Delaware gazette and state journal. (Wilmington, Del.) 1883-1902, 1898-03-17
hAooa . hAho pills. aid digestion, ujo,
LAX n SUPERIOR.


Facts About the Largest BODY OF Fresh
Water In the World.
1.-The Great LakeR'' is the title Of an
article in st. Nicholas, writton by w.
S. Harwuod. Concerning Lake Superior,
Mr., Harwood says:
IL lie, TO begin with, the largest body
of fresh water in the world. 1t ID
water Of wonderful purity which i'd
holds, too; and some time--and in the
not very distant future, either-ths
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 en-
gineering feat to pipe the water of this
lake, pure and sparkling and fresh from
ito cold depths, to these cities which
arc now struggling With the question Of
their water supply, and meeting all
sorts of difficulties in their efforts to
got water fit TO drink.
All down through this Thousand feet
Of blue there is q peculiar coliness At
the very most, the temperature varies
through winter and summer not mora
than six degrees. Winter and summer,
this great lake never changes to any
appreciabla extent, so that IL 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, Zee 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 hut tritling
difference in tho Temperature. Away
down at the bottom, too, there ia but
little variation in the temperature, for
il stands at nearly 30 degrees Fahren.
heit at the bottom, and varies from 10
TO d6 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 laku ia be-
lievhd 10 be strong rock basin, though
it would seem that there must he great
springs at the bottom to help keep up
tho enormous volume of water From
the north there ia large amount of
water pouring into the lake year in and
year out; the swift rushing, narrow
banked Nipigon and other streams fur
niHhing 20 small pnrt OF the supply.
These streams in large measure make
up the loss from the surface. One of
the old lake captains, bronzed, kindly
faced man who had been for 81 years
on the lakes, and had faced death many
a time in the frightful storms which
sometimes sweep across Thesis beautiful
bodies OF water. told me, aH we we're
passing along ons day near the north
coast of Superior, with the headunds
and inletH and glossy green bluffs OF
that moat picturesque shore in full
view, that the theory that the lake wac
slowly going down in siza was true.
lie maintained that he could tell from
certain landmarks along the shores,
with which he ia az familiar 40 hs
would be with the streets Of his old
Scottish birthplace. that the lake was
slowly--vsry sloTly-but surely reced-
ing. However, it will he snme cen
turtles yet before there will be any ap-
preciable les;o6ing OF the Great Lakes,
80 that We need not he concerned.
Strange as it may seem, the lake has
tides, too, well defined tides, dis.
covered in 1860. 1t is what is called A
registering tide. with regular Hux
anu refiux wave, caused, SO the scientific
men say, by the sun and moon. The
average rise and fall every "a hours 10
one fourteen hundredth OF a foot; the
maximum tide at new and full moon is
one twenty ght-hundredth OF a foot.