S70 



CONSERVATION 



of the lumber imported by other coun- 

 tries. Austria-Hungary furnishes nine- 

 teen per cent., Russia sixteen per cent., 

 Canada thirteen per cent., Sweden 

 eighteen per cent., Finland ten per cent., 

 and Norway and Roumania a small 

 (juantity. 



The countries importing wood are 

 those on the highest economical plane, 

 which were themselves in earlier times 

 densely wooded, but whose forests have 

 been denuded to a greater or l^ss ex- 

 tent to make ^oom ibr agriculture and 

 other industries, says Vice-Consul 

 James L. A. Burrell, of Madgeburg, in 

 a report to this government. Only 

 four per cent, of the territory of Great 

 Britain is covered with forests, and 

 during the year 1906 that country im- 

 ported lumber to the value of $135,561,- 

 750. Germany has still twenty-six per 

 cent, of its territory covered by forests 

 but imported in 1906 lumber valued at 

 $61,285,000. Belgium and the Nether- 

 lands, that have but eight per cent, for- 

 est lands, Denmark, that has seven per 

 cent., France and Switzerland, with a 

 small percentage, are all compelled to 

 import lumber. 



I-Jesides these countries, those lands 

 lying on the dry western side of the 

 sub-tropical zone lacking forests are 

 ibrced to import wood. Egypt imports 

 wood and coal to the value of about 

 $16,660,000 annually; Algeria Tunis, 

 Spain, Portugal (with only three per 

 cent, forest land). Italy. Greece (with 

 nine per cent, forest land), the eastern 

 part of Asia, British South Africa, the 

 western part of Chile and Peru, the 

 Argentine Republic, and Au.stralia. all 

 poor in wood, are dependent upnn im- 

 ]jort. 



)^ 5^ «< 



The Waters of the Great Lakes 



MORE than four million people, liv- 

 ing in a hundred cities, obtain 

 water for domestic and inrlustrial uses 

 from the great inland seas on the north- 

 ern boundary of the United States ; and 

 boiler water for the enormous land and 

 water traffic that joins these cities to 

 one another and to the rest of tlie world 



is flerived from the same source. The 

 chemical composition of these waters is 

 therefore a matter of great interest to 

 both sanitarians and chemical engi- 

 neers, and a study of that composition 

 is also valuable because the compar- 

 ative equable condition of the lake 

 waters allows them to serve as a stand- 

 ard for comparison with other waters 

 in the northern region. 



About two years ago the United 

 States Geological Survey began a study 

 of the waters of the Great Lakes in 

 connection with a rather extensive in- 

 vestigation of the economic value of 

 surface waters in the United States. For 

 a year a i -gallon sample was collected 

 each month from each lake at a point 

 where the water would probably rep- 

 resent the normal quality of the dis- 

 charge. Samples of Lake Superior 

 water were taken from St. Mary's 

 River just above the locks at Saulte 

 Ste. ]\Iarie, Mich. ; the Lake Michigan 

 samples were collected from a ferry- 

 boat in the Straits of JMackinac ; St. 

 Clair River was sampled in midstream 

 at Port Huron, Mich ; Lake Erie was 

 sampled at the Buffalo (N. Y.) water- 

 works intake ; and St. Lawrence River 

 was sampled at Ogdensburg, N. Y., 

 since no important streams enter be- 

 tween that city and Lake Ontario. The 

 waters were shipped in special con- 

 tainers to the water-testing laboratory 

 of the Survey at Washington, D. C, 

 and were analyzed from one to three 

 months after date of collection. Sus- 

 pended matter was removed before the 

 samples were evaporated, and standard 

 methods of water analysis were fol- 

 lowed when practicable. 



Mr. R. B. Dole, under whose direc- 

 tion the analyses were made, states that 

 the most noticeable feature in a cursory 

 examination of the analytical data is 

 the slight variation in the concentration 

 of the waters from month to month, 

 the total variation, as shown bv the dis- 

 solved solids figures, being only eight- 

 een parts per million, or fifteen per 

 cent. As rivers of ordinary size may 

 vary 200 to 300 per cent., and even 

 large rivers, like the Mississippi, may 



