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progressive attenuation, and is not marked on any published

map.

In this case the streams are nearly at right angles to each other when discharged; another instance, however, seems to be furnished in a neighbouring loch, Grön Lake, in which they are collateral. Krefting's map (1868) represents the loch as bifur. cating at its north-east end, each of the inlets giving rise to a stream; they seem about two miles apart, are marked by lines of about equal thickness, and flow nearly parallel to the Trondjhem fjord near Mosvigen.

I believe that instances of a like nature with these are by no means rare in Norway. I know at least one lake near Trondjhem, which at a former period seems to have had a double outfall, and many others in which, were the existing outlet dammed by a moraine twenty to fifty feet high, the water would find one or several openings elsewhere.

I have indeed noted several instances of lakes with two outfalls upon Prof. Munch's large map of Norway (1845), but failing to discover any confirmation in other maps, and finding it in other respects unreliable upon matters of such detail, I can assign no value to them.

It would be a fact of curious significance, as bearing upon Prof. Ramsay's theory of the glacial origin of lakes, if most authenticated instances of lakes with several outfalls could be referred to districts which have been traversed by a continuous sheet of glacier ice. When glaciers were confined within valley boundaries, as in Britain, their force was of necessity concentrated along lines, but upon level tracts or plateaux they were free to scoop wherever circumstances favoured erosion. Should it prove that Norway, North America, and Lapland give us the majority of lakes with several outfalls, no other theory can explain the fact.

St. James's Park, S. W.

HUGH MILLER

I

Trees Pierced" by other Trees COLONEL GREENWOOD's answer (NATURE, vol. ix. p. 463) to Mr. J. J. Murphy encourages me to mention a botanical phenomenon which I witnessed in 1865, but have scarcely ever mentioned before for fear of being disbelieved. was standing on the bank of the little river Evenlode, in Oxfordshire, looking at an old pollard willow trunk about six feet high, when I observed in the decayed wood of the tree an upright sort of staff resembling a dark-coloured old school ruler, and of about that size. I knocked away some of the touchwood above and below, and found my ruler lengthened each way. At the point where it would naturally issue at the top, I found a small twig of undoubted ash, of which the leaves were fully expanded, sprouting up among the branches of willow. Upon clearing away a little more rotten wood I laid bare another ruler, which, like the first, appeared to lengthen upward to the top of the trunk and downward to the ground, but there was no second twig of ash above. The "rulers" were rough where they were totally enclosed by the willow, and had put forth little thread like rootlets. But the part which I found exposed to the air was smoother and looked like a true branch, but was darker than the usual colour of ash. I'afterwards drew the proprietor's attention to the tree, but he could not suggest any explanation. I daresay it is there and in the same condition to this day; if anyone wished it, I could easily describe where it might be found. One explanation I have had offered is, that an ash-seed had fallen down a deep crack in the willow. But there was no sign of such a crack-no crack-like cavity-one of the "rulers" being totally and closely enveloped with the rotten wood, and the other very nearly so. Whether it would have been possible for an ash-seed to germinate in a crack which must have been at least four feet deep and probably much deeper, and was open at the top only and was certainly no larger than the shoot which it formed, is a question I must leave to botanists. Another explanation was, that as ash-roots travel for a considerable distance underground, it was possible that two such roots, finding suitable pabulum in the rotten trunk of the willow, had turned upwards. But this also I must leave to men of science, and notably to Col. Greenwood. T. S.

PROF. TAIT ON "CRAM"

ΟΝ N Wednesday, the 22nd inst., at the ceremony of capping the Graduates in Arts of Edinburgh Úniversity, Prof. Tait gave an address in which he touched

on various subjects of Academical interest. subject of “Cram" he spoke as follows :—

