Cottonwood report. [volume] (Cottonwood, Idaho) 1893-1901, 1898-05-06
LAKE SUPERIOR.
Interesting Facts About the Largest Body
Of Fresh Water in the World.

or Fresh water In the world
"The Great Lakes" is the title Of an
article in st. Nicholas, written by w.
s. HARDWOOD. Concerning Lake Supe-
rior, Mr.. HARDWOOD says: 1t is, to be-
gin with, the largest body Of fresh
water in the world. 1t 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
water for their homes. It will not be
so remarkable an engineering feat to
pipe the water of this lake, pure and
sparkling and fresh from it's cold
depths, to these cities which are now
struggling with the question of their
water-supply, and meeting all sorts OF
difficulties in their efforts to get water
fit to drink. All down through this
thousand feet of blue there is a pecu-
liar 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 ex-
tent, 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
winter when you have been out ON
some belated, ice-mailed fishing-smack,
or when you have gone out to watch
the fishermen spearing their supplies
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 varia-
ton in the temperature, for 1t stands at
nearly forty degrees Fahrenheit at the
bottom, and varies from forty to forty
six degrees, winter and summer, at the
surface. The other lakes, though cold
are not in this respect like Superior.
The whole bottom of the lake Is be-
lieved to be strong rock basin, though
it would seem that there must be great
springs at the bottom to help keep up
the enormous volume of water. From
the north there is large amount of
water pouring into the lake year in
and year out; the swift-rushing, mar
row-banked Nipigon and other streams
ply. These streams in large measure
make up the loss from the surface. One
of the old lake captains, a bronzed,
kindly-faced man who had been for
thirty-five years on the lakes, and had
faced death many a time in the fright
full storms which sometimes sweep
across these beautiful bodies of water,
told me, as we were passing along one
day near the north coast of Superior,
with the headlands and inlets and
| glossy green bluffs of that most pic
turesque shore in full view, that the
theory that the lake was slowly going
| down in size was true, He maintained
marks 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 slowly
but surely receding. However, il
will be some centuries yet before there
will be any appreciate lessening 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 a self-registering tide, with a
regular flux and reflux wave, caused,
so the scientific men say, by the sun
and moon. The average rise and fall
every twenty-four hours is one four
teen-hundredth of foot; the maxi
mum tide at new and full moon is one
twenty eight-hundredth of foot.