[KEEFKii] PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS S 



water course. These head waters are often upon nearl}^ the same eleva- 

 tion and interlocked with the sources of other rivers flowing in opposite 

 or difi'erent directions, and separated by narrows necks of land at a low 

 '■ divide," rendering diversion from one to another possible, a feature 

 which has in some places been utilized by lumbermen fearless of any legal 

 injunction. 



This terrace-like profile of the rivers and their frequent expansion 

 into lakes, often dotted with islands, not only enhances the beauty of the 

 scenery, but, for utilitarian purposes, constitutes a series of elevated 

 natural mill ponds, containing latent power of unknown extent and 

 •\alue, awaiting that demand upon them which is now being made in 

 consequence of the discovery that our second rate forest growth which 

 has hitherto served chiefly to ornament their shores and islands, has 

 become the most important, and can be ground into pulp and rolled 

 into paper to meet the ever increasing demands of the newspaper, the 

 bookmaker, and the innumerable forms into which wood pulp can be 

 compressed for useful or ornamental purposes, — or as a substitute for 

 wood or metal. 



These steps from high to lower levels in every rivulet, branch, tribu- 

 tary or main stream of nearly every one of our northern rivers produce 

 ]nore or less broken Avater which never freezes over but remains open 

 during the coldest weather, giving an alternation of closed and open 

 water sections, of ice covered lakes and of broken water in rapids, which 

 may cover miles in extent, as well as at chutes or cataracts with more or 

 less open water above and below them. 



It is an interesting question for specialists to determine what effect, 

 if any, this often large percentage and almost general distribution of 

 open water during the coldest weather (of which every stream large or 

 small has a portion) may have in modifying the extremes of temperature 

 in these northern latitudes. When all the ground is frozen solid and 

 covered with a deep mantle of snow, extending over the lakes and check- 

 ing increasing thickness of their ice covering, large bodies of water are 

 impounded and maintained at a temperature above the freezing point, 

 although there may be fifty degrees of frost in the air, and are constantly 

 poured fortli into this frigid atmosphere. 



It is conceded that our Great Lakes modify the temperature of their 

 border lands, and although these open water spaces in our northern 

 rivers may be inferior in surface, they exist on every river having rapids 

 or falls, and extend over such a vast field that their aggregate area must 

 be very large. Unlike the Great Lakes these open spaces are constantly 

 receiving fresh supplies of warmer water to tem[)cr the severity of the 

 air. Such '' breathing holes " (as tliey are sometimes called) are nee- 



