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AND

PHYSICAL FEATURES OF THE GREAT

LAKES.

Major Henry A. Gray, m. inst. c. e., m. can. soc. c. e.

Engineer in ClKUgi', Public \Vorl<s of C:iiia(i;i, IMstrictof
Western Ontario.

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COMMERCE AND PHYSICAL FEATUkHS

Ol IIIK

GREAT LAKES.'

■ I

BV MAJOR HKNKV A. C.KAV, C.i:.

The constantly increasing importance of the (ireat Lakes for the
purpose of commerce having recently caused considerable public
attention on both sides of the Atlantic, it is thought that this paper
on the commerce and physical features of these waters, prepared
from notes and observations made from time to time during the
past fifteen years, and from information gathered, during that
period, by the vvriter, while filling the position of engineer in charge
of the Public Works of Canada in the lake district, will be of
interest. The average season of navigation on the lakes is about
220 days. In order to give an idea of the extent of the commerce
on these lakes, it is shown that the annual average net tonnage for
the last five years of the Suez Canal— a world's channel of com-
merce, and open every day in the year — was 6,983,167 tons ; the
annual average net tonnage of the lock and canal, at Sauk Ste.
Marie, for the same period — open only an average. of 220 days in
the year — was 6,821,062. The registered American tonnage of the
lakes, June 30th, was 1,154,878 tons ; 1,392 steam vessels, repre-
senting 736,751 tons, and 2,008 sail, 418,118 tons. The tonnage has
more than doubled in the last five years, the increase being almost
exclusively in steel steamships of 1,500 to 2,500 tons register. The
number of Canadian ves.sels on the lakes is 647, tonnage 132,971 ;
valuation, $3,989,130 The total of coast and inland shipping
registered in Canada is 7.153 vessels, of 1,040,481 tons register,
valued at $31,213,430.

The sailing vessel has almost disappeared from the lakes. The
S(]uare-rigged ship is no longer seen, and only a few of the great
cargo-carrying schooners are left. The sailing fleet was succeeded
by the " propeller," as it is known locally, with its tow of one or

♦Fffisented before the Ciinadiaii Society of Civil Miinincers.

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more cmisorts, and it. in turn, is giving way to the modern steamer,
maintained at little more than one-half the cost, while having a
carrying capacity quite as great, a speed double that of the propeller
and consort, and making two or three round trips for one of the
tow Of large capacity and great power, regardless of wind or
weather, the steamers of the prevailing type bear their cargoes to
antl from ports a thousand miles apart, with the precision of rail-
road trains, each of them transporting at once more than ten
ordinary freight trains.

The work of this lake shipping is given approximately by the
I'liited States census report, iSgo. The freight movement in 1889
on all the lakes was estimated by that report at 53,424,432 tons.
The tonnage put afloat since then has increased this movement to
1 13,240,5 14 tons Estimates only can be given, because at f)ne point
only on the lakes, Sault Ste. Marie, is there an official record made
of tonnage movement. The movement through the Detroit river
alone, in 1S89, was estimated at 36 203,586 tons. The total entries
and clearances, foreign and coastwise, for the port of London that
vear (18S9), were 19,245.417 tons; of Liverpool, 14,175,200 tons
The estimate of the tonnage movement through the Detroit river,
in 1889, was 3,000,000 tons above the combined foreign and coast-
wise tonnage of the ports of London and Liverpool.

The rapid growth, too, of steam transportation, and the com-
petition of lake lines with the railways, have caused continued
reductions in the cost of transportation. The cost per ton per
mile of carrying freight, an average distance of eight hundred miles,
was one and one-half mill in 18S9. The value of all the cargoes —
27,500,000 tons-carried on the lakes during that year was over
$315,000,000. Had this been carried at railway rates, the cost to
the public would have been over $143,000,000 ; by the lake rates it
was about $23,000,000 only ; so that transportation on the lakes
saved to the public about $120,000,000 in one year But, as to a
Urge portion of this tonnage, any possible cost on wheels would
not have permitted it to move at all. In such a case, its produc-
tion at the point of origin would, of course, have been impossible.
That, in turn, would have halted the pioneer emigrant this side of
the richest areas of the continent.

