Holmes' activity in this connection. Besides, Dr. Holmes' investigations barely touched on the Juncace, the Graminea and the Cyperaceae, three important families on which the writer, in conjunction with Dr. Harold B. Cushing, of Montreal, has made a pretty thorough report. The Phanerogamous plants of the island, it may be said, are now fairly well known, and have been pretty fully catalogued. The same may be said of the Ferns, Club-mosses and Horsetails. Dr. H. B. Cushing reported on the former in the RECORD OF SCIENCE, Vol. VI., No. 8, p. 488, while the writer has described them, along with all the ferns to be found in Eastern Canada, in the magazine published by the Horticultural Society of Montreal.

And now it remains to point out the desiderata of the botany of the district. The whole domain of the local Acrogens has yet to be reported on, with the exception of the ferns, horsetails and club-mosses. The Fungi, the Mosses, the Lichens, the Chare and the Hepatica of the island of Montreal are still in large measure an unknown quantity. In Mr. Watt's catalogue and in the later and completer lists of Professor Macoun, there is no distinction made between the Acrogens of the district and those of the rest of the Dominion, so that there is here an inviting. field for local botanists to enter. And a rich harvest awaits them. Professor Macoun informs me that he has found no fewer than 200 mosses in the neighbourhood of Ottawa. The district of Montreal may be expected to yield at least as large a number. And, then, in the department of microscopic Fungi the field of observation is almost unlimited. The enthusiastic microscopists of the society cannot do better than turn their attention to this vast field at present lying waste for lack of some one to cultivate it, and thus render effective service to our bota

nical section.

What is necessary is that the work remaining to be done should be divided up,-that some of the members of

the society undertake to collect and report on the larger Fungi, others on the microscopic Fungi, others on the mosses, others on the lichens, others on the Hepaticæ, and others on the Chara. By such a division of labour there would be a prospect of having the local flora catalogued within a reasonably short time; whereas, if only one or two take part in the work, it will take a generation to complete it. The Natural History Society will not be true to its responsibilities, nor arise to its opportunities, nor fulfil its functions, until it is seized of at least the main facts relating to the Geology, the Zoology and the Botany of the district.

THE LAKE-ON-THE-MOUNTAIN NEAR PICTON, ONT.

By A. T. DRUMMOND, LL.D.

Imagine a cliff about 180 feet in height, rising almost perpendicularly from the steamboat landing at Glenora on the Bay of Quinté, and immediately on the top, within 300 feet from the edge, but shut in by a fringe of trees on its shore, a lake of clear, fresh water about one and a half miles long with a width of about three-quarters of a mile! Journeying up the zigzag roadway to the top of the cliff, as the eye wanders over the wide expanse of country to the northward, with, in the foreground, the lovely Bay of Quinté, and the deep and broad inlets which branch from it on either side, and, on this sunny, cloudless day, the alternate and contrasting effects of intensely blue water, green grain fields and patches of woods, one gradually realizes that here probably is the finest scenic effect in Central Ontario. This beautiful view is the first point of interest; turning around, close at hand, is found this curious lake perched on the top of the cliff. Its waters are continually flowing out to give the power which runs the Glenora Mills; its inflow is invisible and yet is steadily

maintained from month to month and from year to year. Various opinions have been hazarded in accounting for the inflow. Whilst the surface of the lake is nearly 180 feet above the level of the Bay of Quinté, the bottom is likewise 80 feet above that level. The source of inflow must therefore be sought for in some locality at any rate 200 feet higher than Lake Ontario. A subterranean connection with Lake Erie is a common theory in the surrounding district, but this is based on an inaccurate knowledge of the intervening geological levels and structure. One investigator, again, thinks he has found its source in the State of Ohio. Still others attribute it to springs nearer home. There is ample room for speculation, but it would be safer to attribute the source of the inflow to districts, comparatively nearer at hand, among the Trenton and Black River Limestones, in the higher ground on the northern side of the Bay of Quinté here. Immediately east of Napanee, the Grand Trunk Railway is 127 feet above Lake Ontario, and thence north-eastward there is a steady rise in the limestone area and beyond it into the Laurentian, Sharbot Lake being 389 feet above Lake Ontario, and the dip of the limestone rocks is favourable. That the source of the inflow is not attributable to springs from higher ground in Prince Edward County seems to some extent established by the fact that during the long drought in the months of August and September of this year the level of the lake changed but to a small extent. This drought prevailed seriously in the townships fronting on the Bay of Quinté, whilst further back a fair amount of rain fell. Mr. F. S. Wilson, of Glenora, one of the proprietors of the mills there, to whom I was indebted for courtesies, and on whose authority the height of the lake above the Bay of Quinté is given, wrote to me on September 18th last in reply to my enquiry as to the effect of last summer's drought: "I have watched the level of the water in the lake here and cannot see that the unusually

