OF ARTS AND SCIENCES. 131 



" On Certain Phenomena connected with the Rise and Fall of the 

 Watei^s of the Northern Lakes. 



" During a residence of several sunfimers on the borders of Lake 

 Superior, my attention has been directed to the question, whether its 

 waters were subject to any movement corresponding to the tidal action, 

 and the result of my observations has been, to convince me that they 

 do not rise and fall at stated periods, corresponding to the ebb and flow 

 of the tide. On the other hand, abundant evidence exists that the 

 waters are subject to extraordinary risings, which are independent of 

 the influence of the sun and moon. 



" The late Governor Dewitt Clinton * published a memoir on this sub- 

 ject, which embodies many interesting facts. As that memoir is not 

 readily accessible, we will extract such facts as are deemed most im- 

 portant. These risings attracted the attention of the earliest voyageurs 

 in this region. La Hontan relates the following incident : — 'On the 

 29th of May, 1689, we came to a little deep sort of a river, which disem- 

 bogues at a place where the water of the lake [Michigan] swells three 

 feet high in twelve hours, and decreases as much in the same compass 

 of time. Our tarrying there for three or four days gave me an oppor- 

 tunity of making the remark.' Charlevoix,! who traversed the Lakes 

 nearly a century ago, in reference to Lake Ontario says : — 'I observ- 

 ed that in this lake, and I am told that the same thing happens in all the 

 rest, there is a sort of flux and reflux, almost instantaneous, the rocks 

 near the banks being covered with water and uncovered again several 

 times in the space of a quarter of an hour, even if the surface of the 

 lake was very calm, with scarce a breath of air. After reflecting for 

 some time on this appearance, / imagined it was oioing to springs at 

 the hottom of the lake, and to the shock of their currents with those of 

 the rivers which fall into them from all sides, and thus produce those 

 intermitting motions.'' Mackenzie, J who wrote in 1789, remarks : — 

 ' A very curious phenomenon was observed at the Grand Portage on 

 Lake Superior, for which no obvious cause could be assigned. The 

 water withdrew with great precipitation, leaving the ground dry which 

 had' never before been visible, the fall being equal to four perpen- 



* Transactions of tlie JVeio York Literary and Philosophical Society, Vol. II., 

 Part I. 



t Journal Historique d'un Voyage deV.^mtrique, L. XIII. 

 \ Voyage to the Frozen and Pacific Oceans. 



