assuredly it is the finest lake upon earth. Its
circumference extends to 230 leagues; but it affords every where such a
charming prospect, that its banks are decked with oak-trees, elms,
chestnut-trees, walnut-trees, apple-trees, plum-trees, and vines, which
bear their fine clusters up to the very top of the trees, upon a sort of
ground that lies as smooth as one's hand. Such ornaments as these are
sufficient to give rise to the most agreeable idea of a landscape in the
world."--La Hontan, in Pinkerton, vol. xiii., p. 343 (1683).

"Le nom que le Lac Erie porte est celui d'une nation de la langue
Huronne, qui etait etablie sur ses bords et que les Iroquois ont
entierement detruite. Erie veut dire Chat, et les Eries sont nommes dans
quelques relations la nation du Chat. Ce nom vient apparemment de la
quantite de ces animaux qu'on trouve dans le pays. Quelqes cartes
modernes ont donne au Lac Erie le nom de Conti, mais ce nom n'a pas fait
fortune, non plus que ceux de Conde, de Tracy, et d'Orleans, donnes au
Lac Huron, au Lac Superieur, et au Lac Michigan."--Charlevoix, tom. v.,
p, 374 (1721).]

[Footnote 128: "In extreme depth Lake Erie varies from forty to
forty-five fathoms, with a rocky bottom. Lakes Superior and Huron have a
stiff, clayey bottom, mixed with shells. Lake Erie reported to be the
only one of the series in which any current is perceptible. The fact, if
it is one, is usually ascribed to its shallowness; but the vast volume
of its outlet--the Niagara River--with its strong current, is a much
more probable cause than the small depth of its water, which may be far
more appropriately adduced as the reason why the navigation is
obstructed by ice much more than either of the other great lakes. As
connected with trade and navigation, this lake is the most important of
all the great chain, not only because it is bordered by older
settlements than any of them except Ontario, but still more because from
its position it concentrates the trade of the vast West. The Kingston
Herald notices a most extraordinary occurrence on Lake Erie during a
late storm (1836). A channel was made by the violence of the tempest
through Long Point, N. Foreland, 300 yards wide, and from 11 to 15 feet
deep. It had been in contemplation to cut a canal at this very spot, the
expenses of which were estimated at L12,000. The York Courier confirms
this extraordinary intelligence, stating that the storm made a breach
through the point near the m