On the

"It is a mere common-place to say that examination, or, as I have elsewhere called it, artificial selection is, as too often conducted, about the most imperfect of human institutions; and that in too many cases it is not only misleading, but directly destructive, especially when proper precautions are not taken to annihilate absolutely the chances of a candidate who is merely crammed, not in any sense educated. Not long ago I saw an advertisement to the effect :-' History in an hour, by a Cambridge Coach. How much must this author have thought of the ability of the examiners before whom his readers were to appear? There is one, but so far as I can see, only one, way of entirely extirpating cram as a system, it may be costly-well, let the candidates bear the expense, if the country (which will be ultimately the gainer) should refuse. Take your candidates, when fully primed for examination, and send them off to sea-without books, without even pen and ink; attend assiduously to their physical health, but let their minds lie fallow. Continue this treatment for a few months, and then turn them suddenly into the Examination Hall. Even six months would not be wasted in such a process if it really enabled us to cure the grand inherent defect of all modern examinations. It is amusing to think what an outcry would be everywhere raised if there were a possibility of such a scheme being actually tried-say in Civil Service Examinations. But the certainty of such an outcry, under the conditions supposed, is of itself a complete proof of the utter abomination of the cramming system. I shall probably be told, by upholders of the present methods, that I know nothing about them, that I am prejudiced, bigoted, and what not. That, of course, is the natural cry of those whose 'craft is in danger'-and it is preserved for all time in the historic words, Thou wert altogether born in sin, and dost thou teach us?' I venture now to state, without the least fear of contradiction, a proposition which (whether new or not) I consider to be of inestimable value to the country at large-Wherever the examiners are not in great part the teachers also, there will cram to a great extent supersede education. I need make no comment on this, beyond calling your particular attention to the definite article which twice occurs in the sentence, and which gives it its peculiar value.

"I said, in my former address [eight years ago], that 'coaching' seems quite natural to all who are engaged in it, and, in particular, that it did so to myself more than twenty years ago. This shows that it is possible that something akin to the results of the profound speculations of Riemann, Helmholtz, and others, may hold in the moral if not in the physical universe. It is probably new to most of my audience to hear that very great authorities are as yet in doubt whether the properties of space itself are the same in different localities; whether, in short, in our rapid flight through space, we may not be insensibly getting into a region, our existence in which will involve a gradual change of form, in order that our physical substance may continue to fit the varying circumstances of our position. Assume that something like this holds in the world of mind, and you see at once how the same man may, while residing in Edinburgh, honestly denounce certain methods as wholly pernicious which a few years' residence in Cambridge may invest in his eyes with a perfection more than human. Í do not say that this is an explanation; but the analogy is at least worthy of remark; and I leave further discussion of it to my old friend Mr. Todhunter, who, living in the middle of that singular region, tells me he thoroughly agrees with me in my main arguments against examinations, and then soundly rates me for my mode of propounding them."

After advocating the restoration of the B.A. degree to Edinburgh University, Prof. Tait spoke in forcible terms

against the centralisation of our various Universities, Licensing Boards, &c, "with its inevitable acolyte cram.' He illustrated in an original and striking way what he thinks would be the inevitable result of centralisation, by referring to the dead and motionless uniformity which must be the result of the degradation of energy. Prof. Tait drew a ludicrous yet melancholy picture of what would be the results of universal uniformity in the social world.

"The application of these ideas," he said, "to political and social questions, among which of course comes University centralisation, is not far to seek. What would the world of men be without what we may call 'social entropy? Everyone would then be his own farmer, baker, butcher, brewer, banker, boot-black, &c.—all would be at the same dead level-no possible help from one to his neighbour, even if it could be required; no distribution of tasks, and therefore (in every department) that endless waste which is inevitable in operations conducted on a petty scale. No possibility of that mutual reliance and assistance which forms the friendships we delight in, none of that variety which is the real charm of life-no idea which would not simultaneously strike every unit of the race-no news, no books-nothing but sameness ! None of the pleasure of being able to assist struggling worth, none of gratitude for generous aid. Nay, we might pursue it further. No difference of temper, character, tendencies, age, sex-a state lower than the lowest known in vegetation; but here the end must come. Or, to take a somewhat different point of view (though the basis is absolutely the same, for oscillation implies entropy), what if everything were always at its average value? Never absolutely either fair or rainy weather, clear or cloudy, calm or stormy, hot or cold; but a dead average. Never either absolutely day or night; no tides, no seasons; men never either absolutely awake nor absolutely asleep-continually in a semi-lethargic statehalf happy, half discontented; half playful, half serious neither running, walking, standing, sitting, nor lying, but a perpetual average. No catastrophes such as a birth, a marriage, or a death-no distinction between man and man-nothing of that variety which is the law of nature. Eternal, hideous, intolerable sameness, by necessity devoid of all capacity for action: the human race turned into a set of Nürnberg toy-solders, all cast in the same mould, of the same base material, and all similarly bedaubed from the same glaring paint-pots, and moving on the same lazy-tongs with the same relative velocities. No one to advise you in a difficulty, no one in whose superior strength of mind or body you could confide; nothing around you except what you feel must be but the image of yourself (as you will early have learned introspectively to look at it)—mean, sordid, and grovelling! No one whom you can respect, none to trust-all, like yourself, vile and despicable! Here I would gladly say--Enough of such horrors,' and quit the disgusting theme. But, unfortunately, the application has still to come. It will be found very pertinent to many things which have been of late evolved from the innermost consciousness of state

