It has been calculated by Darby, the American hydrographer, that the mean discharge from the St Lawrence river and gulf, from an area rather largely estimated at 565,000 square miles, must be upwards of 1,000,000 cubic feet per second, taking into account the mean discharge at Niagara, which is 389,000 cubic feet per second from a drainage area of 237,000 square miles, and bearing in mind the well-ascertained fact that the tributaries of the lower St Lawrence, coming from mountainous woody regions where snow falls from 4 to 8 feet in depth, deliver more water per square mile than its upper tributaries.
The great prosperity and growth of Canada are owing no doubt to its unrivalled system of intercommunication by canal and river with the vast territories through which the St Lawrence finds its way from the far-off regions of the Minnesota to the seaboard. This great auxiliary of the railways (by means of which trade is now carried on at all seasons) must therefore be prominently taken into account in considering the transport routes of the future, their chief use being, as far as the conveyance of traffic over long distances is concerned, to augment, in the shape of feeders, the trade of the river, as long as it keeps open, and when it closes to continue the circulation of commerce by sledges until the ice breaks up and restores the river to its former activity. By the published statistics of the harbour commissioners of Montreal it appears that during the ten years 1870–79 the opening of the navigation at Montreal varied between 30th March and 1st May, and the close of the navigation between 26th November and 2d January, and that, whilst the first arrival from sea varied from 20th April to 11th May, the last departure to sea only varied from 21st November to 29th November during the ten years.
According to the chief geographer of the United States Geological Survey, the following were the principal data for the St Lawrence lakes in 1886. Area of basin of St Lawrence 457,000 square miles, of which 330,000 belong to Canada and 127,000 to the United States. Lake Superior—area 31,200 square miles, length 412 miles, maximum breadth 167 miles, maximum depth 1008 feet, altitude above sea-level 602 feet. Lake Huron—area 21,000 square miles, 263 miles long, 101 broad, maximum depth 702 feet, altitude 581 feet Lake Michigan—area 22,450 square miles, maximum breadth 84 miles, length 345 miles, maximum depth 870 feet, altitude 581 feet Lake St Clair—29 miles long. Lake Erie—area 9960 square miles, length 250 miles, maximum breadth 60 miles, maximum depth 210 feet, height above sea-level 573 feet and above Lake Ontario 326 feet. Lake Ontario—area 7240 square miles, length 190 miles, breadth 54 miles, maximum depth 738 feet, elevation 247 feet. In 1885 the enrolled vessels on the St Lawrence lakes belonging to the United States numbered 2497 (steam 1175, sailing 1322) with an aggregate burthen of 648,988 tons (steam 335,859 tons, sailing 313,129 tons).
ST LEONARDS is the name given to the western and more modern part of Hastings (q.v.), a watering-place on the coast of Sussex, England. St Leonards proper, which formed only a small part of the district now included under that name, was at one time a separate township. The population of St Leonards in 1881 was 7165.
ST LEONARDS, Edward Burtenshaw Sugden, Lord (1781–1875), lord chancellor of England, was the son of a hairdresser in Duke Street, Westminster, and was born in February 1781. After practising for some years as a conveyancer, he was called to the bar at Lincoln’s Inn in 1807, having already published his well-known treatise on the Law of Vendors and Purchasers. In 1822 he was made king’s counsel and chosen a bencher of Lincoln’s Inn. He was returned at different times for various boroughs to the House of Commons, where he made himself prominent by his opposition to the Reform Bill of 1832. He was appointed solicitor-general in 1829, was named lord chancellor of Ireland in 1834, and again filled the same office from 1841 to 1846. Under Lord Derby’s first administration in 1852 he became lord chancellor and was raised to the peerage as Lord St Leonards. In this position he devoted himself with energy and vigour to the reform of the law; Lord Derby on his return to power in 1858 again offered him the same office, which from considerations of health he declined. He continued, however, to take an active interest especially in the legal matters that came before the House of Lords, and bestowed his particular attention on the reform of the law of property. He died at Boyle Farm, Thames Ditton, 29th January 1875.
Lord St Leonards was the author of various important legal publications, many of which have passed through several editions. Besides the treatise on purchasers already mentioned, they include Powers, Cases decided by the House of Lords, Gilbert on Uses, New Real Property Laws, and Handybook of Property Law.
ST LÔ, a town of France, chef-lieu of the department of Manche, on the right bank of the Vire, 195 miles west by north of Paris by the railway which here breaks up into two branches for Coutances and Vire respectively. The old town stands on a rocky hill (110 feet high) commanding the river; the modern town spreads out below. Notre Dame is a Gothic building of the 14th century, with portal and two towers of the 15th. In the town-house is the Torigny marble, commemorating the assemblies held in Gaul under the Romans and now serving as a pedestal for the bust of Leverrier the astronomer, who was born at St Lô. The museum has some good pictures, and in the abbey of St Croix there are windows of the 14th century. The Champs de Mars is a fine tree-planted place. Horse-breeding, cloth and calico weaving, wool-spinning, currying and tanning, are the local industries. The population in 1881 was 9889 (10,121 in the commune).
St Lô, founded in the Gallo-Roman period, was originally called Briovira (bridge on the Vire), and afterwards St Étienne, the present name being from one of its bishops (Lo, Laudus), who lived in the 6th century. By the time of Charlemagne the town was already surrounded with walls and contained the abbey, which was sacked by the Normans. In 1141 it fell into the hands of Geoffrey Plantagenet. But in 1203 the castle opened its gates to Philip Augustus, and, weaving being introduced, St Lô soon became a flourishing industrial centre. In the middle of the 14th century Edward III. of England captured the town and according to Froissart obtained immense booty. It was again taken by the English in 1417, but the victory of Formigny (1450) restored it permanently to France. The hearty welcome it gave to the Reformation brought upon St Lô new disasters and new sieges. The revocation of the Edict of Nantes led to the emigration of a part of the inhabitants. In 1800 the town was made the centre of the department, but by Napoleon’s orders it was deprived of its fortifications.
