112 EXPERIMENT STATION RECORD. 



Central Experimental Farm, Ottawa ; Nappan, Nova Scotia ; Brandon, Mani- 

 toba ; Indian Head, Northwest Territories ; and Agassiz, British Columbia. 



Meteorological chart of the Great Lakes, A. J. Henry and N. B. Conger 

 {V. S. Dcpt. A(/r., Weather Bur., Met. Chart Great Lakes, 1006, No. 1, pp. 20, 

 pi. 1). — This is a snmmaiy of observations on the meteorological conditions of 

 the winter of l'J(»5-G in the lake region, with notes on ice on the Great Lakes 

 winter of 1905-0, opening of navigation for the season of 1906, and display of 

 storm warnings on the Great Lakes. Lists of stations and location of flagstaffs 

 and steel towers, and Canadian Great Lakes storm-warning stations are also 

 given. 



Well waters from farm homesteads, F. T. Shutt {Canada Expt. Farms 

 Rpts. 1905, pp. l.j.'i-l.'jl). — Of the 83 samples of water of which analyses are 

 given " 22 were reported as safe and wholesome, 38 seriously polluted, 12 sus- 

 picious and probably unsafe for drinking purposes, and 11 saline in character." 



Fluctuations of the water level in wells, with special reference to Long 

 Island, New York, A. C. Veatch (V. S. Geol. Survey, Water-Supply and Irriy. 

 Paper No. 155, pp. S3, pis. 9, fiys. 17). — This bulletin contains a report of obser- 

 vations made on the fluctuation of the water level in wells, both with direct 

 reading and self-recording gages, in connection with an investigation of the 

 geology of Long Island by the Geological Survey in the summer of 1903, and 

 also a general discussion of the fluctuation of water in wells. 



Some of the results of this study may be briefly summarized as follows : 



"(1) The most important and characteristic of the natural ground-water 

 fluctuations is the regular annual period. This is a relatively uniform curve, 

 with a single maximum and minimum, on which the fluctuations of shorter 

 periods, as a rule, form but' minor irregularities. This curve does not generally 

 resemble the rainfall curve. Were the rainfall uniform throughout the year, the 

 ground water would still show a regular yearly period and the maximum 

 would occur early in the year in the North Temperate Zone. The effect of 

 irregularities in the rainfall is to move the time of occurrence of this maximum 

 either forward or back. 



"(2) The water from single showers is generally delivered gradually to the 

 ground-water table and, even where noticeable fluctuations are produced, these 

 do not commonly make important irregularities in the regular annual ground- 

 water curve. 



"(3) Single showers may, by transmitted pressure through the soil air, 

 produce instantaneous and noticeable rises in the water in wells and notably 

 increase the stream discharge without contributing either to the ground water 

 or directly to the surface flow. 



"(4) The amount contributed to the ground water can not be satisfactorily 

 estimated by the rise and fall of the water in wells, because the same amount 

 of rainfall under the same geologic and climatic conditions, in beds of the same 

 porosity, will produce fluctuations of very different values. Near the ground- 

 water outlet the total yearly range may be but a few inches, while near the 

 ground-water divide it may be 50 or 100 ft. When an attempt is made to calcu- 

 late the amount of water received from single rains, the results are not reliable, 

 because in the cases which are usually taken, such as sharp, quick rises, it is 

 impossible to tell how much of the rise is due to transmitted pressure and how 

 much to direct infiltration. 



"(5) Because of the increase in stream flow due (1) to transmitted pi'essure 

 from rains, (2) to changes in bai'ometric pressure, and (3) to increase in area 

 of ground-water discharge, with the elevation of the ground-water table, it is 

 not possible to correctly separate the quantity of water in the stream discharge 



