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136 THOMPSON'S COAST PILOT. The return of the waters was sudden, and presented a sublime spectacle. They came down like an immense surge, roaring and foaming, and those who had incautiously wandered into the river bed, had barely time ,to escape being overwhelmed. RISING AND FALLING OF THE WATERS OF LAKE MICHIGAN. One of those singular oscillations in the lakes, or " Inland Seas," which have been observed occasionally from the time of the exploration of the Jesuit fathers, was witnessed recently in Lake Michigan. <A variety of signs, such as the mirage of the distant shore, unusual depression of the barometer, and a sudden rise of the temperature from a cool, bracing air, to a sultry heat, indicated an unusual commotion in the atmospheric elements. About eleven o'clock a. m., when our attention was first called to the phenomenon, the waters of the lake had risen about thirty-one inches above the ordinary level, and in the course of half an hour they again receded. Throughout the whole day they continued to ebb and flow at intervals of fifteen or twenty minutes, and the current between the outer and inner breakwater, near the Illinois Central Railroad House, was so great at times that a row-boat made little or no headway against it. The extreme variation between high and low water was nearly three feet. The wind all day was off shore (from the. southwest), the effect of which 'was to keep down the waters instead of accumulating them at this point. About eight o'clock in the evening it veered suddenly to the northwest, and blew a violent gale, accompanied by vivid electrical displays. This morning (Monday) we hear of telegraphic lines being pros- trated, of persons killed by lightning, etc., while the lake, although agitated, exhibits none of the pulsations of yesterday.