craft, and hailed, with altogether inexplicable delight, by what seemed (till lately) to be at least a numerical majority of the representatives of our countrymen."

Prof. Tait then referred to the late Prof. Forbes and the recent discussion concerning his character and work. For what Prof. Tait has to say on this subject we must refer our readers to his address, which is printed in full in the Scotsman of the 23rd inst. He then spoke of the scheme for extending Edinburgh University, and the facilities which would thereby be acquired for teaching Science practically, as it ought to be taught, and thus tend to extinguish "paper-science," a term which "conveys to all who are really scientific men an impression of the most unutterable contempt." In conclusion, Prof. Tait referred to the difficulties attending the work of his

own class, that of "Natural Philosophy," arising from the want of adequate means. He hopes to be able, at least, to put the Natural Philosophy Department in Edinburgh University on a proper footing for his successor.

THE SOIRÉE OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY

ON Wednesday, April 22, the first soirée of the Royal Society since their removal into their new apartments was given by the President, Dr. Hooker, and came off with the greatest éclat. There was a remarkably good display of scientific apparatus, and we think that the interdependence of theman of Science and of the manufacturer of instruments is at no time better exemplified than on occasions like the present. The apartments devoted to eminent in the various branches of Science—it might have the purposes of exhibition were thronged by the most been said with reason that a considerable fraction of the nation's mind had centred for the time being in the rooms at Burlington House. Not as an unhealthy sign either the attention shown towards that divine by scientific men did we regard the presence of Archbishop Manning and of the very opposite poles of thought.

Of the objects of interest displayed in the six rooms devoted to this purpose we can here only give details of the more prominent. In the first room several maps and photographs were exhibited by the Royal Geographical Society: also some splendid pieces of glass-work by Messrs. Chance, consisting of a dioptric fixed light (4th order) with nine prisms and six rings of lenses in four panels, a segment of a dioptric totally reflecting mirror first proposed by Mr. Thomas Stevenson, C.E., a dioptric holophote designed by the same engineer, and a lamp-burner designed by Mr. J. N. Douglass, C.E., with six concentric wicks. This burner can be used either for colza oil or for petroleum. The President exhibited also in this room some interesting objects from the Kew Museum. Amongst these we noticed some fossil copal gums from Zanzibar, carved cocoa-nut shells from the Fiji Islands, a vase made from the ash of Moguilea utilis, mixed with clay, from Parà, and different chemical and medical products from species of Eucalyptus.

In the second room Mr. Crookes exhibited his experiments showing the attraction and repulsion accompanying radiation. The pendulum described by Mr. Crookes in his communication to the Society was exhibited under various forms, and the experiments excited

the liveliest interest.

Here also Dr. C. J. B. Williams exhibited some new ear-trumpets, and Messrs. Whitehouse and Latimer Clark an electrical recorder for registering time, speed, distance, and number of passengers inside and out in tram-cars and omnibuses. This information is registered in four parallel columns in red ink on long strips of paper, by automatic pens.-Mr. Vernon Heath exhibited some autotype landscapes, and the president some Tappa dresses from Fiji, which reminded us strongly of the ornaments placed in our fire-stoves during the summer. Here also we were shown a microscope by Messrs. Powell and Lealand, with a immersion objective

and the eternal Podura scale.

