A Limnological Study of the Finger Lakes of New York

Abstract

In 1910 the authors of this paper were enabled to visit the Finger Lakes district of New York, through a grant from the United States Bureau of Fisheries, and the month of August was spent in work upon the lakes. In February, 1911, Mr. Juday visited four of the lakes to secure winter temperatures. A week in August and September, 1911, was used in obtaining a second set of summer temperatures. The temperatures of Skaneateles and Owasco Lakes were also taken in February, 1912, and in the early autumn of that year. The purpose of the investigation was to extend to these lakes the studies on dissolved gases, plankton, and temperatures, which the authors had already made on the lakes of Wisconsin. The lakes of New York are peculiarly well adapted for such study. Four of those visited—Canadice, Otisco, Conesus, and Hemlock—are directly comparable with several of the lakes of Wisconsin in size, depth, and biological conditions. The others, beginning with Owasco Lake, form a series whose smaller members are not greatly different from Green Lake, Wis. ; but whose largest members, Cayuga and Seneca, are the largest inland lakes 6 (except Lake Champlain) and the deepest in the United States east of the Rocky Mountains. Still further, these lakes lie in a region whose topography is hilly, but not mountainous. The highest elevations close to the lakes do not exceed 300 meters (1,000 feet) above the water, and the immediate slopes are, in general, much lower. The lakes, therefore, are not exposed to the peculiar climatic conditions of mountain lakes, but in general these conditions are comparable with those which exist in Wisconsin.