Rensselaer Union, Volume 9, Number 39, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 14 June 1877 — Tidal Wares on the Great Lakes. [ARTICLE]

Tidal Wares on the Great Lakes.

A dispatch from Port Stanley, across the lake, announced that on Tuesday morning a tidal wave five feet high came rushing (ashore on Lake Erie, accompanied by a loud, hissing noise. The wave lasted but a few minutes, and as quickly receded, followed at intervals for an hour hr smaller waves a foot or more high. There was very little wind at the time, and the lake was almost calm. Tidal waves on the lakes ire not of uncommon occurrence. Two or three years ago Col. Charles Whittlesey read before the American Association, at Hartford, a paper containing detailed accounts of inch tidal waves or “ swashes” on this chain of lakes as had been recorded. The first noted on Lake Superior was in 1789. when Alexander Mackenzie saw at tbe Grand Portage, on the north shore, opposite Port Royal, a sudden fall of water, equal to four feet, which soon returned with a rush, and continued to vibrate several hours. In 1834 the water above the Sault suddenly fell two aod one-half feet, and in half an hour came surging back with great velocity. In 1842 the same thing happened iielow the falls, the current of the river rushing swiftly up the stream. Ifr. Foster has placed on record that in August, 1845, while in an open boat on Lake Superior, between Copper Harbor aDd Eagle River, he saw a huge wave, twenty feet high, suddenly rise in the lake, übout a quarter of a mile distant, which curled over like an immense surge, crested with foam, and swept toward the shore, diminishing as it advanced. It passed the voyagers without doing them any injury, ana was succeeded by two nr three swells. In 1847 and the two following years Dr. Foster observed similar phenomena. A sudden rise of one foot three inches was observed at Copper Harbor in November, 1851. In July, 1855, there was a succession of rises and falls at tbe Sault from nine in the morning to four iu the afternoon, the maximum of variation being two feet two inches. At Superior City on the 22d of September, 1865, there was an oscillation of fifty inches in fifteen minutes. On Lake Michigan Father Andre reported in 1670 there was on Green Bay a sudden change of three feet in the level of the lake, which left bis canoe high aad dry. In April, 1858, a wave rushed into the river from the lake with such violence that the ferry-boat on the Menominee was upset. There was a sudden ebb, and in about twenty minutes two larger waves came and receded. The difference in about three-quarters of an hour was full six feet. Tidal waves on Lake Erie have been numerous and violent. It is supposed that the loss of Col. Bradstreet’s expedition off Rockport, west of Rocky River, in October, 1870, was due to a sudden “ swash” similar to the one observed at the same place by Mr. Taylor in 1811, when a white-crested wave rushed in from the calm lake and carried a barrel of salt several rods ever what had been dry ground into a ravine. DcWitt Clinton reported that on the 10th of May, 1823, at Otter Creek, on the Canada shore of Lake Erie, when the water was caTm, a ware nine feet high swept over the beach into the woods, and stranded a thirty-five-ton schooner. The same thing occurred at Kettle Creek, twenty miles distant. In the spring of 1830 Afr. Luther Winchell, of Lake County, was fishing with three others. at Madison Dock, when thred large waves came rolling in and swept the party inshore. The first wave was fifteen to twenty feet high, and the succeeding ones of diminishing height. Fourteen years later a wave fifteen feet high swept into Euclid Creek, carrying everything before it. On the 19th of November, 1845, the waterregisters of Col. Stockton, at Cleveland, showea a sudden fall of two feet eight inches. In December, 1856, the level of the water at Toledo changed, in a few hours, ten feet, first rising five feet above the ordinary level and then falling five feet. In this case, however, the oscillations followed a change in direction of a strong wind. With the last-mentioned exception none of the sudden changes of level were accompanied by, ot followed, strong winds. In nearly every case thfl sudden rise or fall of water occurred when the air was still and the lake perfectly calm. In many of the cases, especially those of extreme oscillatioa, tbe “swashes” were followed by storms. This fact, which is true of similar oscillations of level in large bodies of water in other parts of the world, suggest a possible explanation of the phenomena. The tidalwave is said to come in from open water parallel to the shore. May it not be caused by a sudden atmospheric disturbance or wave, which is local in its extent? This is merely a suggestion, for scientists, who have given time and study to the matter, commit themselves to no definite theory.— Cleveland Herald.