50

In the third room, the Entrance Saloon, were some exquisitely coloured drawings of the flora of Brazil, and landscapes by Miss North; likewise some coloured drawings of New Zealand birds, exhibited by Dr. W. Lawry Buller. The pair of new Paradise Birds collected by Signor D'Abertis in New Guinea, promised by Dr. Sclater, was not exhibited.

In the fourth room, the Reading Room, Dr. Tyndall exhibited the apparatus (already described in our columns) for showing the stoppage of sound by a non-homogeneous mixture of air and vapours, and also experiments illus

* See NATURE, vol. viii. p. 305.

trating Savart's observations on the action of sound on a jet of water. Dr. J. H. Gladstone exhibited some photographs of fluorescent substances. Bottles containing fluorescent liquids, such as æsculin or quinine di-sulphate, appear in the photographs nearly as black as a bottle filled with ink; similarly, labels written with such liquids, although the characters are ordinarily invisible to the eye, show up their designs when photographed. In this room were to be seen also photographs of the Naples Aquarium, exhibited by Mr. W. A. Lloyd, and one of Dr. Dohrn's Zoological Station at Naples, lent by Mr. Darwin; likewise some lithographed plates of recent Foraminifera from the Abrolhos Bank, exhibited by Profs. W. K. Parker and Rupert Jones. Mr. J. Norman Lockyer exhibited a series of photographs of metallic and solar spectra enlarged by Messrs. Negretti and Zambra from photographs taken by his new method of comparing spectra by means of a perforated shutter sliding in front of the slit of the spectroscope. In this room the new sextant devised by Capt. J. E. Davis was exhibited. This instrument, which will be found particularly useful in night observations, permits the taking of a series of observations without reading off each observation; this being accomplished by the adaptation of a micrometer movement to the tangent-screw, and the application of indicators to the arc of the instrument. Mr. Alfred Tribe here exhibited some specimens of metals (palladium, copper, &c.) which had become agglomerated in a most remarkable manner by hydrogenisation; under ordinary circumstances the metals shown existed in the form of fine powders, but, as soon as charged with hydrogen, become agglomerated.

The fifth room, or Principal Library, is by far the largest apartment of the suite. Mr. C. V. Walker's electrical apparatus for carrying out the "block system," or "space intervals," between trains on the South-Eastern Railway, was here displayed. Messrs. Tisley and Spiller exhibited their compound pendulum apparatus in action, and distributed cards with the exquisite curves described upon them. This firm exhibited also the beautiful triple combination double-image prism belonging to Mr. Spottiswoode. Mr. E. B. Tylor's ingenious apparatus for illustrating refraction (already described in these columns) was exhibited in this room.* We observed also some splendid gold crystals exhibited by Mr. W. C. Roberts, Chemist to the Mint; Mr. W. H. Barlow's "Logograph," a recording instrument for showing the pneumatic action accompanying the exercise of the human voice; and a pair of gyrostals exhibited by Prof. Sir William Thomson. Messrs. Negretti and Zambra exhibited their ingenious thermometer for recording deep-sea and atmospheric temperatures, already described in NATURE. Mr. John Browning exhibited a good collection of apparatus. Mr. G. P. B.dder's micrometer, a most ingenious device for observing the transit of very faint stars, in which the spider lines, capable of the usual micrometer movements, are illuminated by a side light, and are reflected into the eye-piece by a mirror, thus appearing bright upon a dark ground, and by interposing coloured glasses between the lamp and the spider lines can be coloured at pleasure. Sir Charles Wheatstone's new photometer is well worthy of notice the screen slides along the divided scale and its motion causes the increased overlapping of two sliding wedges of neutral-tint glass. The light is looked at directly through a hole in the screen, and the latter moved along the scale till the light just ceases to be visible. We noticed also a micro-spectroscope of very good definition, showing the absorption spectrum of cantharides. Mr. Apps exhibited a model and diagram of a fireproof building, and a model of an improved apparatus for indicating the speed of revolving shafts, both being the inventions of Sir David Salomons.

