The Birmingham age-herald., 1917-10-28

opens up a country which is almost as
 valuable. From Montreal to Duluth the
 distance is two-thirds as great as from Philadelphia to Liverpool.
 1 The shore line of the lakes is. such that it gives access to eight grear states, whose population is more than one-t third of that of the union, and whose products are of enormous inn portance at this stage of our history. They give us a large part of our food supply, vast deal of copper, and al most all of our iron and steel They are among the chief manufacturing states of the union and they are now lhumming with war industries of every description. The shores of the Great Lakes connect us, also, with an almost equal area in Canada, and with that part of it which is aiding most in fighting the Germans. That region has vast timber resources. It has the chief nickel mines of the world. and bread and meat baskets from which supplies lare continually moving to our allies ] in Europe
 1 The Great Lakes are remarkable in that they lie on the roof of North l America east of the Rockies. and this notwithstanding their basin is equal in size to one-sixth of the United States. They lie on the height of land half way between the Arctic ocean and the Mexi- can gulf and tilt so gently toward the Atlantic that they form the smooth. :. est and safest of waterways. The sur face of Lake Superior is less than. 50 feet above the aluminium tip of the 1 Washington monument, and only tri- fe below the level of the roof of the ] Singer building. on Broadway, New i York. The altitude is only 500 feet and l the most of this descent is made in the ! Niagara and St. Lawrence rivers. The fall from the head of Lake Superior at
 Duluth to the foot of Lake Erie at Buf- falo is only 36 feet, and of this drop
 of 20 feet occurs at the Sault Ste. Mary
 canals This leaves only 1e feet of a l fall from Duluth to Buffalo, distance
 of almost a thousand miles, or less than
 one-fifth of an inch to the mile. It
 is so small that there Is no percepti-
 ble current. and practically no change
 of steam is needed in making the way back and forth.
 1 have been travelling over these
 lakes for the past few weeks. The ca-
 nals and rivers which connect them are i of remarkable interest. In passing from I Lake Erie into Lake Huron I went
 through the Detroit river and from
 there into the St. Clair. which cuts
 the St. Clair flats, passing through
 hundreds of little islands upon which
 are summer homes that remind one lof the floating houses in the Menam | river at Bangkok, Siam. The cottages
 have verandas hanging out over the
 channels, and the babies play there within a few inches of drowing One
 can fish out of his parlor or Kitchen window, and catch mess of black bass at almost any hour of the day. l The St Clair river is as long as iron, Baltimore to Philadelphfa and as vot1 sail through 1t you are on the boundary between Canada and the United States. A part of the way is through the st. Clair Hats, where the government has deepened the channel. Farther on. the stream IS narrow and the land slopes
 up on both sides, fine farms lining the shores. You see American flags float ing from the houses and patrol boats are moving about, guarding the wa, ters.
 In the Detroit river just below. YOU pass between Windsor. Can. and the citv of Detroit. The latter is shrouded in tae smoke Of it's thousand factories You ride for some miles by great industrial works, and out of the fog and smoke you can see enormous grain elevators. mlghtv skyscrapers, and the spout1ng sinokestacks of steel works and automo
 bile plants. There the river is full or trafric. You pass ore steamers, long. narrow steel shells, naked of rigging, ana sreat vessels, including an occa- slonal whaleback, carrying wheat down the lakes. You see coal vessels going up 10 Duluth and passenger steamers or one kind or another, loaded with peo- pie. l remember one boat coming down en route for Denmark It was built m the river and will pass through the
 Weliand canal out to the ocean, and lake us ehance with the submarines and mines of the North sea.
 After crossing Lake Huron you enter the Sault Ste Marys river which is the downspout from Lake Superior into Lake Huron. This river is 60 miles long ana 1t ranges in width from few hun urea rect to six or seven miles, now sApanuing into wide lake filled with beautiful low lying islands, heavily wooded. and now decreasing to stream so narrow that you could almost throw Q stone across it. It has islands which are miles in length and some which are mere patches of green upon the waters. Ine enamel Is marked by range lights and buoys, and the route outlined for the steamers is as definite as the track of railroad. At the entrance to the river you pass two ore boats which recently mistook the signals and crashed into each other. One was a shin belonging to the United States Steel corporat;on It contained 1000 tons of iron ore The other. which was owned by another com pahy, was sOing up with an equal amount of coal. The coal and the ore i. came together in head-on collision ana the ships sank as one body. They are now getting out the cargoes. and when the vessels have been einptied they will force air into them and thus raise them to the surface. Ships of this kind are worth hundreds of thousands of dollars and there is a fortune there. half buried in the waters. It has been charged that these ships were sunk by the Germans. doubt 1t, although | venture 1t might have been done bv changing the lights.
 And just here want to tell you some thing about the steamer on which we are travelling It is typical of the traffic of the great lakes and of the enor nous business these waterways are do- ing in behalf of the war. The vessel is the James A Farrell, the flagship of the
 unitea states Steel company, which has more than 100 other steamers engaged in carrying iron ore from the mines of Minnesota. Wisconsin ind Michigan down to the steel plants of Pennsylvania. Ohio and Illinois
 < The James A. Farrell makes from 30 to S4 trips every season, traveling in eight months 52,000 miles, or farther than twice around the globe. It carries l2,OO6 tons of ore every trip. and 1t has that much in its hold as I write. It makes the round trip from Lake Erie to the head of Lake Superior within seven days. and it will carry down mora than 360O0o tons of ore this year x