398 T HE National Geographic Magazine 



have only one result — lowering prices 

 to somewhere near a legitimate basis. 

 The anxiety of the householder to fill 

 his cellar at the present time is mate- 

 rially lessened by the hope of cheaper 

 coal in the near future. In the mean- 

 time the coal scarcity has aroused great 

 interest in all practical (and many im- 

 practicable) substitutes for this kind of 

 fuel. The recent interest in the oil 

 fields of Texas rendered logical the 

 efforts to substitute fuel oil for coal, and 

 yet these efforts were practically fruit- 

 less, simply because in the territon r par- 

 ticularly concerned, oil can never be 

 a cheap fuel for heating purposes. It 

 may be that the coal famine caused some 

 slight advances in the construction of 

 devices for burning oil in stoves and 

 furnaces, but even when perfected, the 

 cost of the fuel would be prohibitive. 

 It can be briefly stated that oil at ten 

 cents per gallon is about the equivalent 

 of coal at $20 per ton. It is quite pos- 

 sible that a beneficial result from the 

 efforts to use oil ma3' come at some time 

 in the future, when the discovery of 

 some new crude oil field may make it 

 possible to spray crude oil into furnaces 

 with an ordinary steam jet, with an eco- 

 nomical result, and with the many ad- 



vantages which come from a liquid fuel. 

 But man}' devices recommended, such 

 as soaking bricks with kerosene, must 

 be dismissed as absolutely unworthy of 

 consideration. 



It ma}' also be possible that the ad- 

 vance in the construction of devices for 

 burning refined oil, similar to the type 

 of burners furnishing the Kitson light, 

 may be sufficient to furnish a useful 

 means of heating kitchen ranges in the 

 summer time, in the place of illuminat- 

 ing gas. The two substitutes for an- 

 thracite which on the whole have gained 

 in favor by means of the strike are bitu- 

 minous coal and its two products — coke 

 and illuminating gas. The use of gas 

 ranges has permanently increased as a 

 result of the strike. The advantages 

 of coke have become more manifest, 

 and the advantages of soft coal in rais- 

 ing steam, even in household steam- 

 heating plants, have been very favor- 

 ably received by the public. On the 

 other hand, the regret which will be 

 felt at the general introduction of soft 

 coal and its accompanying pall of smoke 

 are so great as to justify much further 

 endeavor to market this soft coal after it 

 has been converted into the more agree- 

 able forms of cheap fuel — gas and coke. 



SUBMERGED VALLEYS IN SANDUSKY BAY 



By Professor E. L. Mosely, Sandusky, Ohio 



AMONG the captains o vessels 

 and others who have occasion 

 to noti ce the stage of the water 

 from time to time, the impression pre- 

 vails that Lake Erie is getting lower, 

 and that many of the harbors now in 

 use are likely to become unsuited to 

 deep-draft vessels. Some of them re- 

 member the high water of 1 858-1860, 

 higher than they have ever seen since, 



while so recently as 1895 the water was 

 lower than they had ever seen it before. 

 Since 1895 it has been rising, and now 

 stands about 16 inches higher than at 

 the same time last year. These fluctu- 

 ations are due mainly to variations in 

 the rainfall on the drainage basins of 

 Lake Erie and the upper lakes. This 

 year at Sandusky, in the two months 

 June and July, more than half as much 



