OCR Text |
Show THE CANAL AND THE LAKES. The declaration is made again that the Chicago drainage canal is permanently per-manently lowering the level, of the Great lakes. As a matter of fact, this oan hardly be true; becaueu if it were troa we should hear of it, first of ail, in the shoaling in the St. Clair river and tho difficulty of the passage from Lake Huron to Luke Erie: and tho Detroit De-troit papers would be the first to sound the alarm. But there has come no alarm from them, and consequently there need be no present fear that the lake levois have been appreciably lowered. We judge, however, that the warning has been sounded as a precaution rtker thqn from any existine ovidenre. The Chicago Drainage Canal in ii pre', ent condition eeaM hardly afl'oct the mke levels so as to be a practical menace. men-ace. Bat there i a project of im-utesMtly im-utesMtly enlarging. Uta:. canal and'ntak-laz and'ntak-laz it n water thoroughfare for grat vessels. This "Lakes to Uulf" wator-way. wator-way. a proposed, would undoubtedly take jmmeusely more water from the lakes than the canal doe in Us presont size. To meet this ineruHdod demand, a suggestion 'has been made that the aurplus vrator which aow devastates the !rer .iiwtssippt ii tlopd time be turned into the lakes. The practiea-!iihty practiea-!iihty of this, however, has aot yet Jheen deinoa-t rated. It ini.ght be poi-i:-le. but bardlv likelv. There is a iiii-t. ioneser f mu.tiug a co I rav pi rr liiiuw A fu tui r supply of the lakes by turning the Wis-consin Wis-consin river through the old canal iuto Fox river, and this supply would bo a permanent one, although by no moans sulllcient to count for very much us against the serious drain that the "Lakes to Gulf" waterway would create. It is doubtful, too. whether the flood waters of tho Mississippi at i a point where they, could be diverted by gravity into Lake' Michigan would be of sullleiont amount to count for jmuch. Tho problem is one that hardly ! admits of much provable discussion except ex-cept bv actual engineering tests, fur. the lake levels have not boen interfered inter-fered with appreciably by tho Chicago. Drain Canal, and it may be that tho forecasts of disturbance that are now mado will also be found vfliu when tho nctual test is made: and when that, tost i made, that which now appears to be a vcrv serious problem , may be found to be no problem at all. |