654 THE AMERICAN NATURALIST. [VoL. XXXIII. 
“« When the water subsided, it’ receded to a distance of fifty- 
six feet out beyond its normal margin. I paced it during the 
comparative repose following the recession of the flood, though 
in a very few minutes it began to assume its normal condition. 
The flood and outflow did not occupy over a very few minutes, 
I should say not over five minutes. 
“This was followed by calm (no wind during this time) for 
about ten minutes, when we heard a low ominous roar, gradu- 
ally increasing in volume, which we knew was the wind coming 
down the lake; the first visible evidence of it was of wave after 
wave chasing each other with cumulative force, directly down the 
lake, nearly at right angles with the shore. Every wave was 
crested, and coming so swiftly (they went like a pack of hounds) 
that when they struck the rock-bound shore, one hundred yards 
below us, they took a tangent to the northeast; thus driving 
their foaming mass out, into, and diagonally across the waves 
whose course, not having been diverted, was due east, and 
caused this agitated mass of water to rear and. plunge, travel- 
ing swiftly like a thing of life, out as far as we could see, as it 
was now becoming dusk, though still light.” 
A young man who was bathing in the lake at that point 
says that the water which came in was very cold and seemed 
very heavy compared with that which it displaced. 
This strange behavior of the lake excited no little comment 
at the time, and many were the conjectures made to explain 
the phenomenon. The older people related a similar occur- 
rence which took place some fifty years ago and drowned sheep 
in lowland pastures. 
The 19th of July opened with threatening weather at all 
stations at the western end of the lake. Between 2.15 and 4 
A.M. rain fell at Detroit and at Toledo. At 8 a.m. the obser- 
vers at Detroit and Erie reported a south wind; the other sta- 
tions reported a southeast wind. The average velocity of the 
wind was about seven miles an hour. The barometer was high- 
est at Buffalo, gradually becoming lower toward the western end 
of the lake. At most of the stations the thermometer was 
above 90° F. at some time during the day, and the muggy 
atmosphere made the heat the more depressing. 
