uld give the most satisfactory
results; but any graduated gauge, systematically observed,
would soon furnish evidence of the phenomenon. For the
longitudinal _Seiches_, "Hot Springs," at the northern
extremity of the Lake, or "Lake House," at the southern end,
would be eligible stations for gauges; and for the transverse
_Seiches_, Glenbrook, on the eastern shore, or Capt.
McKinney's on the western margin, would afford good stations.
As far as I am aware, true _Seiches_ have never been
observed in any of the American lakes. This fact is the more
remarkable from the circumstance that long-continued and
careful observations have been made on the fluctuations of
level of several of the large Canadian lakes, with the view of
testing the possible existence of lunar tides. Perhaps these
lakes may be too large to manifest the uninodal rhythmical
oscillations which have been so successfully studied by Forel
in the smaller lakes of Switzerland.[3]

Be this as it may, there can be no doubt that Lake Tahoe is a
body of water in all respects adapted for the manifestation of
this species of oscillation; and that, like the Swiss lakes,
it is subject to _Seiches_. Indeed, the far greater
simplicity in the configuration of the basin of Lake Tahoe
than that of the Lake of Geneva must render the phenomena much
less complicated in the former than in the latter.

Professor LeConte then gives his computations as to the probable
duration of the oscillations on Lake Tahoe, should they occur there.

[Footnote 3: It is proper to add that _Fluctuations of level in the
North American lakes_ have been noticed by various observers, from
the time of the Jesuit Fathers of the period of Marquette, in 1673,
down to the present epoch. Among those who have discussed this problem
may be mentioned in chronological order: Fra Marquette in 1673, Baron
La Hontan 1689, Charlevoix 1721, Carver 1766, Weld 1796, Major S.A.
Storrow 1817, Capt. Henry Whiting 1819, H.R. Schoolcraft 1820, Gen.
Dearborn 1826-29.]

CHAPTER VII

HOW LAKE TAHOE WAS FORMED

Lindgren, the geologist, affirms that after the Sierra Nevada range
was thrust up, high into the heavens, vast and long continued
erosion "planed down this range to a surface of comparatively gentle
topography." He claims that it must originally have been of great
height. Traces of this eroded range (Cretaceous)