Erie, one of the five great lakes which empty themselves by the St Lawrence, separates the province of Ontario, in Canada, on its left, from Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and New York on its right. It is the most southern of the five, receiving at its western extremity the waters of Lakes Superior, Michigan, and Huron by the river Detroit, and discharging them at its north-east by the Niagara into Lake Ontario. With a length of 240 miles, Erie has a breadth varying from 30 to nearly 60 miles, with an area of 9960 sq. m. It is feet below the Huron, and 326 and 573 respectively above the Ontario and the Atlantic. The shores are for the most part low and of a clayey nature. At its south-western extremity are several wooded and partly cultivated islands, the largest of which is about 14 miles in circumference. It is by far the shallowest of the five great lakes. Its mean depth is 70 feet, its maximum 210 feet; and from this comparative shallowness and the consequent liability to a heavy ground-swell, as well as on account of the small number of good harbours, the navigation is peculiarly difficult and dangerous. The chief harbours on the United States shore, besides the natural harbour of Erie itself or Presque Isle, are those of Buffalo, Dunkirk, Cleveland, Sandusky, and Toledo; and on the north or Canadian shore, Ports Dover, Burwell, Colborne, and Stanley. Lake Erie receives no rivers of any consequence, except the Detroit and Maumee. Its commercial importance, however, has been largely increased by art. It is connected by one canal with the Hudson, and by more than one with the Ohio (see CANAL); while, on the British side, it communicates with the Ontario by means of an important work, the ship-channel of the Welland Canal. Its navigation generally closes in the beginning of December, and the lake remains more or less frozen till March or April.
The commercial importance of this lake has been greatly enhanced within recent years by the establishment of numerous lines of railway connecting its ports with the interior. The amount of traffic on the lake and on these railways is enormous. Lake Erie was the scene of a naval engagement between the British and Americans, September 10, 1813, in which the latter were victorious.