48 Major Lachlan on the Rise and Fall of the Lakes. 
Lake Erie temporarily blocked up with ice, so as to leave the Table Rock at Ni 
ara Fails, and 200 ft. beyond it, dry. 8th April, a sudden temporary depressi 
of Lake Erie at Bu i 
empo 
alo to 22 in. below zero, caused by a strong gale from 
In 1851, Lake Hrie at Port Colbo 8 ft. high i 
very little change ; and in 1853 level nearly the same as in 1838 and 1 
Lake Ontario 1 ft. 2 in. higher than in 1851; and in 1853, 9 in. higher, and calculated 
to be the same as in 1830 and 1838, and 4 ft, i 
1853, the River St. Lawrence generally considered as very high 
General Remark.—It is estimated that the Lakes subside irregularly, betw 
the great periodical floods, at the rate of about 1 ft. 4 in. per annum; but tha 
comparative rapidity of the fad is as about 2 years, to 5 of the rise; and that the 
ew: i i h r. Mur 
"ron, in his Report of 1848, that its waters haye sunk considerably below form: 
_ ancient) levels, as indicated by water-marks, to the extent of 4 feet 10 7 
at : 4 
as appeared too indefinite for being admitted into. the column 
“ Authorities,” though not altogether to be rejected as wi 
but that, though in 1838 the whole of our inland waters 
pened to be simultaneously at an extraordinary height, it is ve 
problematical whether they will always be found in an elevate 
or depressed state at the same time. For instance, taking it f 
or other great flood in Lake Erie, or any other of the great Lake 
and that the next great flood was fortuitously in 1815; but the 
generally received opinion, that the intervals at which th 
extraordinary floods occur are, at the best, uncertain, and main 
dependent on the extra amount of rain and snow, and the | 
degree of evaporation during the summer 
