The Massachusetts spy, and Worcester County advertiser. [volume] ([Worcester, Mass.]) 1825-1831, 1827-11-21
From the Western Monthly Rer'eso.
THE NORTHERN LAKES.

This chain commences on the northeast
with Lake Ontario. It's extent is lS0 by 80 )
miles. AT its eastern extremity is group of
Islands. known by the name of the ''Thous- |
and Islands" From this lake we ascend /
by a strait called Niagara river, mile IN |
average width, very swift and deep, and !
thrty-six miles long, to Lake Erie. This
is broad and beautiful sheet of water,
equally transparent with the former, but
falling short of it in generaldePth. Its ex-
tent is $50 by 45 miles. In varied central
positions ON this lake, the voyager is out OF
sight. of land as on mid ocean. 1t en-
bosorAs number of considerable islands.
Ascending still farther west, we find anoth-
er strait, as the French word Detroit i'm
ports. 1t connects Lake Erie with Lake
st. Clair, and is twenty miles in
length. Lake st. Clair is another clear
and beautiful basin of water, thirty miles in
diameter. The strait between this Lake
and Lake Huron is thirty-two miles in
length, and three-quarters of a mile IN
breadth, with deep and rapid current. /
Lake Huron is the second on the continent
in size, being 220 by 80 miles in extent. 1t /
has the usual cold, transparent deep waters, |
Is Is, studded #! with many islands and Of depth
vessels. Atits western extremity, by the
straits of Michilimac kinac, it communicates
with the singular Lake Michigan. This
lake seems to be a supernumerary, kind
of episode in the great chain, not appearing
necessary for the expansion or conveyance
of the waters collected above in Lake Su-
perior. 1t is wholly in the limits of the
United States, while half of the rest per-
tains to the domnons of Great Britain
Its extent is 800 by so miles. 1t receives
40 considerable rivers, has valuable fisher
les of sturgeon and white fish, and embos
oms SEINE islands towards its northern ex-
tremity.
Returning to Lake Huron, we find it
connected with Lake Superior by strait
of twenty miles in length. The cur
rent of this river is shallow, rapid, and rem
dered difficult of navigation by huge mas
ses Of rocks. Lake Superior is by far the
largest collection of fresh waters on the
globe, being $50 by 100 miles in extent,
and reputed nearly 1900 miles in circumfer-
ence. The water is transparent, and is
deeper and colder than any of the rest
The shores, especially the northern, are
walled with ..owning and lofty precipices
Of granite rock. All the lakes abound, and
this more than the rest, with fine fish
They consist of different kinds Of tout, all
of them delicious, sturgeon, pike, pickerel,
carp, bass, behring's, &c. and the best kind
of all, white fish, which is found in this lake
in greater perfectionth than either ofthe rest.
1t enbosoals some large islands. The prin-
cipal rivers that discharge themselves into
it, are the Michipicoten, st. Louis, Nipe-
gon, and Pie. Beyond this lake, and
stretching still farther to the northwest, to-
wards the frozen regions of Red River of
the North, and the Arctic Sea, is the long
and narrow Lake of the Woods, apparent
ly the Ultima Thule of our continent.
These lakes, from the circumstances that
their waters possess less specific gravity (
than that of the ocean, and the comparative T
sleaila'ssRazs. af-tb cir. heds-and il may he /
raise waves, if not so extensive and noun I
famous, more rough and dangerous, than
those of the sea. 1t has been repeatedly
asserted, that they have septennial auxes
and rehuxes. From the silence of there ,
cent and intelligent travellers that have ex-
plored them, touching a fact so verv strik-
ing, we should. be led to doubt it. 1t has
been affirmed also, that they have percep-
tible diuinal tides. We doubt this also
for were it even true that the same causes
which raised tides in the sea operated per
ceptibly here, the surface that could be OPP
efated upon is 50 small, compared with that
of the ocean, any general movement of the
waters would be so arrested by capes, I
points, islands, and headlands, that such
uniform result as that of diurnal tide, /
could hardly be calculated to take place in
any sensible degree.
The waters Of the lakes, in many instan-
ces collected from the same marshes, as
exist at the sources of the Mississippi I'll !
tered through oozy swamps, ana number
less fields Ct wild rice. where the shallow
and stagnant mass, among this rank and
compact vegetation becomes Shiny and I'M
as soon as they find their level in
the deep beds of the lakes, lose their dark
red color, and their swampy taste, and
become as transparent almost as air.
When the lakes sleep, the fishes can be
seen sporting at immense depths below.
The lower strata of the water never gains
The temperature of summer. A bottle sunk
! hundred feet in lake Superior, and filed
1t that depth, feels, when it comes up, as
+ filled with ice and water. Imagination
;annot but expatiate in traversing the lofty I
,reciplces, the painless morasses, and the
lark and inhospitable forests of these re-
note and lonely oceans of fresh water,
where the tempests have ragged, and the 1
urges have dashed for countless ages, un-
except here and there at the dis
ance Of a hundred leagues by few red /
ktnS, or more recently Canadian coureurS
~ bots scrambling over the precipices to
sh, or padding their periogues in agonies
fterror to find shelter in the little bays j
rom the coming storm.
Hundreds of rivers, though none of great |
sngth, discharge themselves into these in i
md seas. Situated as they are in a eli $
nate, generally remarkable for the dry |
ess of its atmosphere, they must evaporate S
quantities Of water. 1t has g
cen commonly supposed that the Niagara, i
leir only visible drain, does not discharge
tenth part of the waters and melted SHOWS h
hich they receive. They spread such an "
surface, and have so much of the h
rand levelling power of the ocean, that La