The average distance for wliich freight on the lakes is carried
is 5O6 miles. I'rom this, the Census Hureaii estimates the ton
mileage for the season of iHiSg to be 15,51^,360,000 tons miles.
The aggregate ton mileage of railways for the year ending June
joth, i88(j, was OS, 727, 22J, 146, which shows the ton mileage ot the
lakes is nearly one-fourth of the total ton mileage of railways in the
United States. In no other way could the relative importance of
lake commerce be more effectively shown.

During the season of 1879, grain was shipped from Chicago to
Liverpool for 17 cents per bushel, a rate but little greater than was
piid for transportation by canal from Buffalo to New York, only
ten years before, that is in iSGy. In 1.S90, grain was shipped from
Chicago to Liverpool for 9'/ cents per bushel.

The extraordinary growth in shipbuilding and commerce on
the lakes implies corresponding changes of conditions as to popula-
tion and production along the thousands of miles of their shores
and in the tributary country. Such equipment and use of these
waters mean industrial activity and large advance in population.

1880. 1890.

Four cities on Lake Superior had population 5.528 'MM?
Four cities on Lake Huron and Lake St.

Clair iSi,6io 304,863

Twelve cities on I^ake Michigan 734pI<j6 1,502,^)63

Seven cities on Lake I'>ie 420,685 O75.310

1,342,019 2,546,983
An increase of p jpulation in ten years of 85 per cent
The Government of Canada has expended a large amount o
money, in some instances assisted by the municipalities, on these
lakes in constructing breakwaters, piers, wharves, and in dredging
out approaches to harbors and channels entering same, as well
as inner basins for vessels to lie in, both for commercial purposes
and refuge. Up to the time of Confederation the amount expended
by the Public Works Department of Canada for the above pur-
poses was $890,699.25, and from that period until the 30th June,
1893, the expenditure was $3,439,364 63, making a total of $4,330,-
063.88. This does not include the construction of a dry dock at
Kingston, nor the Canadian canal and locks at Sault Ste. Marie.
Owing to the low stage of water in the lakes during the past two

seasons of navifjatioii, considerable (ieniand has Im'ph madi- ii(>nii
tlie Pepartment of rnblic Works of I'anada for dredj-ing out
channels at the entrance to many of the harbors, and also for a
continuation of the dredging inside the harbors, to enable vessels
to enter ft)r the purpose of loadint; and iinloadinf,'. Care had to be
exerciseil in directing these operations, from the fact that when the
present piers and other works were constructed at the several har-
bors, some years ago, these structures were considered (piite safe,
and as serving all purposes for which they were intended, if ex-
tended and built in from lo to \ \ feet of water, as vessels drawing
these tlepths were the largest afloat Recent years have developed
a much larger capacity in vessels trading upon the upper lakes,
and, consetjuently. a deeper draught. To accommodate this in-
creased size and draught, and even to give access to those of less
tonnage during the low stage - f water, the dredging required was,
in many cases, lower than the foundation of the structures. To
obviate the difliculties and danger to the present structures - where
the increased depth is required — it has become necessary to pro-
tect the piers, etc , by driving sheet-piling along the .sides and ends :
this method is the least expensive. The sketch below shows the
method adopted : —

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High Wafvr of I8SS

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C H A RT S HO

fLUCTi^ATioNs Of j\\z- WatcI • 5

Lakes Michigan a

SHOWING

AN AND Huron.

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TRANSACTIONS CAN. 50C. C. C .

