18 



RED RIVER EXPLORING EXPEDITION. 



bition in 1855, with the advantages and information 

 derived from the levels obtained in the construction of 

 various railways and canals from the ocean to Lake 

 Superior, established a difference of only three feet in 

 excess of that obtained by Sir William Logan in 1847. 



The occasional fluctuations in the level of the waters of 

 Lake Superior certainly exceed three feet, so that an ele- 

 vation of 600 feet is probably a correct estimate of the 

 mean height of the waters of this Kitchi-gum-mi*, or 

 "Great Lake" of the Ojibways above the ocean. 



In the region about Lake Superior the years 1845-6 

 were unusually dry, and in 1847 the lake had reached a 

 very low stage of water. The years 1849-50 were wet, 

 and the level of the lake in 1851 was from three to three 

 and a half feet above the level of 1847.f 



The variations in the levels of the Great Canadian 

 Lakes are phenomena of the utmost importance to com- 

 mercial interests. J The supply of water to the Erie and 

 Welland Canals is dependent upon the relative height of 

 the waters of Lake Erie. Periods of great anxiety have 

 occurred among mercantile men at Buffalo respecting the 

 supply of water to the great artery which unites Lake Erie 

 with the Hudson Eiver. If Lake Erie should subside to the 

 zero of comparison adopted by Dr. Houghton, the depth of 



* Spelt by Longfellow Gitche-Gumee, Big- Sea Water (Hiawatha). 



f Report on the Geology of the Lake Superior Land District, by J. W. . 

 Foster and J. D. Whitney, U.S., Geologists. 



% The commerce of the Lakes is increasing with marvellous rapidity. 

 Three thousand and sixty-five steamers passed up from Lake Erie to Lakes 

 Huron and Superior, by Detroit, in 1859, and three thousand one hundred 

 and twenty-one passed down. The greatest number up in a single day 

 was eighty-five — down seventy-three. Detroit statistics show that five 

 steamers, seven propellers, four barques, seven brigs, and eighty-five 

 schooners were more or less engaged in the Lake Superior trade during 

 the same year. Forty vessels left during the season for European and 

 outward ports, some of which have returned, and one has taken her 

 second departure. 



