Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1895-08-27
cNTARIo's PRoTEAN HILLS.

Monster Shifting Sand Dunes on the
Canadian Shore of Luke Erie.
From the Buffalo Express.
An interesting and wonderful feature of
the natural scenery Of Lake Erie shores
are two immense ccnically shaped sand
formations in the township of Houghton,
Norfolk county, Ontario, Just west Of Long
Point
These hills are composed of the light sill
very sand peculiar to the shore of the lake,
with the ore dissimilarity, that it appears
lighter in bulk than the shore sand and
drifts more readily with the wind. They
are situated about mile apart, the one to
the east being the larger. 1t measures
about two hundred feet in height from the
water level. one thousand feet In length
and three hundred feet in width. When
viewed from the surrounding country 1t
appears like vast symme trically formed
giants grave, erected on the lofty promon-
tory, which lies high above, and whose pre-
cipitouS cliffs wall in the lake for miles.
The perfect and clear-cut outlines and
gracefully rounded summit, which towers
nobly high, excite in one a desire to ascend
the steep ACTIVITY, notwithstanding the
difficulty of a climb upon an incline of
made even more laborious ty the iooseness
of the sand, which the climber sinks into
above his shoe tops at every step. But he
is right generously rewarded when the
beautiful, Looking inland, the country I'M
folds itself With its delectable meadows
and fields of grain, for miles and miles,
while in the opposite direction the magnifi-
cent view CT Erie's broad eXpanse stretches
to the horizon.
These hills, besides their present interest,
have a strange evolutionary history ascrib-
ed to them, as recorded by some of the ear
ly settlers in the vicinity. At ore time the
summit of the large hill presented cir
cular plateau with a crater opening into
vast funnel-shaped chasm, with sides
nearly vertical, which extended down to
great depth. The bottom of this great am
phitheater was eighty feet in diameter,
and upon this natural arena the pioneer
youths of man, years ago played the game
of base ball. with the advantage of requir-
ing no fieders, for, 10 mater where the
ball was thrown or batted, upon striking
the sides it would fall to the feet of the
players. No trace whatever is now left of
the crater. Many are the forms the hill
has assumed since then.
If it Is the action of the strong south
westerly gales. Nhi6h for one hundred and
fifty miles have an uninterrupted swoop
down the lake, upon the loose sand of the
cliff, why are other hills not thus formed
by the same force all along the shore In
this locality, where the sand appears the
same as here? There is sand mound close
to the large hill nearly forty feet high,
which has the appearance of growing SINH
lar to the others. 1t Is inclosed on three
sides with a thick growth of large trees.
which it is gradually covering up.
These hills slowly but really change their
positions, ever retaining some graceful and
strange shape. The old trees that form a
dense growth near by are gradually swept
over and completely buried in sand. In
many places their utmost branches only
protrude above the surface of the sides CT
the ruthless sand monster that smothered
and settled upon them. In time. as the hill
moves on, these trees are again revealed.
broken and dead, of course, with whitened
trunks and MANNED limbs
Some twenty years ago the summit Of the
large hill was crowned by the observatory
of the United States lake survey. From
this observatory, one in the highlands of
Pennsylvania and another on Long Point
a triangle was formed, and the most ac-
curate chirt of the lake at that time was
issued. At present a beacon is the only
structure on the hill, having been erected
in correction with the survey now be-
ing made of the lake by the Canadian gov
eminent.