VOL IX. PLATE V

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3.0 •'

2.0 "

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With respect to the low staf,'e of water in the lakes, referred to
ahove as having caused the Department of i'ublic Works of Canada
considerable attention and expenditure of money for dredging pur-
poses during the past twq seasons, various theories have been ad-
v.ince 1 to account for the several changes in the water level of the
lake : it is, however, well established that the fluctuations are due
to the variations in rainfall, as the lake levels approximate closely
to those of rainfall anil snow. The highest known level occurred in
1S3S, when Michigan and Fluron rose 26 inches above ordinary
hiijh stage, and Krie and Ontario iH inches. The lowest level was
in 1811J, when lirie fell ^}4 feet below its usual plane. Since the
hi:,'hest water in 183S, there have been alternate periods of descension
and ascension of the lev Is, either five, seven, or eight years in
lengths, the seven year periud being most frequent. In order to
slnw the fluctuations of the water surface, rainfall, etc , as stated
above, the accompanying chart of Lakes Huron and Michigan has
been prepared, copied from information compiled from official data,
obtained from the II. S. Lakes Survey, and tabulated by Mr. Chas.
Grossman, U. S. Ens^meer at Milwaukee. The chart embraces a
period from iSOi to 1S94. A careful examination will show that
from 18S2 to 1888 the surface of Lakes Michigan and Huron was
considerably above the mean level. The water, at the present
time, is about the average of the period from 1882 to 1887, and
judging the future by the past, it is probable that for several years
to come there will be no permanent increase in depth. By this
chart, the relation between the rainfall and the stage of the lake
can be perceived unmistakably in the spring, autumn, and summer
of 1876, the remarkable rise of water, culminating in September
1876, corresponding with a period of heavy rainfall. This period
was followed by a few months of light rainfall, during which the
water fell rapidly. From this time until December, 1879, the rain,
fall was, as a general thing, less than the mean, and the water sur-
face had a downward tendency. In January, 1880, began a period
of heavy rainfall and a rise in the water. From June to August,
1881, the rainfall was light and the stage of water a falling one. In
September there was the heaviest rainfall known for many years,
accompanied by a correspondingly rapid rise in the water.

While there is every reason to believe tliat a winter of continu-
ally freezing weather, by retaining the snowfall until the thawinR
weather of April or May, will teml to raise the summer li;vel ot ihe
lake at the expense of the winter level, it is not confirmed to any
great degree. The explanation of this is not ditlicult A single
week of warm weather in the winter, causing the melting of the
greater part of the snow, might be preceded and followed by extreme-
ly cold weather, giving a low mean temperature for the month ; so
that a cold winter does not necessarily imply the impounding: until
spring, in the form of snow, of the winter rainfall. Vessel owners
and captains state that the water in the several lakes ru^^^t iiavc
decreased and fallen, as it is now found more ditlicult to enter tiie
several harbors and navigate the channels. Others have remarked
that the deepening of some of the channels lying between
the chain of lakes has caused a drainage and lowering of the water
in the lakes ; others, that the wearing away of the crest of the
rock at Niagara Falls has lowered the water above that point.

In making these and other assertions and statements these
persons seem to forget entirely that the vessels used now are
larger, and draw from six to ten feet more water than they did
some few years ago, and, consequently, require a corresponding
greater depth of channel and harbor accommodation (lenera)
Pue, Lieut -Col. of Engineers, U. S. Army, in charge of the Lake
District for the American Government, writing upon this subject,
states :-" There is no indication anywhere that the waters in the
lakes have mysteriously fallen. The long continued series of ob-
servation, now available, show that since iS 58 the water level has
fluctuated within limits somewhat less than 6 feet, and that these
fluctuations were due to the greater or less rain and snowfall. It
may be considered, as a fact established, that the lakes are simply
great pools forming part of the course of a river, and that they
conform to all the laws governing the rise and fall of rivers."

