The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1900-07-04

or that every seven years the water run
the gamut. Baron La Hontan, in 1889.
made some tolerably extensive notes on
the variations in lake levels. He wrote
that in twenty-four hours, once at the
northern extremity of Lake Michigan, he
saw the lake rise three feet. and fall
three feet in the day. He was the first
60 observe the flow of water from Lake
Huron to Lake Michigan. or from Michi-
gan TO Huron, which is now acknowl-
edged
I'VE cast our fishing nets in the straits"
says the doughty old explorer. and for
three days the current sucked them to
the eastward so strongly that We could
with difficulty haul them from the water.
Then for two days the current set stead
lily toward the west and carried our nets
in that direction"
Stories of mysterious foundations by the
lake of times when the beach widened, and
a great fringe was added to the sand
along the shore, have always been current
among Indian tribes. From Marquette
down to engineers and seamen of to-day,
observation has confirmed these legends.
At Sault Ste Marie, Gen. Dearborn noted
an ebh and flow of one and one-half feet
OF water in two and half hours.
Lake Erie has been known to rise from
seven to twenty feet In few hours. \
a
denly rose FIVE feet In 1886 Lake Michi-
gan rushed up TO a hight of seven feet
above the ordinary level at Milwaukee.
In that same year the water fell six feet
in Chicago harbor, and somewhat less in
the lake within a few minutes. High
masted sChooners Careened to one side.
and the big poles knocked together con-
fusedly. IL looked if the Chicago river
would be drained dry in half an hour,
FNFse
ten among the Chicago seamen In 1SiS,
It is said the same thing occurred.
In addition to these sudden and mex
pliCable changes in the lake level there is
a toierabQ well-defined periodical move
ment of the surface extending over a num-
Der of years. Sometimes 1t is claimed that
this movement requires seven years some
times ten years. Ossian Guthrie and 9th
ers declare that the movement is not pc
riodic, but that It usually extends over
from two to ten years Then there is an
annual rise of the lake from January to
June, caused by abe ordinary spring rain
fail, which runs the level of the lake up
about one foot higher in June than in
January. For thirty years consecutively
the spring rise was found TO be fourteen
and one-half inches. A series of heavy
spring rainfalls will raise the level of the
lake three or four feet above datum for
a number of years, and a series of
droughts will reduce it correspondingly.
Beginning with 1S47, Ossian Guthrie has
kept record of the fluctuations OF the
level of Lake Michigan. In 1S47, as has
been stated, Lake Michigan went very
low. From 1877 TO 1859, with occasional
lapses, ii crept up nearly three feet above
datum From 1859 to 1863 it fell, then 1t swung
back to two and a half feet above
the datum in 1873, ran down in 1879, going
up abruptly in the spring of 1880. From
1880 to 1886 the lake level rose three feet
From 1886 to 1892 it fell about four feet
In the spring of 1893 it rose fifteen inches
in few days, time. Since 1893 the lake
has been going down, and during most of
last fall and this spring 1t abs been below
the lS47 mark. To-day, owing to the usual
rise fom rainfalls. the lake is higher than
it was before the opening of the drainage
canal. Figures at the United States IN
gineer's Office show that during January,
February and March the lake level was
just about what it was in December of
1899. Although each days record shows a
variation of several inches On Jan. II
there was variation in the lake level of
one foot. From Feb. II to Feb. u in 1894
the lake level at the foot of Randolph
street rose a little over two feet.
These daily fluctuations of from six
inches to two feet are accounted for. en-
SlneerS DeHeVe, by WINDS ana by Darom-
etrc pressure A strong east wind will
easily raise the surface of the lake here
two feet Again, If the atmosphere pres
sure all over the surface of Lake Huron
is suddenly reduced, the water will rush
through the straits from Lake Michigan,
and Huron viii rise. mysteriously, per
haps on a perfectly calm day.
Engineers at the office of the Drainage
Board estimate that If no rainfall were to
reach Lake Michigan, and the maximum
flow of 900 cubic feet of water were
drawn off through the drainage canal, it
would take little over eight years to re-
duce the level of Lake Michigan one foot
AS a metter of fact, the annual rainfall
always produces a waste overflow past
Niagara which greatly exceeds that drawn
off by the drainage canal II the water
were not taken through the canal ii would
go over Niagara during spring freshets. In
general engineers agree that the physics
of Lake Michigan and of all the great
lakes has never been studied accurately
and that the mysterious movements of the
immense inland seas offer a comparative
ly unworked field for useful and scientific
research