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ARISE AND GREAT FALL OF TIDES ON THE te: GREAT LAKES. ‘A crude ussertion of the existence of a periodic rise and fall in the waters of Green Bay—an arm of Lake Michigan, has been sent out by # correspondent residing at the extremity of that inlet; and while the stutement bears several inaccura- cies, it is of such direct importance ss to deserve the closest attention from lake seamen. ‘Phe letter referred to is as follows: ‘‘1t has been said there no tides on the great lakes. Yet every seafaring mun at ity of Green Bay enys there are tides here. The Green people are certain of the tides because they have seen them, und bave been seeing them ever since they lived there. The tides come in the morning and evening, and are highest at7 a. m,and 7 p.'m. From 3 until 7 in the morning the tide gradually comes in. After that time it begins to recede, and is at its lowest point between 11 and 2:30. At the latter hour the evening tide commences, and it rises continuously until 7 in the evening, when it begins to recede. The height of the tide varies at times a trifle, but it is never less than five inches, and seldom over eight inckes under ordinary circum- stances, Heavily leaden boats of large size are detained frequently at this point during low tide waiting tor the tide to come in. Captains are so certain that there is a tide that they will wait for some hours to take advantage of its movements before attempting to lenve port, . , _ Uf there is a tide in Green Bay then there is a tide on all the inland lakes. It may be too small to be measured, but it ig there just the same. Green Bay is shaped not unlike the Bay of Fundy, where the tides on the Atlantic are compressed until they rise to enormous heights, It is not unreasonable to suppose that « tide of half an inch or #n inch, from the wide gtretch of waters east and west, reaching several hundred miles from Georgian Bay across Lake Huron, through the Straits of Mackinac, across the foot of Lake Michigan, and up the long, narrow bay, would be so compressed as to be at least - perceptible. It woul? be impossble to meusure so small a tide, and scientific men would be justified in denyiug altogether the existence of alnke tide. On Lake Superior the next Jongest stretch east aad west of fresh water, there is no bay where the water would be compressed as it is here. The Lake Superior tide might even be less than that coming over the stretch of water from Georgian Bay here.”’ This semi-durinal periodic and permanent rise and fall, is ‘simply incomprehensible, and it is to be regretted that no official tide-guage observations are at hand to verify such reports as the foregoing; in fact the lake sections are sadly . deficient in the number of self-registering water gauges estab- lished considering the primal source of information which such applinnces readily furnish for the computation of surface or tide-curves in connection with simultaneous barometer readings and the configuration of the coast line. Tt is uot by any means a simple problem to grasp the economy and characteristics of even the local features in tides, nor can any one man make himself thoroughly acquainted with local peculurities, without devoting more leisure and _ study to the subject than the average person can command. However, there has been data enough secured to prove that the tides, speaking in the broad acceptation of the term, are yery irregular in different parts of the world. Inasmuch as high water has been found at noon at # certain point during several days in succession. An excerpt from a scientific paper on tides states that on the European coasts of the North Atlan- tic the tides present in their main features an exceptional simplicity, two almost equally high waters, and two almost equally low waters in the twenty-four hours, with the regular fortuightly inequality of spring tides and neep tides due to the alternately conspiring and opposing actions of the moop and aun, and with large irregular variations produced by wind. In other places it has long been remarked that there is but one high water in the 24 hours at certain times of the month. Several other localities are celebrated for a great tidal rise amounting to 70 feet, and upwards, Captain Lecky in his admirable ‘* Wrinkles in Practical Navigation” gives the range of tide in the open Ocenn at about four feet but for the inland seas as being almost insensible, Amcng the islands of the Pacific ocean the rise and fall is placed at from three to six feet, and the average in the Mediterranean at not to ex- ceed 18 inches. Lakes and inland seas being comparatively small, the attrac- tion of the sun and the moon is nearly equal at both extremi- ties, therefore their tides are insignificant, Close investigation Z backs up the theory that the magnitude of the tidal range depends upon the proportion the size of the lake bears or sea bears to the diameter of the earth ; for instance, the existence of «tide in Lake Michigan has been proved by a series of observations made at Chicago in 1859. The average height of this tide is given as 1} inches; and the average time of high water as thirty mioutes after the moon’s transit, The length of Lake Michigan is 350 miles, or 1-23 of the earth’s diameter ; and its tide would thus be about 1-23 ot that which prevailsin mid-ocean. Again the length of the Mediterranean is 2,400 miles, or roughly 4 of the diameter of the earth, which gives the average height of its tide as} what itis in the open sea, and this is said to be confirmed by observation. No language could be more devoid of technicalities and yet be pertinently clear than Captain Lecky’s description of tides wherein he states that the tides are popularly attributed to the moon only, though really