* We should recommend lecturers using this apparatus to see that the wood is well seasoned; the one exhibited soon ceased to act satisfactorily, owing to the warping of the board.

The plan for rendering buildings fireproof consists in laying on water-pipes between the walls and floors of the building, these pipes being self-acting by means of fusiblemetal plugs or electrical communications. The lastnamed model is an application of the ordinary governor balls, which are connected with the shaft, and by a system of levers, with an index, which moves up a graduated scale. A double-action spectroscope with a divided object-glass, made by Grubb, of Dublin, was shown and explained by Lord Lindsay; this instrument is intended by its owner to be attached to a large equatorial for the observation of stellar spectra. Among other noticeable things in this room we may mention the Megohm, one million British Association units, by Messrs. Elliott Brothers; Mr. George Barnard's highly artistic watercolour drawings and the copies of sacred Icons of the Greek Church in Russia, and photographs by Mr. John Leighton. Col. Stuart Wortley's photographs from life are high examples of art, and the group of living corals (Astroides calicula) from the Bay of Naples, exhibited by the Crystal Palace Aquarium Company, attracted large numbers of admirers by their beauty. At 10 o'clock Dr. R. Norris, of Birmingham, exhibited in the meeting-room experiments to illustrate a form of contractive energy which displays itself in various substances. Among other things the Doctor showed that the statement that indiarubber contracts by heat is incorrect; this substance, it is true, contracts in the direction of its length, but it expands in breadth at the same time, thus resembling the so-called contraction of muscular fibre.

In soirées of this kind experiments illustrative of new chemical discoveries are generally "conspicuous by their absence." This surely cannot be due to the fact that the science does not permit of public demonstration; it arises rather from the "messy" nature of the materials employed by chemists, thus precluding the introduction of chemicals into such rooms as are devoted by the Society to their gatherings. We are of opinion that in not fitting up and adding to their now noble apartments a laboratory, an omission has been made which may be regretted in the future.

THE LECTURES AT THE ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY'S GARDENS

II.

N the second and third of his lectures On the Geographical Distribution of the Mammalia, delivered on scribed in detail the ranges of the different orders of the Tuesday and Friday of last week, Mr. Sclater deterrestrial mammals; and to avoid unnecessary repetition, employed the well-known system of division of the earth's surface, proposed before the Linnean Society in 1857, from a study of the bird class, according to which there are six regions (1) The Palearctic, including Europe, Africa north of the Atlas Mountains, and Northern Asia. (2) The Ethiopian, including all Africa south of the Atlas Mountains, and the southern part of Arabia. (3) The Indian, including Asia south of the Himalayas, Southern China, and the Indian Archipelago. (4) The Australian, including Australasia. (5) The Nearctic, including North America down to the centre of Mexico; and (6) The Neotropical, including South and Central America. The following is a summary of his remarks.

Among the monkeys the anthropoid apes inhabit equatorial Africa, where the gorilla and chimpanzee are found; Sumatra and Borneo are the home of the orang outang; while the eastern portion of India, Burmah, and the Indian Archipelago constitute the habitat of the various species of gibbon. The catarrhine monkeys, including the green monkeys (Cercopitheci), and the macaques inhabit Africa and India respectively; the latter, however, extending into Africa north of the Sahara, as far as Apes Hill and the Rock of Gibraltar. The platyrrhine monkeys, among

which are the spider monkeys, the howlers, and the marmosets, are found in the Neotropical region, except in its southern and western parts. The lemurs are mostly confined to the island of Madagascar, some few inhabiting Eastern India, and two forms occurring in Western Africa.

Among the large order of the Carnivora the lion is a denizen of the forests of the Ethiopian region, and spreads slightly beyond it into India. The tiger is found in the Indian region, and spreads up into China and Central Asia, where its coat becomes coarser in texture. leopard is distributed over the districts of the lion and The tiger; it is also found in Borneo and Ceylon, whilst the lynx occurs in the Neartic and Palearctic regions. The dogs are cosmopolitan, though it is doubtful whether the single form of Australia has not been introduced by man in early times. The bears inhabit the Palearctic, the Nearctic, and the Indian regions, being also found in the Andes of Peru.

