342 E. M. KINDLE 



curious feature of their behavior is its capricious character, remind- 

 ing one of fitful gusts of wind on a stormy day. A single excerpt 

 from the notes of Mr. E. J. Whittaker on the behavior of currents 

 in Lake Erie 2 miles south of Point Pelee will illustrate this. 



Water depth 18-20 feet; float at depth of 15 feet; average current rate 

 I .gi mUes per hour. Current here alternately slackened and quickened. Off 

 this point I also got a good illustration of this with a small motorboat while 

 soundings were being taken by Philp's men. The motorboat running at per- 

 haps 2I-3 miles per hour for intervals of three minutes at a time was unable 

 to make any headway at aU. The current then suddenly slackening, the boat 

 would fairly bound forward as though released from a chain. This was the 

 most notable instance of a strong varying current. Moreover here the current 

 changed its direction completely inside of 45 minutes, first being a strong 

 easterly current and at the conclusion of observation being from the west. 



In direction the lake currents are variable but only within certain 

 well defined hmits. At Southwest Shoal light-ship, a short distance 

 from the station referred to above, current observations which con- 

 tinued over a period of two months during the summer of 19 18 

 showed easterly and westerly currents with about equal frequency 

 but no other direction is represented. Another Lake Erie station 

 which was occupied for some weeks shows only southerly currents. 

 It is therefore certain that the work accomplished by lake currents 

 is not of a haphazard character and that some of their general 

 results in sedimentation can be inferred with certainty when a 

 sufficient amount of data on their behavior becomes available. 



Littoral marine deposits. — The movement of sediments along 

 the shores and over the bottoms of the Great Lakes, although 

 it is considerable, is far outclassed in volume by the material which 

 is constantly passing over the littoral zone of many sea coasts. 

 The construction of harbor defenses against the sea sometimes 

 affords surprising evidence concerning the volume of sediments 

 which moves along the sea bottom in front of the foreshore. 

 Instructive evidence concerning the great volume of such traveling 

 sediments on some parts of the sea shore is furnished by the history 

 of the Madras Harbor in India. 



The Indian Government in 1876 determined to construct an enclosed 

 harbour at Madras. Careful observations were made of the volume of sand 

 travel, and it was estimated that it would take 180 years for the travelling 