caused by the joint attraction of both sun and moon and it is due to this double influence being sometimes exerted in a contrary direction that we have the yarving phases in the times and heights of high and low water. The general motion of the tides consists in an alternate vertical rise and fall and horizontal flow and ebb upying un average period of half lunar day or about 12 hours 25 minutes, This vertical movement is transmitted from place to place in the seas like an ever recurring series of very long and swift waves, therefore there are two tide waves at a fixed distance spart of 180° measured both in latitude and longitude and that they are constantly traveling round the earth from east to west with the influence of the moon 2h times more than that of the sun. Thomson and Tait’s “ Natural Philosophy ” on equilibrium theory of the tides, the authors state that: If we suppose the moon to be divided into two halves, and thus to be fixed on opposite sides of the earth, at distances each equal to the true moon’s mean distance: the ellipticity of the disturbed terrestrial water-level would be 3 (2 x60 x 300,000) or 1-12,000,000, and the whole difference of levels from highest to lowest would be about 1} feet. ‘The rise and fall of water at any pvint of the earth’s sur- face we may now imagine to be produced by making these two disturbing bodies, (moon and anti-moon, as we may call it for brevity) revolve round the earth’s axis once in the lunar twenty-four hours, with the line joining them always inclined to the earth’s equator at an angle equal to the moon’s declination, If we assume that at each moment the condition of the hydrostatic equilibrium is fulfilled, that is that the free liquid surface is perpendicular to the resultant force, we have what is called the “ equilibrim theory of the tides.” But even on this equilibrium theory, the rise and fall at any place would be most falsely estimated if we were to take it, as we believe it is generally taken, as the rise and fall of the spheroidal surface that would bound the water were there uo dry land (uncovered solid), To illustrate this statement, let us imagine the ocean to consist of two circular lakes, A and B, with their centres 90 degrees asunder, on the equator, communicating with one another by a narrow channel. In the course of the lunar twelve hours the level ot lake A would rise and fall, and that of lake B would simultaneously fall and rise to maximum deviations from the mean level, If the areas of the two lakes were equal their tides would be equal, and would amount in each to about § of a foot above and below the sea level: but not so if the areas were unequal. bus if the diameter of the greater be but a small part of the earth’s quadrant, not more, let us say, than 20 degrees, the amounts of the rise and fall in the two lakes will be inversely as their areas to a close degree of approximation. For instance, if the diameter of B be only 1-10 of the diam- eter of A, the rise and fall in A would be scarcely sensible while the level of B will rise and fall by about 1} feet above and below its mean just as the rise and fall of levelin the open cistern of an ordinary barometer is but small in com- parison witn fal) and rise in the tube. Or if there be two large lakes, A, A’, at opposite extremities of an equatorial diameter, two small ones, B, B’ at two ends of the equatorial diameter perpendicular to that one, and two small lakes C, C’ at two ends of the polar axis, the largest of these being, however, still supposed to extend over only a small portion of the earth’s curvature and all the six lakes communicate with one another freely by canals, or underground tunnels there will be no sensible tides in the lakes A and A’, In B and B’ there will be high water of 1} feet above the mean level when the moon or anti-moon is in the zenith and low water of 1} feet below mean when the moon is rising or setting and at C and C’ there will be tides rising and falling $ of a foot above and below tae mean, the time of low water being when the moon or anti-moon is in the meridian of A, and of high waters when they are on the horizen of A. The simplest way of viewing the case for the extreme circumstances we have now supposed is, first, to consider the spheroidal surface that would bound the water at any moment if there were no dry land, and then to imagine this whole surface lowered or ele- vated all round by the amount required to keep the height at A and A’ invariable. Or if there bea large lake A in any part of the earth, communicating by canals with small lakes over various parts of the surface, having in all but a small area ot water in comparison with that of A, the tides in any of these w‘ll be found by drawing a spheroidal surface of 1} feet difference between greatest and least radius, and without disturbing its centre adding or subtracting from each radius such a length, the same for all as shall do away with rise or fall at A. [t is however, only on the extreme supposition we haye made, of one water area much larger than all the others taken together, but yet itself covering only a small part of the earth’s curvature, that the rise and fallcan be done away with nearly altogether in one place, and doubled in another, rs Tue War Depariment hus issued the following order: “First Lieutenant Wm. L, Sibert is relieved from duty at Bowling Green, Ky., under the orders of Major Daniel W. Lockwood, vorps of engineers, and will proceed to and take a stition at Detroit, Mich., reporting in person to Colonel Orlando M. Poe, coi ps of engineers, for duty, under his immediate orders.” ah ee As an indication of the occasional value of cargoes carried on the lakes, we not that the propeller Norwalk and consort Lozen, reached Buffalo from Lake Superior a few days