A LIMNOLOGICAL STUDY OF THE FINGER LAKES OF NEW YORK. 
By EDWARD A. BIRGE and CHANCEY JUDAY, 
Wisconsin Geological and Natural History Survey, Madison, Wisconsin. 
INTRODUCTION. 
In 1910 the authors of this paper were enabled to visit the Finger Fakes district 
of New York, through a grant from the United States Bureau of Fisheries, and the month 
of August was spent in work upon the lakes. In February, 1911, Mr. Juday visited 
four of the lakes to secure winter temperatures. A week in August and September, 
1911, was used in obtaining a second set of summer temperatures. The temperatures 
of Skaneateles and Owasco Lakes were also taken in February, 1912, and in the early 
autumn of that year. 
The purpose of the investigation was to extend to these lakes the studies on dis- 
solved gases, plankton, and temperatures, which the authors had already made on the 
lakes of Wisconsin.® The lakes of New York are peculiarly well adapted for such study. 
Four of those visited — Canadice, Otisco, Conesus, and Hemlock — are directly compar- 
able with several of the lakes of Wisconsin in size, depth, and biological conditions. 
The others, beginning with Owasco Lake, form a series whose smaller members are 
not greatly different from Green Lake, Wis. ; but whose largest members, Cayuga and 
Seneca, are the largest inland lakes ^ (except Lake Champlain) and the deepest in the 
United States east of the Rocky Mountains. Still further, these lakes lie in a region 
whose topography is hilly, but not mountainous. The highest elevations close to the 
lakes do not exceed 300 meters (1,000 feet) above the water, and the immediate slopes 
are, in general, much lower. The lakes, therefore, are not exposed to the peculiar 
climatic conditions of mountain lakes, but in general these conditions are comparable 
with those which exist in Wisconsin. 
Seneca Lake, the deepest in the district (188 meters, 618 feet) is much exceeded in 
depth by lakes in Europe. A score or more are found there which are comparable in 
size and form, but which reach a greater depth. Some nine European lakes exceed a 
depth of 1,000 feet. Yet Seneca Lake is so deep that from a biological point of view 
it offers conditions of life not essentially different from those of the deeper European 
lakes, and physically also it is essentially similar. These lakes are therefore directly 
® Birge, Edward A., and Juday, Chancey: The inland lakes of Wisconsin: The dissolved gases of the water and their bio- 
logical significance. Wisconsin Geological and Natural History Survey, Bulletin xxn. Scientific Series No. 7, 259 p. 1911. 
6 It may be noted here that the term “inland lakes” is used by us in contrast to “Great Lakes,” which latter name we should 
apply only to the lakes of the series from Superior to Ontario. 
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