aS 
es a ee 
* a 
GWE gC 
LE Timrein PA 
<tc CE ea eee 
pte = a ee eT ey OO asl eee ee ii ae 
TSS ae Se ee ae ae ee a3 
— 
ale 
982 Canadian Record of Science. 
Many of the members here present have read of the 
anxieties of shipowners and vessel captains about the low 
stage of water last year, and there is little wonder at their 
alarm when official records kept by the United States Gov- 
ernment show that before the close of navigation in 1891 
the water in Lake Huron was 34 feet lower than the level 
in June, 1886. 
What no doubt increases the alarm is that this is not a 
sudden dip, but a steady fall of half a foot a year since 1886. 
The members of this Association know sufficient of marine 
matters to understand how seriously this action of the 
water may have affected the earnings of the splendid 3000- 
ton steamers belonging to the States, trading from Lake 
Erie to Lake Superior, built in 1886, when the water had 
stood at a high and apparently permanent level for four 
years. Vessels which when loaded were drawing all the 
water the canals and artificial channels could give them in 
the high stage of 1882 to 1886, found on their last trips in 
the fall of last year 35 feet less water; that is, if they made 
the trips at all, which they could only do with half a cargo. 
To these men, to Canadian shipowners, and to lake com- 
merce generally, the question of the maintenance of the 
lake level is a very important matter. 
From records of the rain and snowfall kindly fnornished 
me by Charles Carpmael, Esq., it appears that the dimin- 
ished quantity of precipitation since 1886 is nearly equival- 
ent to the amount the water has fallen below the mean level 
since that date. 
In Lake Superior the rainfall has been normal, and the 
level has not lowered like that of the other lakes. Those 
well versed in the subject of forestry will be able to say 
whether the clearing of the woods by fire and axe is likely 
to cause a permanent diminution of rain and snow. 
Evaporation plays an important part in the lowering of 
the level of the Jakes, no doubt, not merely from the sun’s 
rays (which in the course of the survey my officers and 
myself had reason to feel hot enough at times), but by the 
dry westerly winds accompanying a bright sky, and blow- 
ii 4. 
