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THE ISLANDS OF LAKE ERIEHfcuwici —»w—■■i—i—w.tii - ................0n3 cf the Most Interesting Placeson the Continent.«»n .........Botanical}? the Region is Moat Instruc-live— Cedar Point en Illustrationof the Long Sand Bara. jOne of the most interesting places on the American contini nt is within twohours’ride of Cleveland, sats (J Frtderick Wright, writing tlt;» the Cleveland leader of last Sunday. For the last ft *v years I have aunsally takrn my geological class to study it, and t am every 3ear more and more impressed with the advantages which the locality furnishes to all the citizens of Northern Ohio for j the combined stuiy of geology and botaoy in connection with the meat do j light ful elementa of scenery. I refer to I the island* in the vicinity of Handusky, to which I took my ciaaa last Saturday. ( doing on the train to Sandusky, the ! Visitor, under Ca| tain llaas, was engaged to be at our di»t*osal d irmg the day. A simple record of our excursion! wi I illustrate how much can tc done in a few hours,leaving the Sandusky dock at half- j past it, au hour's ride brought us to the dock of the Kelleys Island I.ime and Transport company, upon the north side, where Cleveland has a special ob ject of interest in the great glacial groove that has been deeded by the com pany to the Western Reserve Historical society. Probably this glacial groove b the most remarkable to be found any ! where in the world. When the Ameri can Association for the Advancement of Science met in Cleveland, this was one of the points visited u|*on the excursion as the gueata of the city. I well remem bor the universal astonishment and grati flcation which all the members of that party exhibited, and it waa in conse- j quence of thia Interest, and at their gen eral request, that a portion of the groove was deeded to the Historical society for preservation.Another hour's ride takes us past Ha! last island, which is covered with the collages of C.evelsnd people, into Put i in Hay, past lt;iibrailar and Middle Haas Islands, to (Jrecn island, on which is xl important lighthouse. The beauty ofthis ride m many particular* is uoturpasted To the geologist also, It la ofrare interest from the fact that he haa crossed a most important geologicalboundary. The great quarries on Kel-leys Island are in corniferous limestone, which constitutes the lower portion of the Devonian formation, and Is full of i fossils. All these rocks dip gently to thesoutheast so that in the vicinity ofCleveland one would need to bore down 2,000 feet to reach them, but here on Kellovs Island they come up to ihc surface, like the upturned leaves of the i edge of a book. At Put-m-Hay and on tireen Island, however, we reach stilt lower upturned leaves of the great geo logical book and find ourselves on the water line strata, which constitute here the upper portion of the great Silurian formation, and which are here entirely destitute of fossils. At this point abundance of celeatite (sulphate of sirontiani, one of the rarest and most beautiful of minerals, is found, the name jbeing derived from tu resemblance to tlm sky li color*Another hour's ride takis us past the variegated wist shores of Put in Hayand Catawba Islands (to say nothing of Mouse and Starve islands) to Marblehead, just east of l akeside Assembly ground* Here we visited the immense gnovea which I discovered last year in (iamb e a quarry, ar,d bad partly tin covered. These are very « any of access and are nearly, and j**rhaj s quite, equalin interest to those on Kell, ya Island Hrief amps were also made at the life saving station and at Marblehead dock, from which we visited a moat remark* ble specimen of glacial erosion in the “Hath Tub, near Marblehead light house And here again t should he noticed that we have come back uponthe corniferous limestone which wefound on Kell»tj Island, and which is a source of such profit to the Lime andTiensport«ompaoy.Another half-hour's nrio brought us to Cedar Point, one of the most magnificent i’Ju trations of the long sand bars thrown up bv the waves in shallow water, aufbcu utly high to support a dense fo»eai of tr.ns The origin of this bar, which several miles long, illustrates the foimstiou of the old la lt;eridges, when the waters of Hake Erie sto »d up to the'evel marked by them all along the northern part of the stale, of which ih'* building sue* along thenorth sideofKiclid avenue are a goodilustration.|gH itanically this region is also most inlt;ercsiing, since the conditions are such that several botanical provincesbars meet; so that Canadian, Southern, Ailaniic, and Hocky mountain species are found together here as nowhere »!se oa the continent. An area a mile or two k | iare on the south s.ope of Marblehead is slt;» ihinly covered with soil that it is treeless, and so thoroughly dried up in summer that it furnishes the conditions favorable for the support of many plants from the arid regions of the Itockymountains.I write this from a growing feeling that the Citi/cnsof Ohio do not sufficiently appreciate ihe advantages which are ne*r at home. Other places tlt; winch 1 have taken my classes are the lt;uj aho-go Valley to Akron, and the gorges of Itocky, Black, Chagrin and i.randi river*, in all of which it requires only sufficient knowledge to find most Inter eating chapters of nature unfolded. It wul be a great pity if the teachers in our public achoo s should think it necessaryto go to the ends of ihe earth for mformanoo which can be most easily andeconomically collected at home, and made avaiUblc fur local m»; while thestudy of geology and botany in theseinteresting Held* in Northern Ohio Canbe most pleasant and restful. '
Newspaper Details
Sandusky Daily Register
Sandusky, Ohio, US
Wed, Jun 09, 1897
Page 1
Full Page
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Anonymous
OH, USA 04 Jul 2020
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