1905 



FORESTRY AND IRRIGATION 



275 



lake itself, which could not be ob- 

 tained from a similar station on the 

 main land. 



Beaver Island, where the station is 

 to be placed, was settled by the Mor- 

 mons in the middle of the last century 

 and one of the Mormon leaders had 

 himself crowned as king- and main- 

 tained an absolute monarchy for a 

 time, until he was deposed by the au- 

 thorities of the State of Michigan ; 

 but, nothing daunted, he continued 

 virtually his monarchy and had him- 

 self elected to all the important of- 

 fices in the county, including that of 

 member of the State Legislature. 

 About 1870, the group of islands, of 

 which Beaver Island is the most im- 

 portant, was divided between Charle- 

 voix and Leland Counties, and the 

 self-styled monarch was finally forced 

 to abdicate and was later murdered 

 by one of his confederates. 



The evaporation record at St. James 

 is kept in connection with the Signal 

 Display Station of the U. S. Weather 

 Bureau, and is under the direction 

 of Robt. E. Horton, district hydro- 

 grapher, of Utica, New York. 



What seems to be a newly discoverd 

 cause for the lowering of the levels 

 of the Great Lakes, which is com- 

 monly believed to have taken place 

 during the last half of the century, 

 is brought forward in an investiga- 

 tion by Mr. Robt. E. Horton, of the 

 U. S. Geological Survey. It is well 

 known that Michigan was at one time 

 almost completely covered with heavy 

 forests. These have gradually been 



cut away and the land cleared for 

 agriculture. In early days many 

 marshes existed. Many of these were 

 the result of beaver dams blocking 

 the passages of the streams. These 

 dams have been cleared out and 

 drainage channels aggregating thou- 

 sands of miles in length have been 

 excavated. Mr. Horton has collected 

 statistics showing the extent of de- 

 forestation, drainage and cultivation 

 of land, and its progress from year 

 to year, over the State of Michigan. 

 It is found that the changes which 

 have taken place have been sufficient 

 according to the estimates of dif- 

 ferent authorities to decrease the aver- 

 age flow in the streams from five 

 to twenty per cent, per year. It is 

 possible that in some sections of the 

 state the cutting off of pine timber 

 has actually increased instead of de- 

 creasing the annual flow of the 

 streams available for water power and 

 other purposes. Balancing the dif- 

 ferent elements it has been found that 

 a decrease in the depth of rain-fall, 

 which runs off in the streams,of at 

 least one-inch per year, has probably 

 taken place over the State of Michi- 

 gan in the past fifty years. The im- 

 portance of this fact will at once be 

 seen when it is understood that a de- 

 crease of one-inch in the run-off of 

 the stream's tributary to the lakes 

 means an average lowering of the 

 lake levels from Lake Erie to Lake 

 Michigan and their connecting chan- 

 nels of at least seven inches, or over 

 half a foot. 



