The labor world. [volume] (Duluth, Minn.) 1896-current, 1898-08-13
LAKE SUPERIOR.

r4tercstine Facts About the Largest Body
of Fresh Water In the World.
1.-THE Great Lakes is the title of
an article in St. Nicholas, written by
W. S. HARDWOOD. Concerning Lake
Superior, Mr.. HARDWOOD says:
It is, to begin with, the largest
body of fresh water in the world.
It is water of wonderful purity
which it holds, too, and some time
and in the not very distant future
either-the people who live in the
large cities to the west and south
will come to this lake to get the wa
ter for their homes. 1t will not be
so remarkable an engineering feat
to pipe the water of this lake, pure
and sparkling and fresh from its
cold depths, to these cities which are
now struggling with he question Of
their water supply Ind meeting all
sorts of difficulties in their efforts to
get water fit to drink.
All down through this 1000 feet
Of blue there is a peculiar GOODNESS.
At the very most, the temperature
varies through winter and summer
not more than six degrees. Winter
and summer this great lake never
changes to any appreciate extent,
SO that if you dip your finger tips in
the blue surface on a day in July, or
if you test it some day in early win
ter when you have been out on some
belated, ice mailed fishing smack, or
when you have gone out to watch
the fishermen spearing their sup
plies through the thick ice in mid
January, you will find but trif1ing
difference in the temperature. Away
down at the bottom, too, there is but
little variation in the temperature,
for it stands at nearly 40 degrees E.
at the bottom and varies from 40 to
As degrees, winter and summer, at
the surface. The other lakes, though
cold, are not in this respect like Su-
perior.
The whole bottom of the lake is
believed to be a strong rock basin,
though it would seem that there
must be great springs at the bottom
to help keep up the enormous vol
ume of water. From the north there
is a large amount of water pouring
into the lake year in and year out,
the swift rushing, narrow banked
Nipigon and other streams furnish
ing no small part of the supply.
These streams in a large measure
make up the loss from the surface.
One of the old lake captains, a
bronzed, kindly faced man who had
been for IS years on the lakes and
had faced death many a time in the
frightful storms which sometimes
sweep across these beautiful bodies
of water, told me, as we were pass
ing along one day near the north
coast of Superior, with the head
lands and inlets and glossy green
bluffs Of that most picturesque shore
in full view, that the theory that the
lake was slowly going down in size
was true. He maintained that he
could tell from certain landmarks
along the shores, with which he is
as familiar as he would be with the
streets of his old Scottish birthplace,
that the lake was slowly, very slow
ily, but surely receding. However,
it will be some centuries yet before
there will be any appreciable lessen
ing of the great lakes, so that we
need not be concerned.
Strange as it may seem, the lake
has tides, too-well defined tides
discovered in 1860. 1t is what is
called self registering tide, with
regular hux and refux wave, caused,
SO the scientific men say, by the sun
and moon. The average rise and
fall every "a hours is one fourteen
hundredth of foot. The maximum
tide at new and full moon is one
twenty-eight-hundredth of a foot.