The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1895-09-05
SAND HILLS OF ONTARIO.
A Peculiar Formation Two Hundred Feet
High Near Lake Erie.

peculiar Formation Two Hundred Feet
High Near Lake Erie.
An interesting and wonderful feature
of the natural scenery of Lake Erie
shores are two immense conically
shaped sand formations, in the town
ship of Houghton, Norfolk county,
Ont, just west of Long Point
These hills are composed of the light
silvery sand peculiar to the shores of
the lake, with the one dissimilarity
that it appears lighter in bulk than the
shore sand, and drifts more readily
with the wind They are situated
about mild 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 sur
rounding country, it appears like a
vast symmetrically formed giants
grave, erected on the lofty promontory,
which lies high above, and whose pre-
cipitouS cliffs wall in the lake for
miles. The perfect and clear-cut out
lines and gracefully rounded summit,
which towers nobly high, excite in one
desire to ascend the steep activity,
notwithstanding the difficulty of a
climb upon an incline of nearly sixty
degrees from the horizontal, made even
more laborious by the looseness of the
sand, which the climbe sinks into
above his shoetops at every step. But
he is right generously rewarded when
the summit is reached, for the pros
pect is beautiful. Looking inland, the
country unfolds itself, with it's delecta-
BILE meadows and fields of grain, for
miles and miles; while in the opposite
direction the magnificent view of Erie's
broad expanse stretches to the horizon.
These hills besides their present in
terest, have strange evolutionary
history ascribed to them, as recorded
by some of the early settlers in the
vicinity. AT one time the summit of
the large hill presented a circular
plateau with a crater opening into a
vast, funnel-shaped chasm, with sides
nearly vertical, which extended down
to great depth. The bottom of this
great amphitheater was eighty feet in
diameter, and upon this natural arena
the pioneer youths of many years ago
played the game of base ball, with the
advantages ofrequiring no fielders, for,
no matter 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
6
southwesterly gales, which for one
hundred and fifty miles have an unin-
terrupted sweep down the lake, upon
the loose sand of the cliff, why are
other hills not th1s formed by the
same force all along the shore in this
locality, where the sand appears the
same as here? There is a sand mound
close to the large hill nearly forty
feet high, which has the appearance of
growing similar to the others. 1t is
inclosed on three sides with 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 com
pletely buried in sand In many places
their utmost branches only protrude
above the surface of the sides of the
ruthless sand monster that smothered
and settled upon them. In time, as the
hill moves on, these trees are again re-
vealed, 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 an
other on Long Point, triangle was
formed, and the most accurate chart of
the lake at that time was issued. At
present beacon is the only structure
on the hill, having been erected in
connection with the survey now being
made Of the lake by the Canadian gov
ernment.-ButfaloEx