[April 30, 1874

hare and rabbits have a wider distribution, as have also increase of population has almost exterminated it. The the squirrels.

It will be noticed that Australia has been scarcely mentioned in the above remarks, and that the dog which is spoken of in connection with it is not known certainly to almost entirely represented by animals of the Marsupial be indigenous. This is because the mammalian fauna is order, the kangaroos, bandicoots, phalangers, wombat, koala, thylacine, and dasyures being peculiar to it and Van Dieman's land. Among Marsupialia the group of ing quite through Mexico into the United States. opossums is only found in the Neotropical region, extend

ornithorhynchus and the echidna, are confined to New The Monotremata, including only the duck-bill or South Wales and Tasmania.

(To be continued.)

THE FLUCTUATIONS OF THE AMERICAN
LAKES AND THE DEVELOPMENT OF
SUN-SPOTS

Among the odd-toed, or Perissodactylate Ungulates, the horses and asses are strictly Old-World forms, the exact place of origin of the former being uncertain. The asses are spread over the Indian and Ethiopian regions. The tapir is very aberrant in its distribution, one species appearing only in Sumatra and the Malay Peninsula, while in the northern portion of South America and Central IN the course of an investigation, undertaken in my

America three others occur.

the Indian and Ethiopian regions only, the Asiatic species The rhinoceroses are from all being now or having lately been exhibited in the Zoological Gardens. Those from Africa are less perfectly known, only two species having been accurately determined.

Among the even-toed, or Artiodactylate Ungulates, the camels are very peculiar in their habitats, the Llamas of the Andes and the camels of Africa, Arabia, and part of Russian Asia being the only known forms; those from the last-named locality being the only known wild true camels of the present day. The giraffe is purely Ethiopian. The bison in North America represents the oxen of the Indian region, which in Africa and Arabia are in great measure replaced by the antelopes, so varied in form and size. The Cervidæ are not found in the Ethiopian nor Australian regions. The hippopotamus inhabits all the large rivers of Africa, the smaller species being found in and about Liberia. Of the Swine-family the peccaries are the representatives in the Neotropical region, whilst the quaint Wart-Hog and Red River Hog are exclusively African.

The hyrax, or coney of Scripture, whose zoological position is so uncertain, is found in Arabia and parts of Africa only.

There are only two species of elephant known, the Indian being from the Indian region, and the African from the Ethiopian. In very recent times they abounded in Siberia, and earlier still in many other parts of the world.

The Neotropical region abounds in peculiar Edentate animals, as the armadillos, sloths, and ant-eaters. The scaly ant eaters or Pangolins, and the ant-bears Orycteropus, are found, the former in India and Africa, the latter in Africa only.

or

the

Among the Insectivora, the peculiar Solenodon inhabits St. Domingo; the gilded mole, South Africa; Tenrec, Madagascar; and the Tupaias, the Malay districts.

Among the Rodentia the porcupines, divided into two well-distinguished sub-families, inhabit, one the Old and the other the New World. The Neotropical region, however, is the head-quarters of the Hystricida; the capybara, together with the agoutis, and numerous other forms being from that locality. chinchilla and viscacha. There are also found the Nearctic region, and used to do so in Europe, till the The beaver abounds in the

Woods, bearing on the accuracy of certain former surmission, as to late changes of level in the Lake of the capacity as Geologist to the B.N.A. Boundary Comveys, I found it desirable to tabulate the better-known fluctuations of the great lakes for a series of years as a term of comparison. The observations of secular change in Lake Erie are the most complete, and these, when plotted out to scale, showed a series of well-marked unwith the eleven-yearly period of sun-spot maxima. A dulations which suggested the possibility of a connection comparison with Mr. Carrington's diagram of the latter confirmed this idea, and as I do not remember to have seen these phenomena connected previously, I have been induced to draw out the reduction of both curves here lakes. presented, and the table of the height of water in the

classed as follows by Colonel Whittlesey, who has given The changes of level affecting the great lakes are much attention to the subject :

