■je THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



overflowing springs. No possible head to this overflow could exist ; 

 and, in general, this class of springs flowing out of the mountain-tops 

 can not be materially influenced by the rainfall. There is no land 

 above them from which such torrents could flow in such constant abun- 

 dance. The White and Adirondack Mountains are also full of similar 



" Scribner's Monthly " (vol. xi., p. 784) has a very interesting article 

 by Martin A. Howell, Jr., entitled " Is there a Subterranean Outlet to 

 the Upper Lake Region ? " While we are sorry to quarrel with Mr, 

 Howell as to his conclusions, we are very hajDpy to accept his facts. 

 He speculates upon the premise that, because " an area of some 400,000 

 square miles is drained by the tributaries of Lake Winnipeg alone," 

 a certain amount of this accumulation of waters Avhich do not find an 

 exit " toward the Polar Sea and through the Mississippi Valley " may 

 pass by subterranean channels into Lakes Superior and Huron ; and he 

 says that "while Lakes Superior and Huron are supplied largely 

 through such subterranean channels on the one hand, they suffer se- 

 verely through losses by similar channels at some point in their vast 

 expanse." He show^s by a map the track of this supposed underground 

 current to be down the valley of the Illinois from Lake Superior to the 

 valley of the Mississij^pi. The facts he gives tend strongly to support 

 his novel theory of underground flow southward from the lakes, how- 

 ever it may be as to the amount of it. He gives no evidence that it 

 comes from the direction of Lake Winnipeg, but, on the contrary, the 

 balance of his evidence goes to prove that the Northern lakes are no- 

 thing more or less than great, overfloAving springs. " That there exist 

 channels of communication with some of these lakes," Mr. Howell 

 says, " has long been believed and admitted by many " ; and then, 

 having shown that Lake Superior at its surface is 600 feet above the 

 Atlantic and at its bottom 5T3, and Ontario to be 235 feet above, with 

 the same depth as Superior, he proceeds to make the following signifi- 

 cant statement, which is not at all conclusive as to the intercommuni- 

 cation between the lakes, but is unanswerable as proof that these lakes 

 are overflowing springs : 



" And that a great subterranean influx into the upper lakes exists 

 there is little doubt, as a comparison of the discharge through the 

 mighty St. Lawrence with the limited supply from the country border- 

 ing on the upper lakes clearly demonstrates, leaving the problem to be 

 settled in the mind as to where this volume does come from in its 

 course to the ocean. Again, the discharge through the St. Lawrence 

 is equal to double the volume poured into Ontario through the Ni- 

 agara, or into Erie through the St, Clair ; suggesting that from the 

 shallowness of Lake Erie and the great depth of Superior and Huron a 

 subterranean channel may connect Superior and Huron with Ontario, 

 giving to the latter, through this source, to be discharged by the St. 

 Lawrence, a greater volume than is given through St, Clair, It is also 