ugo with a cargo of copper in various conditions of purity worth $650,000, ‘These consignments are always well covered by insurance, although not a pound has been jost through a vessel casualty for muny years, Oe Bote Acting Secretary Spaulding of the treasury depart issued a circular letter of instructions to collectors of « under the act relating to tolls in Canadian vessels at Mary’s falls canal, which provides that the money collected under regulations to be established by the of the treasury. He further directs as follows: On th sage through the canal at St. Mary’s falls in your di from and after the Ist prox., of any vessel witn carg will exact tolls as provided for above. But no to be charged or collected as regards freight carried to landed at Ogdedsburg or any port west of Ogdensburg south of a line drawn frora the northern boundry of thes of New York through the St, Lawrence river, the great | and their connecting channels to the northern boundry of state of Minnesota. %5 The master of every such vessel will be required to furnish — a sworn statement, substantially in the form of a mani showing the name of the vessel, its destination, the name of — the master and the number of tons and kind of merch - carried, If the destination be such as to exempt the from the tolls, you will make entry of the fact in a book. | On the next arrival of the vessel you will exact the tolls, unless on or before that time and within one month from her passage through the canal there shall be furnished to you proof of the actual delivery of the cargo at some port or place within the limits of the United States above specified, — Such proof will consist of the certificate of the collector of — customs at the port of destination showing the entry of the | vessel and the landing of the merchandise there. i Should the prescribed evidence not be furnished within period of one month after the passage of the canal by the vessel you will report the facts to the department, to the end that measures may be taken by it for the recovery of the amounts due. t The president in his proclamation said that the recent act of congress, passed in view of the fact that the discrimination at the Welland canal was in violation of the treaty of 1871, guaranteeing use of the St. Lawrence waterway oa equal — terms with Canada, made it his duty to impose a retaliatory — toll on vessels passing throngh the Sault canal. proclamation ends as follows: ‘‘ Now, therefore, I, Benjamin Harrison, President of the United States of America, t virtue of the power to that end conferred upon me by said — Act of Congress, approved July 26, 1892, do hereby direct — that from and after September 1, 1892, until further notice, toll of 20 cents a ton be levied, collected and paid on all freight of whatever kind or description passing through the St. Mary’s Falls Canal in transit to any port of the Domin of Canada, whether carried in vessels of the United States or of other nations: and to that extent I do hereby suspend from and after said date the right of free passage through said St. Mary’s Falls Canal of any and all cargoes or portions of cargoes in transit to the Canadian ports.”’ - ee ee A CONSOLIDATION OF INTERESTS. S Me The con olidation of interests between the Lehigh Valley Transportation Co., (Philadelphia & Reading Railroad, ) and the Northern Steamship Co., ( Great Northern Railroad, is one of the most important transportation deals which hat tak n place for sume time. By it the Lehigh Valley Li obtains a direct route to the Paciffe east, and the Northern” Line, the best possible facilities on the Eastern seaboard. The new company will be put under one management, : beginning September 1, John Gordon, General Manager ol the Northern Steamship Company, will be General Manager ot the consolidated Company. General Manager, W. Poe He: ry of the Lehigh Valley wil! again be transferred to hig” old position on the Eastern seaboard. Se The n-w company will have by far the best fleet of steam- ers now afloat on fresh water. Eleven of them are of steel, S all built within a few years, and of the highest lags x marine architecture. In all there will be eighteen boats, and they are worth not less than $3,500,000 John Gordon, the he d of the consoliduted Comp ny, took over the management of the No:thern Steamship Company about three years #g0, and is generally voted one of the shrewd: st and most capable my 1 ke li e managers. ¥ Dr SHIP CANAL TO THE SEA. Concerning the action of the next Congress on the proposed — deep-water channel to connect the lakes with the Atlantic, Judge Chipman is quoted as follows: ‘No Congress wi go backward in the matter. The lake country must have exit by water to the ocean, and so to the ports of the world ‘This is so great a necessity that it requires no prophet to | tell its consummation, I am only surprised that so much | been done toward it, The deep water from Duluth and cago to Buffalo, and from Albany down the Hudson Ri are parts of the great scheme, and are already provided 4 so that we have the deep channel in the lakes at one en¢ down the Hudson on the other already provided for, mending an appropriation for a survey of the cana around Niagara Falls, and the other from Lake Ontar the Hudson River. You see the work is practically. menced and the ocean exit pushed to success, The Det deep waterways convention may congratulate itself. — to the ocean will cost $150,000,000, but the saving on breaking bulk, e(c., will in two years more than | Michigan, with her extended shipping, touching all tb except Ontario, is, of course, greatly interested in gation, but her interest is only a part of the inte 29,000,000 of people, resident in the country tril lakes, have in the matter. The channel mark this century as the wonders of. the Pape