Huron
LAKE, one of the five great lakes of North America, belonging to the basin of St. Lawrence, second in size only to Lake Superior, and intermediate in position between that lake and Michigan, on the N. W. and Lakes Erie and Ontario, on the S. and S. E.
It is of a somewhat triangular shape, surrounded W. and S. W. by the State of Michigan, and all the other sides by the Province of Ontario, and divided into two unequal parts by a long peninsula and the Manitouline chain of islands, the parts to the N. and E. of which are called North Channel and Georgian Bay.
The total length of Lake Huron, N. to S., is estimated at 280 miles, and its greatest breadth about 190 miles; area, estimated, 25,000 square miles. Elevation above the surface of the ocean, 596 feet.
Greatest depth toward its W. shore at least 1,000 feet, and its mean depth is estimated at 900 feet, or about 300 feet below the level of the Atlantic. In various parts it abounds with islands, their total number being said to exceed 32,000, the largest, Manitoulin, "Evil Spirit" Island, nearly 90 miles long, and in one part almost 30 miles wide. Lake Huron receives the superabundant water of Lake Superior by the river St. Mary, at its N. W. angle, and those of Michigan at Michilimackinac; and discharges its own toward Lake Erie by the St. Clair at its S. extremity. Lakes Nipissing and Simcoe communicate with it by the French and Severn rivers.