ered every year in winter.

The north-east and the south-west winds are the prevalent ones, and a
slight inspection of the maps will suffice to show that those compass
bearings are the lines which the lakes and valleys of Northern America
assume.

In 1845, the lakes began suddenly to diminish, and to such a degree was
this continued from June to December, when the hard frosts begin, that,
at the commencement of the latter month, Lake Ontario, at Kingston, was
three feet below its customary level, and consequently, in the country
places, many wells and streams dried up, and there was during the autumn
distress for water both for cattle and man, although the rains were
frequent and very heavy.

Whence, then, do the lakes receive that enormous supply which will
restore them to their usual flow?--or are they permanently diminishing?
I am inclined to believe that the latter is the case, as cultivation and
the clearings of the forest proceed; for I have observed within fifteen
years the total drying up of streamlets by the removal of the forest,
and these streamlets had evidently once been rivulets and even rivers of
some size, as their banks, cut through alluvial soils, plainly
indicated.

The lakes also exhibit on their borders, particularly Ontario, as Lyell
describes from the information of the late Mr. Roy, who had carefully
investigated the subject, very visible remains of many terraces which
had consecutively been their boundaries.

It is evident to observers who have recorded facts respecting the lakes,
that but a small amount of vapour water is deposited by northeasterly
winds from the Gulf of St. Lawrence, the great estuary of that river, of
which the lakes are only enlargements, as the wind from that region
carries the cloud-masses from the lakes themselves direct to the valley
of the Mississippi. For it meets with no obstacle from high lands on the
western littorale, which is low. A north-east gale continues usually
from three to six days, and generally without much rain; but all the
other winds from south to westerly afford a plentiful supply of
moisture. Thus a shift of wind from north-east to north and to
north-west perhaps brings back the vapour of the great valley of the
gulf, reduced in temperature by the chilly air of the north and west. If
then an easterly gale continues for an unusual time, the basin of the
Canadian lakes is robbed of much of its water, which passes to the
rivers of the west, and is