1. General rise and fall, extending through a period of many years, which may be called the "Secular Variation.” 2. Annual rise and fall within certain limits, the period of which is completed in about twelve months.

from a few inches to several feet. This is of two kinds,
3. A sudden, frequent, but irregular movement varying
another, described as a slow pendulum-like oscillation, has
one due to obvious causes, such as winds and storms;
read before the American Association at its last meeting,
been somewhat fully discussed by Whittlesey in a paper
and is due probably to barometric changes in the super-
incumbent atmosphere.

present inquiry.
The first class is the only one directly included in the

on Solar Physics, chap. xxvi., entitled "The Meteorology
1.-Table of Great Lakes.—In Mr. Lockyer's new work
of the Future,' exhibits the parallelism of periods of
solar energy, as denoted by the outburst of sun-spots,
for the southern hemisphere, by a discussion of his own
with the maximum periods of rainfall and cyclones, and
arranged the more accurate numerical observations of
and Mr. Meldrum's results. In the table (p. 505) I have
few years, in a method similar to that there adopted.
the height of the lakes from registers kept for the last

taken at Toronto, and measured upward from an arbi-
Prof. Kingston's observations of Lake Ontario were
trary mark. They extend from the year 1854 to 1869, and
maximum of 1860. Taking the mean annual level for
include the minimum periods of 1856 and 1867, and the

each minimum and maximum epochal year, and one year on each side of it, as is done by Mr. Meldrum, and deducing a mean from each of three tri-yearly periods,

means.

an arbitrary mark, for the years surrounding periods of maxima and minima in Table showing the height of water in the American Great Lakes, measured upward from the occurrence of Sun-spots.

Lake Superior,
from U.S. Lake

Survey
Observations.

Lake Michigan, from U.S. Lake

Survey Observations.

Lake Erie, from
U.S. Lake Survey
Observations.

Triyearly

means.

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Mean of maximum periods in Lakes Ontario, Superior, Michigan, and Erie, from U.S. Lake Survey Obs. 29'61 Mean of minimum

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the agreement is close between the solar periods and those of fluctuation in the lakes.

The remaining observations are those of the U.S. Lake Survey, and include only one period each of maximum and minimum in solar spots. The measurements of the U.S. Survey are reckoned downwards from a mark representing the high water of 1838 in each of the lakes, but in the table here given they have been reduced so as to read upwards from an arbitrary line chosen 4 feet below that datum. They are thus rendered more intelligible and made to agree in sense with Prof. Kingston's

measurements.

The result is the same in each of the lakes, only differing in amount by a few inches. A mean deduced from the U.S. Lake Survey observations in Lakes Superior, Michigan, Erie, and Ontario, gives a difference between the years surrounding the maximum of 1860 and the minimum of 1867 of 14'64 inches in favour of the former.

2. Diagram of Curves.-The curve representing the fluctuation of Lake Erie from 1788 to 1857 inclusive is constructed on a careful discussion of the evidence collected by Col. Whittlesey and given by him most fully in the Smithsonian Contributions to Knowledge" for 1860.

66

From 1788 to 1814 there are no accurate measurements to any well-recognised datum line, and I therefore give below the measurements and approximations on which the general curve for these years has been constructed. The description of the fluctuation of the lake will be seen

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From this date to 1857 many actual measurements are given by Whittlesey, and from these the curve for those years has been constructed. The whole of the observations are reduced as nearly as possible to the average level for each year by comparison with a mean annual curve for about 10 years constructed from monthly averages of bi-five-day means given by the U.S. Lake Survey. 1859 to 1869 both inclusive are from yearly means derived from continuous observations at Cleveland by the U.S. Survey. 1871 to 1873 are from information kindly furnished by Gen. Comstock, Director of the Lake Survey. I have no data for 1870.

The earlier and less systematic observers of the fluctuations of the lakes would scarcely give attention to any but the more important changes of level, and it is possible that these in many cases may have been exaggerated in amount. It would seem improbable, however, from the

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