In 1881, it was stated by the Toronto newspapers that the level
of Lake Ontario had been lowered by work done at the Galops
Rapids, in the St. Lawrence river, and that the harbor of Toronto
had been damaged by it. It was proved, however, that thirty years
before the deepening of the Galops channel was begun, the water

)

Henry A Gray

LAKE SUPtRIOR

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or\ the |irv« of deepest wi

Htnry A Gray.

LAKE SUPt«IOR

LAKE HUnON LAKE MICHIGAN j^^^^ £p|£

LoNqitUpiHaL 5e:ctioH5 or tHe l-AKt^

on the \it\q of deepest w&t«»'.

LAKE
4TARI0

TRANSACTIONS CAN.SOC CC

VOL. IX PL ATE IV.

risi-ft

Am of Wa(«r surface

Area of wa^Bwhed

Aggfipte jrw of bMi'n

Lftke Sttftfrinr

to. MiLt*

31,200.

•9 WILK«

5l,AOO.. ...

9Q. MILCS.

AZ.SOO.

Ltike Uiuvn

2Z800 ...

5S,5no

liokf Afifhi^a/t

22 4SO

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Lakif Eruf

Lake Ontario

...9.960

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22,^00 .

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32,660

28.840.

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was as low in Lake Ontario as it was in i8t3i. The best authorities
on hydraulics show that no harm can result from deepenin« the
several channels, for it is a theory of permanent motion thai a change
oirc^iiiun being made at any point of a river, its effect is extended
up and ilown stream, decreasing as it goes until points are reached
where it disappears entirely, and the river remains unaffected

In the following it is en.leavored to give a part of the latest and
most reliable information relating to the Great Lakes. The lately
completed lake surveys made by the United States have reduced to
exactness much that was previously only approximate.

The water surface of the Great Lakes, with the land draining
into it, presents the total drainage basin of over ^170,000 square; miles,

assembled as follows :

Area of Water
Surface.
Siinare Miles.

Lake Superior 31,200

St. Mary's River 150

Lake Michigan -^2,450

Lake Huron and (ieor-

gian Bay 23,800

St. Clair River 25

Lake St. Clair 410

Detroit River 25

Lake Lrie 9,960

Niagara River 15

Lake Ontario 7.-4°

.Vrea cif Waier

Shed,
Square Miles.

.\(iKre>;ate Are.i

iif Hasin,
Sijuire Miles.

51,600

S2,8oo

800

950

37.700

60,150

31,700

55.500

3,800

• 3.825

3,400

3,810

I,2U0

1,225

22,70,1

32,660

300

315

2 1 ,600

28,840

174,800

270,075

95.275

The combined areas of the lakes exceed the area of England,
Wales and Scotland.

The accompanying figure is a carefully drawn chart of the
lakes, and compilations showing area of water surface, water shed
and aggregate areas of basin ; line of greatest depth and longi
tudinal sections on that line, with heights and depth referred to sea
level. The length of shore line of the lakes and their connecting
rivers is about 5,400 miles. The elevation of the mean surface of
the lakes above mean sea level is as follows : —

Lake Ontario 2461",, feet.

Lake Erie 5T2^c,

Lakes Huron and Michigan 581 i^o

Lake Superior 601/,,

The difference of zo^ feet between Lake Superior and Huron
occurs in the rapids of St. Mary's river ; the 8j*, feet between Lal<es
Huron and Erie, mainly in Detroit river. The difference of 326
feet between Lakes Krie and Ontario occurs in the vicinity of
Niagara Falls, and is principally assembled as follows :— 100 feet in
the five miles of rapids between Lewiston and the lower Suspen-
sion Bridge, 10 feet in the rapids between the Bridge and the Falls,
160 feet at the Falls, 50 feet in the rapids immediately above the
Falls, and 6 feet in the upper Niagara river. The mean depth of
Lake Superior is about 475 feet ; the deepest point marks a depth
of 1,008 feet, or 406 feet below the level of the sea. Lake Huron
has a mean depth of 230 feet and a maximum depth of 750 feet.
Lake Erie is comparatively shallow, havmg an average depth of
less tnan 70 feet and a maximum of 210 feet. Lake Ontario has a
mean depth of about 300 feet and a maximum of 738, or nearly 500
feet below the level of the sea. The channel of the rivers connect-
ing the lakes seldom exceeds the depth of 50 feet. If the lakes
could be drained to the level of the sea. Lake Erie would disappear,
Lake Huron reduced to quite insignificant dimensions. Lake Michi-
gan to a length of about 100 miles, with a width of 25 or 30 miles,
Lakes Ontario and Superior, although with diminished areas, would
still preserve the dignity of their present titles as Great Lakes.

