Shepherdstown register. [volume] (Shepherdstown, Va. [W. Va.]) 1849-1955, 1898-04-28
Some Facts About Lake Superior.

1.-THE Great Lakes is the title OF an
article in st. Nicholas, written by W.
S. Harwood, Concerning Lake Supe-
rior, Mr.. Harwood says
1t is, to begin with. the largest body
of fresh water in the world. 1t is wa
ter 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. 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 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 peculiar GOODNESS.
At the very most, the temperature
varies through winter and summer not
more than six degrees. Winter and
summer, this great fake never changes
to any appreciate extent, so that il
you dip your fnger-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-Jannary, you will find
but a trihing difference in the temper
allure. Away down at the bottom,
too, there is but little variation in the
temperature, for it stands at nearly
forty degrees Fahrenheit at the bot
tom, 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 Su-
perior
The whole bottom of the lake is
supposed to be a strong rock basin,
though it would seem that there must
be great springs at the bottom to help
to keep up the enormous volume 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 furnishing no small
part of the supply. These streams in
a large measure make up the loss from
the surface. One Of the old lake cap
tains, a bronzed, kindly-laced man
who had been for thirty-hve years on
the lakes, and had faced death many a
time in the frightful storms which
sometime 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 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 slowly-but surely re-
cedlng However, II Will be some
centuries yet before there will be any
appreciate lessening of the Great
Lakes, SO that we need not be con-
cerned.
Strange as it may seem, the lake
has tides, too, well-defned tides, dis
covered in 1860. 1t is what is called
a self-registering tide, with a regular
Aux and reAux wave, caused, so the
scientific men say, by the sun and
moon. The average rise and fall every
twenty-four hours is one fourteen
hundredth of foot the maximum
tide at new and full moon is one
-eight-hundredth of foot.