le i 
es 
Major Lachlan on the Rise and Fall of the Lakes. 69 
cloudy and the weather moist, so that little evaporation goes on, 
the surface of the Lake will continue to swell, while that of the 
river will fall—as the country on either side is drained—nothing 
tending to keep up its flood but the mere discharge from the 
Lake. Rivers and Lakes are never at their utmost pitch of flood 
at the same time; neither are they ever at the lowest ebb at the 
same time; for when the floods of a river have subsided to a cer- 
tain extent, the intense heat of the summer sun, setting upon the 
shelving sides of the rocky channels, and even upon the bed of 
the river itself, tends greatly to promote the absorption of the 
waters, whereas in the deep wide Lake this action cannot take 
c 
lace. 
“The unusual rise of the waters of the Lakes in some seasons, 
which some observers state to be seven feet above the common 
level, seems to be only rationally accounted for by the absence of 
evaporation, and greater quantities of rain than generally prevail. 
Once in every seven years it is said to rise thus; but 7, like 3, is 
a number open to superstition,* not to be always relied on, and it 
would not be surprising if this flow were to happen once in six, 
or even in ten years. It will yet, likely, be discovered that when 
Lake Erie has its brim flood, the others have theirs also during 
the Same .season; and when powerful suns are excluded from 
drinking them up, by the intervention of drizzling clouds, and 
His exclusion extending over an immense surface, we shall cease 
to marvel at these wonderful septennial floods. It has also been 
remarked that the winters after these seasons have had little snow ; 
but meteorology on this score remains to be further prosecuted, ere 
the theory dare be advanced, that it is from the moisture absorbed 
Mm cercumjacent regions during summer that the snows of wiuter 
are supplied.” 
Passing from the borders of Lake Ontario to the regions of 
Lake Superior, Iam next enabled to refer to some equally per- 
€mptory observations on the same subject, made by that eminent 
British hydrographer and geologist, Capt. Bayfield, on the spot, 
in the course of 1825-26; from whose valuable and interesting 
paper on the geology of the latter Lake I extract the following 
particulars :+ 
“There is no regularly periodical rising or falling of the Lakes, 
as has been asserted, whether it be from the influence of the 
Moon, or any other. They rise and fall from accidental causes ; 
such as a very severe winter without the usual thaws. The springs 
are locked up all winter, and the whole accumulated snow re- 
mains until the spring, when the weather, becoming suddenly 
* Tt wa 2, in hi ss at the New York Agricul- 
bees Roeiety Sestiny ar Beceins Pn thes dae Metiand is exposed on the Binion 
cae thirteen centuries, to one sea or river flood, every seven years 
t See Transactions of the Lit. and Hist. of Quebec, vol. i, pp. 1 to 43. 