A chemical analysis of water taken from the deepest part of
Lake Superior failed, under the application of delicate tests, to
indicate the presence of salt. The beds of the lakes away from the
vicinity of the shore lines, and at depths exceeding 100 feet, are
almost invariably covered with clay. Specimens from the deep
soundings of Lake Superior were invariably soft clay, varying in color
from red to yellow and blue. In the deepest parts, the drabs and
bluish tints predominate. The temperature at the deepest points
varies little from *'" mean annual temperature of the surrounding
air. The temp "-ature ^ Lake Superior at depths exceeding 200
feet varies but sliguL^ iiom 39° F. In Lake Huron, at depths of
about 300 feet, the temperatures in the months of June and August
were 52" F., while, at a depth of 624 feet, the temperature was
42^^ F., the surface temperature being 52" F., and the air 64" F.
The mean annual rain and melted snowfall of the several lake

)

•^Kgmf-^

basins is as follows : La'^e Superior, 29 inches ; Lake Huron, 30
inches; Lake Michigan, 32 inches ; Lakes Krie and Ontario, 34
inches. This is about equal to 31 inches on the entire lake basin.
The following represents ilie .T.eiage discharges at the outlets of
the lakes : —

Lake Superior, at St. Mary's River 86,000 cubic ft persec.

Lakes Michigan and Huron at St. Clair

River 225,000 " "

Lake Erie, at Niagara 265,000 '\ "

I^ake Ontario, at St. Lawrence River 300,000 "

If the average discharge of the lakes passed through a river one
mile wide with a mean velocity of one mile per hour, such river
would have a depth of 40 feet from shore to shore.

The v'lume of water in the lakes is about 6 000 cubic miles, of
which Lake Superior contains a little less than one-half. Perhaps
a better idea of this volume may be obtained when it is said that
it would sustain Niagara Falls in its present condition for about
100 years.

The principal changes in the elevation of the lake surface are
those due to the wind and to rainfall.

During pronacted autumn gales, waves have been observed
which, through reliable means, measured from 15 to 18 feet above
the normal i)UrraC;,-. The second class of variation are those due to
rainfall, as before stated. The last ten years show a tendency to
irregularities which may lie due to changes in rainfall and water-
shed, produced by the rapid destruction of the forests which, ten
years ago, covered the basin of the upper lakes. Observations made
by the U.S. Survey have established the existence of small tides
which, at Chicago, had an amplitude of ij4 inches for the neap
tide and about 3 inches for the spring tide. There is still another
class of oscillations called seiches, which have been n'ready ob-
served in the Swiss lakes, and for which a solution, in a lespects
satisfactory, has not been offered. Whenever the lakes are suffici-
ently free from the disturbing action of wind to permit observation,
a quite regular series of small waves, or pulsations, can be detected,
which have an interval of about ten minutes from impulse to
impulse. These pulsations seem to occur almost without cessa-
tion on Lake Superior. Besides having tides in common with

'Qi^:»>

the ocean, the lakes have well-defined land and lake breezes, the
breeze from the lakes landward commencing in summer at 8 or
lo o'clock a.m., and continuing until sunset, and the breeze from
the land lakeward from g or lo p.m. until sunrise.

