*. 
86 Facts relating to the Great Lakes. 
ed out into the lake, to the great annoyance of the owner, till he 
saw them soon returning to their previous location. At Cobourg; 
a little west of the Grenesee, and on the Canada side of the lake, 
and distant about sixty miles, the same fall and rise were observed 
to be repeated, the greatest being a little before sunset, when the 
waters rose to their highest point or about two feet. In the efflux 
the shores had in many places been left dry for some minutes. 
At Port Hope, a few miles west of Cobourg, the steam-boat Prin- 
cess Royal, ran aground as she attempted to enter the harbor, so 
much had the waters lowered in the port. 
The cause of this phenomenon is doubtless to be Suan § in ie mt 
tornado which passed that afternoon over the lake, beginning at = 
Johnston’s Creek in Niagara Co., and passing in a northeast course 
over Orleans Co., till it sériielé: the lake at Oak Orchard. Creek, 
fifty miles west éf Rochester, and continued its course across the 
lake. The tornado was about three fourths of a mile wide in 
Orleans Co., and was very destructive, twisting off, and — 
away large trees, unroofing and destroying buildings, &c. I 
violence was of only few minutes duration, perhaps not on 
three. On the lake, it produced water spouts and was attended 
with toe» hail, ae lightning and thunder. ‘The steam-boat 
Capt. piioes: was in great jeopardy from the wind and 
waves aia} storm, as she was then passing up the lake on her reg- 
ular trip. ‘The power of this tornado, was probably suilicient to — 
withdraw the waters from the shores so as to produce the efflux — 
and reflux that was witnessed. Such sudden changes of the 
level of the waters, are said to have been witnessed before on the 
lakes. The solution’ in this case may apply to the whole, It 
seemed desirable to collect and connect the facts in this case and 
‘to publish them, as they prevent a resort to supposed earthquakes, 
heaving the bottom of the lakes, or change of the level of the 
shores, of which not a trace is left and not a probability exists. 
This tornado does not appear to have moved rapidly, but to have — ‘ 
derived its force from the great rotatory velocity, as it twisted off 
‘trees, breaking them more than overtuming them. A lumber 
Wagon Was raised into the air and carried a considerable distance. 
A'stick of timber, which required eight men to carry it, was 
Temoved to the distance of f fifty rods, On the lake, large water 
‘Raute were rised, and a gest body of water seemod tobe elev Soe 
meas pa hans cama veces a 
