
and orchards and thriving cities a care
full survey has shown that while Lake
Michigan has an average depth Of 1900
feet, Lake Superior of eco feet and Lake
Ontario Of 500 feet, Lake Erie has an
average depth, of 1870 feet. The upper
part of Point Pelle Island has an average
depth of but 80 feet. The middle position
between Pelle Island ard Long Point is
but 60 feet deep, while the lower part be-
low Long Point averages only 1870 feet.
The bottom of the lake is quite level and
composed of soft clay. This clay is CON
stanty accumulating, from sediment car
RED down by tributary streams. The
south shore is composed of easily disinte-
grating blue, gray and olive shoals and
gray sandstone. The western and north
ern coasts are made of limestone of the
Heidelberg group, which easily yields to
the action of the waves. Consequently
both shores constantly are contributing to
fill up the bed Of the lake. The work is
not rapid, but it is as certain as fate.
There are frequent landslides On this
shore, which are quickly taken up and de-
posted in sediment beneath the blue
water. Indeed, along the shore, especial
~ after storm, the water can hardly be
called blue. 1t is brown as far as the eve
can reach, with the clay washed down
from the hills and taken up along the
shore. Let this process continue-and
there is nothing to prevent it--and the
time must come when the upper part of
the lake, W hichis scarcely navigable now
in rough weather, will cease to be navi-
gable except through very narrow chan.
mel, when even the middle and lower por-
tons will cease to be covered with white
sails, and become vast marsh where the
wild alder and swamps whortlebtrries
will glow. Even il this did not come
through the filling up process, Niagara is
slowly but surely cutting a ditch that
will one day drain Lake Erie. Every OBJ
serving man who has visited the great
cataract knows that it has cut it's way up
from Lake Ontario to its present position.
1t Is now many feet further up the river
than it was the first time 7 listened
to its roar, and gazsd entranced upon its
wonders. The soft limestone that lies
beneath the stable rock crack sand drops
away. When the cataract snail have
worn its way back to the head of the
rapids, its progress will be much faster
than it is now. 1t is easy to see that it
will one day reach the deep waters of
Niagara river. Lake Erie will be effect
uallY drained, and there will ouly be a
deep river flowing through its central
channel. Then what digging and boring
there will be for treasures that has gone
down in ships, and will go down. For
OF sill the great lakes, Erie owing to It's
shallowness, is the most treacherous to
the navigator. A severe storm lasheg it's
waves into ntm0st fury, and woe to the
luckIeSs sailors who find themselves on a
lee shore. So great is the commerce car
rled over this lake that there is scarcely
a Storm which does not find vessels in
this unfortunate position.