136 Lake Maxinkuckee, Physical and Biological Survey 



THE WINDS 



Introduction 



Of the more obvious relations of the winds to the lake, little 

 need be said. Their effect upon the lake surface is evident to every- 

 one. Their effect upon the plankton-scum, the calm days allowing 

 the minute organizations to ascend to the surface and the more 

 windy days keeping them, churned up with the upper layers of the 

 water, and the effect upon the temperature of the water of differ- 

 ent depths — the calm days allowing the surface layers to heat 

 gradually downward while the windy days mix up waters of dif- 

 ferent temperatures and break up definite stratification — are effects 

 more keenly appreciated by students of these special problems. It 

 is due to the winds, also, that we have more or less fine sand of a 

 peculiar sort in the bottom, this having been blown in from the 

 neighboring hills. 



It is doubtless due to the winds that the lake owes the presence 

 and peculiarities of its plankton, many of the organisms consti- 

 tuting the plankton being carried to the lake by winds, a fact 

 which accounts for the worldwide distribution of some of the 

 species. 



In the matter of keeping records, no instruments were used, 

 and the manner of recording the observations varied somewhat 

 from time to time and with different observers. At the beginning 

 of the work, and for some time after the practice of taking the 

 temperatures of air and water three times a day had been estab- 

 lished, only a general weather record for the day was made; such 

 as, for a certain date, "northeast wind, changing to southeast, and 

 rain" or "wind changing to north" ; "clear" ; "first pleasant day of 

 spring, though snowing" ; "has been cold with east wind all week," 

 etc. Later on, although the general observations were continued, 

 the habit was formed of observing and recording along with the 

 temperature observations, the condition of the sky and the direc- 

 tion of the wind. In summing up results and arriving at conclu- 

 sions, both the journal and the periodic observations have been con- 

 sulted and taken into consideration. In the absence of instru- 

 ments of precision which give in definite units the force and di- 

 rection of the wind, the general method which gives in general 

 terms the prevailing "atmosphere" of the day is about as good as 

 any, and is certainly in any case indispensible in giving data for 

 a just estimate of the weather. It has the defect of taking into 

 consideration only the more remarkable and striking weather 