For about one-half the distance across the continent the waters
of the St. Lawrence system divide the Dominion of Canada from
the United States. The boundary line, beginning on the St. Law-
rence in latitude 45 degrees, passes through the middle of Lake
Ontario, Erie, St. Clair. Huron, the St. Mary's River and Lake
Superior, to a point on its north shore, 124 miles east of Duluth
and Superior, the western end of Lake Superior. Lake Michigan
is wholly within the territory of the United States. These great
lakes contain more than one-half the area of all the fresh water (jf
the globe. They make up the largest system of deep water inland
navigation on the globe. No other inland water may bear upon its
bosom so vast a commerce, or touches, as this does, the vital inter-
ests ot so many millions of men. Lying, in general direction, east
and west between the 41st and 47th parallels, they penetrate the
tide water on the St. Lawrence. The western extremity of the
system, the head of Lake Superior, is 1,700 miles only from the
waters of the Pacific. It is 2,384 miles from Belle Isle, at
the mouth of the St. Lawrence, and 4,618 miles from Liverpool.

The range of this water system, it will be observed, is entirely
withm the limits of the north temperate zone, on the line on which
population has most freely moved westward, where final settlement
is most compact, and where climatic conditions insure <he largest
returns to capital and labor. Lake Superior, the head of the sys-
tem, alone receives the waters of 200 riveis. One hundred and
fifty miles northwest of Port Arthur and, Duluth are the fountains
of three of the great drainage systems of the continent. Physical
conditions there send flowing waters northward to the ocean
through Hudson's Bay ; southward, through the Mississippi Valley
and the Gulf of Mexico, and eastward, through the lakes and the
St. Lawrence. For commercial purposes, the northern drainage
system has not yet been utihzed ; but flowing water will forever be
a potent instrument of commerce, southward and eastward, be-
tween the interior and the Atlantic coast.

Such are the peculiar and the favoring physical conditions
under which two great peoples of English tongue occupy, side by
side, the North American continent from ocean to ocean, using in
common this continental water-way, and by treaty stipulations in-
terchanging with each other the use of improvements inside their
respective boundary lines. From both sides, then, of this conti-
nental boundary line, inevitably and forever, will come here for
transit into the world's commerce, the products of the vast plains
and the mountain region of the far Northwest. On this line, also,
to a large extent, will be made the commercial exchanges of the
Pacific Slope, Australia, China and Japan.

SHEET NO. 6

80»

7S»

^^ww g^L/^ r% T

*rTfw i^L/^ n r

PENNSYLVANIA

Longitudinal section
OF theGreat Lakes andConnecting Rivers.

40"

MSL

ABOVU J«rt LEVEL

60/ f err.

ABOVE Se.* LEVEL ABOVE 3 CM LEVEL

LAKE
SUP£/>iO»

won FSer aeeP

ABOVE SKA LtvtL
SeiriEj.

AGARAF;?/^^

mL^

2'Hf££T. V

L.ONTAmOl ~ '^O^gjf.

BOSfEET DE£f

SEA LCVEt

BELOW

300' \S^* '■«>'*'- /
*07 fEfTy- —

400'
500'

BELOn
SEA LEVEL

.3S3rtnZ

To acconi/iaiuj report on Effect of CtuxMgo Drabuuge Canal on levels of
Great Lakes and comuectiiig Rivers" by order of

Honorable JohnCostigan.

Minister ofMarina und Fiskeries
Canada.

The ]Dp(mii%m^e Mdimm of tH^w.

' — witti Uie. —

M(EsFimhu(mIUmmm mM Mm^m^ ippiMirem.

Out. Cocmida. April 1896.
J.LRO'HANLY.C.E.

30«

80°

76-

70»

SHEET, NO. 2.

186A

1865

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-4— -u-

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31Iim6tM/ of Oltcuine

1892

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1893

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4pltU/ 1896.
O'HANLY, C.

1894

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