Major Lachlan on the Rise and Fall of the Lakes. 63 
In accordance with this intention I may, in the first place, re- 
mark, that though the phenomena connected with the various pe- 
riodical fluctuations in the level of the lakes appear to have at- 
tracted the notice of philosophic travellers near two centuries 
ago, they remained altogether uninvestigated till very lately. 
The minor tides or oscillations were first alluded to by Fra Mar- 
quette, the Jesuit, in 1673, and more particularly by the Baron 
La Hontan in 1689: and they were afterwards further noticed 
by Charlevois in 1721, and also by the British travellers, Mr. Car- 
ver in 1766, and Mr. Weld in 1796; but it was not till tweuty 
years afterwards that the whole subject began to engage the par- 
ticular attention of men of science in America, and especially 
of the talented individuals engaged in the Geological Surveys of 
the States of New York, Ohio, and Michigan: in this period, I 
find them successively noticed by Col. Whiting in 1819 and 
1829, Mr. Schoolcraft in 1820, General Dearborn in 1826, and 
Governor Cass in 1828.; and more particularly by Professors Hall 
and Mather, Colonel Whittlesey, Dr. Houghton, Mr. Higgins, 
and others, in their valuable official reports, from 1838 to 1842; 
as Well as by various observant British officers and travellers, 
such as Captains Bayfield and Bonnycastle, and Messrs. McTag- 
gart, Macgreggor, and others, the purport of all of whose observ- 
ations will be found more or less glanced at in the sequel :—and 
yet, strange to say, these singular phenomena still remain in- 
volved in mystery ! 
It so happens that the observations of all the early writers on 
this interesting subject were confined to Lakes Superior, Michi- 
gan and Erie, and were directed more to the daily fluctuations or 
tides remarked at particular places, than to the actual existence of 
the traditionary great septennial rise and fall of the waters of the 
whole Lakes. Thus, for instance, Baron La Hontan, on reach- 
ing Green Bay, at the northern extremity of Lake Michigan, at 
its conjunction with Lake Huron, remarks that where the Fox 
river is discharged into that Bay, he observed the waters of the 
Lake swell three feet high in the course of twenty-four hours, 
and decrease as much in the same length of time. And he also 
noticed a contrariety and conflict of currents in the narrow strait 
which connects Lake Huron and Michigan, which were so strong 
that they sometimes sucked in the fishing nets, although two or 
three leagues off. In some seasons it also happens that the cur- 
rent runs three days eastward, two days westward, and one day 
to the south, and four days to the northward, sometimes more 
and sometimes less. : 
Jharlevois also noticed similar appearances; and supposes 
Lakes Huron and Michigan to be alternately discharged into each 
other through the Straits of Michilimackinac ; and mentions 
th that in passing that Strait his canoe was carried by the 
Current against a head wind. 
