Great North American Lakes. 79 
1820, But none of the last named travellers, appear to 
have noticed a similar flux and reflux of the water, in any of 
the lakes, except that of Michigan; and have generally ex- 
pressed opinions, from the cota data which they had ob- 
tained, that the effect was produced chiefly, if n# entirely, by 
the winds, rather than by the influences o the 
In the autumn of 1826, Capt. Greenleaf Dearberl of the 
army, informed me, that he had observed a like, but more 
marked ebb and flow of the waters, in Lake Superior. He 
had been stationed, for two years, at the Sault de St. Marie, 
and gave such indisputable evidence, of the existence of a 
great and regular tide in that immense lake, that I became 
deeply interested in the subject, and determined to institute 
an inquiry, which, I was in hopes, would have resulted in the 
acquisition of more particular and extensive Ps einhgecoed ; 
and as I had often heard it remarked, that t 
and fall of the water, of two or Tiree feet, in some of the 
great lakes, during periods of from three to seven years, I en- 
deavored, at the same time, to obtain positive data as to this 
current report. At the close of the year 1826, and early in 
1827, letters were written to several gentlemen, who I pre 
sumed might furnish the results of their rvati 
or of others who had resided on the bbidiiee of the lakes, oa 
with whom they had been in habits of intimacy. Very inter- 
esting answers were kindly returned to the queries submitted, 
by Maj. Storrow, Doct. Lovell, surgeon general of the army, 
and Captains — and Dearborn, but so few and limited 
have been the attempts, to ascertain the character, extent 
and p e fluctuations of the level of the sess in 
any of the acs that theoretical speculations, as to the cause, 
would be premature ; and I have concluded, that I could not 
better subserve the interests of science, than by transmitting 
to you, for publication in the American Journal, such infor- 
mation as I had procured, as it may tend to excite investiga- 
tion, and Res signin more numerous, accurate and contin- 
ations, than have hitherto been teat: for the solu- 
tion of shi problem. 
It is not sufficiently certain, that tides may not be produced 
in the great chain of lakes, in the same manner they are in 
the ocean. e following patie: of the distinguished Doct. 
Young, which has been sanctioned by the scientific, for more 
than twenty years, not only presumes the possible existence 
of such tides, but furnishes the means of demonstrating that 
such is the fact, in deep and broad lakes. 
