66 Major Lachlan on the Rise and Fall of the Lakes. 
altered thereby, otherwise, if it happens to be higher or lower 
than usual on the seventh year, it would be impossible to say with 
aceuracy whether it were owing to the state of the weather, or 
to certain laws of nature, that we are as yet unacquainted with. 
At the same time great attention ought to be paid to the state of 
the winds, as well in respect to their direction as to their velocity 
—for the height of the water in all the Lakes is materially 
affected thereby. Moreover, these observations ought not to be 
made at one place only, but at different places at the same time. ... 
“Tt is also believed by many persons that the waters of Lake 
Ontario not only rise and fall periodically every seventh year, but 
that they are likewise influenced by a tide which ebbs and flows 
frequently in the course of twenty-four hours—as, for instance, in 
the Bay of Quinté, where it has been observed to rise fourteen 
inches every four hours. But there can be no doubt that this 
must be caused by the wind—no such regular fluctuation being 
observed at Kingston, and this Bay being a long crooked inlet, 
that grows narrower at the upper end; and therefore not only a 
change of wind up and down would make a difference at the 
upper extremity, but the waters, being concentrated there, would 
be seen to rise or fall, if impelled even in the same direction, 
whether up or down, more or less forcibly at one part of the day 
than another. . . An appearence like a tide must therefore be 
seen almost constantly at the head of this Bay, whenever there 
isa breeze. I conld not learn that the fluctuation had ever been 
observed during a perfect calm; were the waters, however, influ- 
ence = a regular tide, during a calm, that would be most read- 
ily see 
Reserving any comments on the foregoing pertinent extracts 
fora sates page, I proceed to remark, that such continued to be 
the unsatisfactory amount of inkenuation on this interesting de- 
batable philosophical question, till about 1819, when Capt. (af ter- 
wards Col.) Whiting, of the American army, at length recurring 
to the exciting subject, made, at the request of Governor Cass, a 
series of regular observations upon these oceanic appearances, 
during seven or eight days, in the month of June, serving to show 
that at that remarkable inlet, Green Bay, there is a daily rise and 
fall, but that it is irregular as to the precise period or flux and 
reflux, and also as to the height which it attains;* and yet such 
was the variety of opinion among local residents on the fact, that 
he is compelled to state, in the course of his remarks, that being 
led to suppose that the winter would-be the most favorable time 
for making such observations, when the superincumbent ice 
would nearly destroy the influence of the winds, and show the 
unassisted operation of the tide, he made enquiries as to its ap- 
e during that season, when one gentleman informed him 
* See American Journal of Science, vol xvi, pp. 90 and 91. 
