Major Lachlan on the Rise and Fall of the Lakes. 67 
that no tide was then discernible, while another, equally intelli- 
gent, assured him that it was very apparent, aud that there was 
a regular elevation and depression of the ice! 
From all which conflicting circumstances (as correctly ob- 
served by, I think, Mr. Schoolcraft in the same article) there was 
reason to conclude that a well-conducted series of experiments 
would prove that there are #o regular tides in the Lakes; at least, 
that they do not ebb and flow twice in twenty-four hours, like 
those of the ocean; that the oscillating motion of the waters is 
therefore not attributable to planetary attraction; and that it is 
very variable as to the periods of its flux aud reflux, depending 
upon the levels of the several Lakes, their length, depth, direc- 
tion, and conformation, upon the prevalent winds aud temperature, 
and upon other extraneous causes, which are in some measure 
variable in their nature, and unsteady in their operation. 
Colonel Whiting further remarks in another interesting article 
on the supposed tides and periodical rise and fall of the North 
American Lakes,* in which is given a table of observations kept 
at Green Bay, in six weeks, July and August, 1828, that an ex- 
amination of that record would satisfy any one that planetary in- 
fluence had little or nothing to do with the changes of elevation 
in the waters there noted; and that it was as certain that the fluc- 
tuations in some places appear to be independent of atmospheric 
as of lunar control; as, by consulting that table, there would 
probably not be found one instance where the time of high water 
tallies with the moon’s southing, admitting the usual retardation, 
And further, that it would also be seeu that the changes of eleva- 
tion were independent of the course of the wind ; for that the 
fluctuation continues, notwithstauding the winds remaining the 
sane e, therefore, came to the conclusion that, reasoning from 
our knowledge of the great inland waters of the other hemi- 
Sphere, we should take it for granted that the North American 
kes have no sensible tides; the Caspian, Black, and Baltic Seas 
vomimissioners state the intervals to be once in about eleven 
years; and that no actual observations appeared to have been 
*® See American Journal of Science, vol, xx, pp. 205 to 219. # 
+ See close of this article—R. L. 
