774 KANSAS CIFY REVIEW OF SCIENCE, 
in such circumstances Oxford lies, like Venice, in the midst of a vast lagoon. 
The phenomenon is so familiar as hardly to excite comment, still less indignation, 
although it is perfectly well known that the perpetual inundations of the Upper 
Thames Valley are largely due to causes which, if not removable, are susceptible 
of very considerable control. The effect of over thirty-six hours’ heavy and almost | 
continuous rain is felt, however, in all parts of the country, almost as much as in 
the over-burdened Thames Valley. Certainly the American forecast seems in 
this case to have been very abundantly justified. The coincidence is at least | 
remarkable enough to make a deep impression on the popular mind and imagina- 
tion, even if professed meteorologists should see reason to doubt whether there 
is any direct connection between the storm which left the American continent on 
Monday and the gale and deluge which burst with such violence over our own 
islands before the end of Tuesday.—London Times, October 20. 
A PROJECT FOR THE YEAR 2000. 
Lake Mackenzie is one of those ‘‘ possibilities of North America” recently 
suggested. The lake would result from a proposed closing of the northerly out- 
let of the valley of the Mackenzie River, at the line 68° north, and storing up 
the water of 1,260,000 square miles. And to this could be added the water of 
other large areas. It would bea lake of about 2,000 miles in length by about 
200 of average width. Its surface would have an altitude of about 650 feet 
above sea level. It would cover with one continuous surface the labyrinth of 
streams and lakes which now occupy the Mackenzie Valley. It would bea nev- 
er failing feeder for the Mississippi. It would connect with Hudson Bay and 
with the ‘‘ great lakes,”’ and also with the interior of Alaska by connecting with 
the Yukon and its affluents. By concurrent results and other ‘‘ possibilities” it 
would become, during some months of each year, a navigable water, adding not 
less than 12,000 miles of communication to the Mississippi. It would complete 
the interior lines of river courses by connecting them. Cutting the ‘‘ divide ” 
which now exists between the Mississippi and Mackenzie would do this. The 
work is small when measured by its results, and it becomes easy of accomplish- 
ment under the methods proposed. The connecting of the Upper Mississippi 
with the proposed Lake Mackenzie would be easily made if that lake had a sur- 
face at the proposed altitude of 650 feet above thesea. The outflow from such 
a lake, having a length of more than 2,000 miles from south to north, and drain- 
ing a very wide range of altitudes and latitudes, would be a timely and enduring 
one. ‘This lake would make possible and easy the straightening of the Lower 
Mississippi. It would also contribute to the proposed ship channel from Cairo, 
Ill., to the Gulf of St. Lawrence, by the almost straight line which cuts the Wa- 
bash Valley, the Lakes Erie and Ontario, and the Lower St. Lawrence. This 
commercial channel, receiving all the waters converging at Cairo, would com- 
plete the demand for a constantly open ship cannel from the St. Lawrence to the 
