Lake^ Near Laporte 91 



Springs Between Sprinyville and Balcerspoint. A careful examina- 

 tion of the springs north of the moraine was made. The springs issue 

 from the hill slope in bogs which sometimes cover several acres. Within 

 these bogs the whole surface is filled with water and trembles as one 

 steps upon it. In wet weather it is impossible to walk across them. 

 The highest of these bogs was at an elevation of about 724 feet. From 

 the bogs the water immediately forms a definite stream which flows 

 down a steep slope until it joins Trail Creek. The seven springs shown 

 as tributary to the east fork of Trail Creek (figure 1) discharged on 

 June 22, 1922, 2.8628 cubic feet per second. This measurement was 

 carefully made by weir and calculated by Francis' formula. The west- 

 ern one of these springs was by far the largest and discharged 1.75 

 cubic feet. No measurements were made on the springs tributary to 

 the west fork of Trail Creek but the two forks are not far from the 

 same size. The measured discharge amounts to 90,181,260 cubic feet 

 per year. From the topography of the region it appears that about 

 twelve square miles drain through the moraine in the vicinity of La- 

 Porte. The discharge of the springs would account for about three 

 and one-half inches of rainfall over this area. Since no measurements 

 were made on the springs on the west fork of Trail Creek that dis- 

 charge would account for considerable more. Since the rainfall is 

 about thirty-six inches and the run-off usually about 25 per cent to 35 

 per cent, the amount to be accounted for would be about 9 to 12 inches. 

 Therefore it is evident that these springs account for a considerable 

 percentage of the drainage of this region. 



Figure 8 has already been discussed to some extent on page 86 of 

 this paper. The rainfall data shown in this graph was taken from re- 

 ports of the United States Weather Bureau for LaPorte and are re- 

 ferred to inches on the right of the graph. It will be noticed that the 

 lake response to heavy or light rainfall occurs two years later. An 

 analysis of the graph shows an interesting relation. Low rainfall 

 occurs in 1899 and low lake level two years later; high rainfall in 

 1902 and high lake level two years later; low rainfall in 1904 and low 

 lake level two years later; high rainfall in 1907 and high lake level 

 two years later; low rainfall in 1910 and low lake level two years later. 

 Two slight contradictions to this response occur. A slightly diminished 

 rainfall in 1906 has no corresponding depression of lake level in 1908 

 and relatively high rainfall in 1911 is not succeeded by high lake level 

 in 1913. The latter case can be explained by the fact that the city 

 water was drawn from the lake from July, 1908, to Novem.ber, 1912. 

 This fact may also account for the rapid decline of the lake from 1909 

 to 1912. The responses are too regular to be accidental and there must 

 be some cause for it. 



Hypothesis to Explain Responses of Lily Lake Level to Rainfall. 

 The response of Lily Lake and probably of the whole system to the 

 rainfall cannot be explained by the influence of any condition near at 

 hand. While the actual movement of ground water from the crest of the 

 moraine north of the lakes to them, if such movement takes place, 

 would probably require two years, yet the lise of the water table at 

 that point would show its influence much sooner. It is my opinion that 