dry weather has affected it to any great extent. During this season of the year and for the summer months, the water draws down about so much each week. This draft may vary a trifle owing to the state of the weather; if very hot and dry the draft appears greater, which I account for by evaporation and no surface water going in in the shape of rain."

On the 28th July last I visited the lake for the purpose of ascertaining its depth and temperature, and their bearing on the origin of the inflow. The northern and eastern portions of the lake, embracing perhaps one-third of the whole area, were found to be shallow, with a rocky, slowlyshelving bottom. Towards the centre of the lake, the depth drops to about 50 feet. Proceeding thence in a south-westerly direction and at about one-quarter of a mile from the south-westerly shore, the depth is 75 feet; at 500 feet from this shore it is 99 feet; and at 200 feet from it, 93 feet. This south-western shore, which rises here precipitously to about 25 feet above the water line, appears to form a ragged cliff of probably 125 feet in height, the bottom of which is at the bottom of the lake. Proceeding from this point a quarter of a mile towards the westerly end of the lake and keeping 100 feet from the shore, the depth was found to be 72 feet, whilst 500 feet off the extreme west end of the lake the depth was 60 feet. The easterly side of the lake towards the southern shore shows considerable depths likewise. At a half of a mile from this end and 400 feet from the south shore, the bottom was reached at 96 feet, but, as this east end is approached, the water somewhat suddenly shallows, and at 300 to 400 feet from the shore reeds begin to appear. Apparently an area about one mile long by one-quarter to half a mile broad forms a sudden depression in the lake of towards 100 feet in depth, but shallowing to 60 feet as the south-west end of the lake is reached. That it arises from a fault in the Trenton limestone here is very probable,

and the forces which gave rise to this fault have extended over a sufficiently wide area to give some subterranean. connection with higher ground very many miles away.

The results of the readings of the thermometer were even more interesting. Whilst the waters of the Bay of Quinté would be slightly warmer than those of the main body of Lake Ontario, the difference would not be great, and for the purpose of comparison with temperature results in the Lake-on-the-Mountain, readings in the main channel opposite Kingston may be taken as fairly representing the temperatures of the waters of both the Bay of Quinté and Lake Ontario at similar depths. In this main channel, during August of this year, whilst the surface temperature ranged generally around 72° F., the bottom temperature at a depth of 78 feet was 56° to 57° F. Last year, on August 18th, at 4.25 p.m., and under about the same conditions of sky, the water in the same channel was 741° F. at the surface and 72° F. at a depth of 54 feet, and on 25th July, 1889, 67° F. at a depth of 72 feet-the water in this main channel during 1899 being much colder beneath the surface than usual. At the Lake-on-theMountain, on the other hand, on the day of my visit, with the air bright and warm and but few clouds in the sky, the results of numerous readings showed the temperature of the surface water to be 741° F.; at 30 feet depth, 694° F.; at 45 feet, 47° F.; at 60 feet, 43° F.; at 72 feet, 434° F.; and at 99 feet, 42° F. Whilst the surface of the Lake-on-the-Mountain is thus not very different in temperature from the surface of the main channel at Kingston, the temperature at a depth of 78 feet was about 15 degrees colder than at a similar depth at Kingston this year, and 24 degrees colder than at this depth in 1889. The striking fact is shown by these results at Glenora that for the first thirty feet of depth there is comparatively little change in the temperature of the water; that at between thirty and forty-five feet there is a rapid fall in