oe 
TRANSACTIONS. 
Arr. I. 
ON CERTAIN PHENOMENA OF THE GREAT LAKES OF AMERICA. 
BY DE WITT CLINTON, LL. D. Presipent oF THE Society. 
[Read before the Society, November 13th, 1817.] 
Ir has been until within a few years generally understood that there are no 
tides in the Great Lakes of America; and that the Mediterranean, Black, 
Caspian, and Baltic Seas, and other great waters of the old world, are also 
exempt from their influence. More accurate observation has however indi- 
cated that this opinion is in some respects erroneous, and it is now considered 
doubtful whether it is not altogether so. It is confidently said that there are 
tides in the Mediterranean. At Toulon, three hours and fifteen minutes af- 
ter the moon has passed its meridian, the tide rises one foot; and in the 
highest spring tides, augmented by the concurrence of other causes, it swells 
as high as two feet.* The Lake of Geneva and the Lake of Constance are 
subject to an occasional rising and falling of their waters three or four feet, 
several times in succession, by a sort of oscillating motion, which phenome- 
non is denominated Seiches.t ‘There are certain appearances connected 
with our Lakes that resemble the operation of tides, and there are others of 
a character entirely dissimilar. As the Western Lakes contain the greatest 
collections of fresh water in the world, all the phenomena connected with 
them are deeply interesting in relation to Geography, Agriculture, Trade, 
and Natural Science: I shall therefore devote this memoir to this subject. 
* Forster’s History of the voyages in the North. 
{De Saussure’s Voyages dans les Alpes. Kinlock’s letters from Geneva and France. Coxe’s 
Switzerland. Simond’s Switzerland, 
4 
