250 



ON THE HYDROLOGY OF THE BASIN 



The traffic during the year 1861, lias been affected by a number of circumstances, the 

 chief of which are to be found in the unhappy differences which have paralyzed or block- 

 aded all trading operations south of Pennsylvania; and these have had the effect of divert- 

 ing into fewer channels the produce of a most abundant harvest, while favorable prices 

 have likewise prevailed in the European markets, causing a great increase to the trade of 

 the St. Lawrence. 



TO POQ KAril Y. 



The hydrographical basin of the St. Lawrence is divisible by geographical lines and 

 geographical features into six basins. The first embraces the Gulf and the lower river as 

 high as Three Rivers, and includes the tidal estuary of the Saguenay as high as Chicon- 

 timi, seventy miles above its mouth. 



The second is the basin of the St. Lawrence proper, embracing the river between Three 

 Rivers and the Thousand Islands, a distance of two hundred miles; together with the 

 Ottawa River, between Montreal and the Lac des Chats, a distance of one hundred and 

 twenty miles; the St. Maurice, from its mouth to the entrance of the mountains, thirty 

 miles ; and on the other, or southern side, the valley of the Chaudiere, and the St. Francis, 

 the plain of the Richelieu, and the valley of Lake Champlain and Lake George. From 

 the head of Lake George to the mouth of the Richelieu, is one hundred and ninety miles. 



The third basin embraces Lake Ontario, with its southern tributary, the Genesee River, 

 descending from the table lands of Pennsylvania, through Western New York, and its 

 northern tributary, the Trent and Otonabce, meandering through a labyrinth of lakes 

 which dot the uneven table land between the shore and the foot of the Northern moun- 

 tains; the principal, taken in a west-east order, being Scugog, Balsam, Camcrons, Stur- 

 geon, Pigeon, Buckhorn, Mud, Salmon, Trout, Rice, Stoney, White, Belmont, and Mar- 

 mora Lakes. 



The fourth basin is that of three upper great lakes, embracing Lakes Erie and St. ("lair, 

 Lake Huron and its Georgian Bay, with Lakes Simcoe, Nepessing, and Tamagamingue, 

 Lake Michigan and its Green Bay, together with a narrow fringe of short affluents, drain- 

 ing small areas in Northwestern Ohio, Northern Indiana, and Eastern Wisconsin, as well 

 as the two principal peninsulas of Michigan and Upper Canada. 



The fifth is the basin of Lake Superior, separated from the other great lakes by the 

 Sault Ste. Marie, and fed by the smaller lakes and rivers from the unexplored lands beyond. 



The sixth is the great general basin of the North; a country of unknown extent, studded 

 with lakes, and traversed by the mighty branches of the Ottawa, by the St. Maurice, and 

 by the rivers flowing from all sides into the Lake St. John, and Saguenay. 



The first, or tidal basin, of the Gulf and Lower St. Lawrence, is in fact a prolongation 



