e. ^3 



1853] 



VARIATIONS IN THE LEVEL OF THE LAKES. 



25 



€\)t Citiiituiim SiwnatL 



TORONTO, SEPTEMBER, 1853. 



Variations in the Level or the Lakes. 



The recent extraordinary rise in the waters of the Great Lakes 

 has assumed an importance in relation to navigation, boundaries 

 of property, and the preservation of property situated upon their 

 shores, which throws into the shade all considerations of the 

 phenomenon as a purely scientific question. It will be interesting 

 to enquire whether the present remarkable rise is due to causes 

 which do not at present appear, or whether it is the result of ex- 

 traordinary rainfall, followed by an unusually small degree of 

 evaporation. Other phenomena of a less general description, yet 

 also influencing the level of the Lakes in different localities, de- 

 maud attention. "We think that the fluctuations in the water 

 level of our inland seas may be conveniently divided into three 

 groups : — 



1. Variations in the general level of the waters of the Lakes. 



2. Sudden local variations. 



3,. Influx and efflux of the mouths of rivers and harbours. 



We propose to enumerate some of the changes which have 

 been observed in the levels of Lakes Erie and Ontario before pro- 

 ceeding to enquire into the causes which have occasioned them. 

 It is well known that these changes have produced very remark- 

 able effects upon the coast wherever the drift clays or the softer 

 shales form the lake boundaries, and even where the coast is in 

 the form of a sloping beach. 



We glean the following notices from Hall's Geology of the 4th 

 District of New York : — 



"Twenty-five and thirty years ago the beach of Lake Erie was 

 a travelled highway beyond Buffalo, but at this time it would be 

 quite impossible to travel along the same." ' 



"From the united testimony of persons residing along the 

 margins of all the Lakes, and from other demonstrative proofs, 

 it appeara that for many years previous to 1838, all the Lakes 

 had been rising ; that about this period they attained their maxi- 

 mum, and have since been subsiding." 



" Mr. Hiram Burton, who resided at the mouth of Slippeiy- 

 Rock Creek for twenty-three years, informed me (Mr. Hall,) in 

 1840 that the water of Lake Erie was then four feet higher than 

 when he came to that place ; that in 1838 it was still higher, but 

 he had made no accurate measurements." 



"Mr. Higgins, Topographer to the Geological Survey of 

 Michigan, has given the rise of the Lakes as five feet three inches 

 from 1819 to 1838; he regards it as probable that the minimum 

 period continues for a considerable length of time, while the 

 maximum continues only for a single year." 



Several of the Lake shore or beach roads on the North side of 

 Vol. 2, No. 2, September, 1853. 



Lake Ontario have disappeared in numerous localities, within the 

 memory of living residents. The old Lake Shore Road, from 

 Toronto to Hamilton, is in parts quite washed away, and we 

 were informed by a resident, a mile or so to the west of the Hum- 

 ber, that a road existed about seven years ago below the present 

 old road. The shore is flat at the place just alluded to, and the 

 destruction of the first and second roads may be attributed to the 

 effects of South-Easterly winds upon a high level of the waters 

 of the Lake. A storm from the South East would place the 

 new Plank Road in considerable jeopard)'. A very favourable 

 illustration of some of the results to be anticipated by high lake 

 levels in conjunction- with prolonged storms, exists now at the 

 Peninsula opposite the Toronto Cit;- Hall, where a wide gap was 

 formed during the Spring of the present year by the waves of 

 the Lake washing away sand, shingle and pebbles to the depth of 

 saveral feet. The Canal thus formed is at present about 160 feet 

 wide and 4 feet deep. Its width and depth, and even its position 

 are constantly varying with each high wind from the East, South 

 or South West. Similar occurrences have been frequently ob- 

 served to take place in the narrow stripe between Ashbridge's 

 Bay and the Lake on the same Peninsula ; and at the present 

 moment, and about the same place, a sand and gravel ridge not 

 less than three feet above the present high level of the Lake, is 

 to be found occupying the spot where open communications ex- 

 isted between the Bay and the Lake during a part of last winter 

 and the winter of 1S49. We may learn from these occurrences 

 the probable fate of the Canal opposite the City Hall. The 

 effects of high lake levels upon the precipitous clay cliffs which 

 form a very large portion of the coast lines of Lakes Erie and 

 Ontario, are interesting both in their relation to property and to 

 the future probable condition of the Lakes, as well as to their 

 past history. An average of a yard a year would be a very 

 moderate allowance for the encroachments of the waters upon the 

 land, occasioned by the washing away of the cliffs which form 

 the coast. We have lately witnessed the entire removal of many 

 acres of land, on which large trees were growing, by the en- 

 croachment of the waters of Lake Siincoe on its eastern shores. 

 Instances might be multiplied to shew that the annual march of 

 the waters inland is a very curious item in the physical history 

 of the Great Lakes, and one to which we are inclined to ascribe 

 far greater importance in many relations than appeal's at the first 

 view of this phenomenon. 



We now proceed to give such results as we have been able to 

 collect from the different observers who have interested themselves 

 in the rise and fall of the waters of the Great Lakes. The fol- 

 lowing table shows the mean depth, the least depth, the greatest 

 depth, the monthly fluctuation, and the greatest fluctuation 

 during twenty-four hours, which we have reduced from the 

 measurements made at Port Colborne, Welland Canal, Lake 

 Erie, during the years 1S50, 1851 and 1852. The influence of 

 winds, and probably of local variations in the atmospheric pres- 

 sure, will become apparent upon examination of the column 

 which gives the greatest fluctuations during twenty-four 

 hours. 



