The Rideau Lakes. 233 



only gradually find their way to the lakes. As in other 

 sections of both Ontario and Quebec, the country here is 

 now reaping the results of a past unwise Government 

 policy under which no practical effort was made to protect 

 the forests from fires or to punish those who carelessly or 

 wantonly were the causes of these fires, and under which 

 the right of cutting timber on the Crown lands has been 

 freely sold with the object of securing for the Government 

 a present cash return, and without the slightest effort at 

 conserving the forests in order to make them a continuous 

 source of revenue in coming years. Though somewhat 

 late and only after so many of its townships had been 

 largely burned over, an effort has been made during recent 

 years by the Ontario Government in conjunction with the 

 lumbermen, to limit forest fires, but more or less apathy 

 still prevails in Quebec, and the general criminal law of the 

 Dominion still fails to grapple practically with the subject. 

 Nearly all forest fires are the result of criminal careless- 

 ness or of wanton destructiveness, and are therefore pre- 

 ventable. When will our Governments learn that by year 

 after year showing apathy over the burning of the coun- 

 try's forests, they are wasting not only the country's pre- 

 sent revenues but the revenues which would continue to be 

 derived from timber for scores of years to come. 



Heights of the Lake Levels. 

 Assuming the waters of Lake Ontario to be 237 feet 

 above the sea — some authorities mention 232 feet — the 

 heights above tide water of the different Rideau lakes and 

 of some of the upper lakes which supply them are, as de- 

 termined by the Government surveys, as follows : 



Feet. 



Upper Rideau 402 



Lower Rideau 398 



Mud, Clear and Indian 398 



Opinicon 386 



Sand 377 



Whitefish and Cranberry 31*7 



Bobbs 621 



Knowlton 454 



Loughborough 403 



Canoe 466 



If 



