Maritime History of the Great Lakes

Thompson's Coast Pilot for the Upper Lakes, on Both Shores, from Chicago to Buffalo, Green Bay, Georgian Bay and Lake Superior ... [4th ed.], p. 127

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THOMPSON'S COAST PILOT, 127 LAKE SUPERIOR. : Laxe Superior, by far the largest of the Inland Seas of North America, lying between 46° 30' and 49° north latitude, and between 84° 30' and 92° 30' west longitude, situated at a height of 600 feet above the sea, from which it is distant about 1,500 miles, by the course of its outlet and the St. Lawrence River ; is 460 miles long from east to west, and 170 miles broad in its widest part, with an average breadth*of 85 miles. It is 800 feet in greatest depth, extending 200 feet below the level of the ocean; estimated area, 32,000 square miles. Neatly two hundred rivers, and creeks are said to flow into the lake, the greater part being small streams, and but few navigable, except by canoes, owing to their numerous falls and rapids. It contains several islands, the most important of which are Isle Royale, and The Twelve Apostles, near its western extremity, and Grand Island, all attached to the United States; Caribou Island, Michipicoten, St. Ignace, Pie aa and other islands attached to Canada. DISTANCE AROUND LAKE SUPERIOR. Sault Ste. Marie to Fort William, Canada West, 300 miles ; Fort William to Superior City, Wisconsin, 200 miles; Superior City to Sault Ste. Marie, (American side,) 365 miles--making the grand circuit of Lake Superior, 1,065 miles, RISE AND FALL OF THE WATERS OF LAKE SUPERIOR. From a series of careful observations continued through a period of eight years, from 1854 to 1862, by Dr. G. H. Blaker, of Mar- quette, L. S., it has been found that the annual rise and fall of the surface of Lake Superior ranges between 20 and 28 inches. From the first of May, when the snow begins to melt freely, until the first of September, the surface of the lake level continues to rise con- stantly, about six inches a month, until it gains, on an average, two feet by the middle of August; and by the first of September it begins to fall, and so continues through the winter, until about the middle of April. The permanent rise, however, was found to have been about two inches more than the fall for the first six years, from 1854 to end of 1859, thus making a total rise of some 12 inches in the lake level at the latter period.

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