vessels entering the main lake ports in the season ending November 30, 1900, was as follows: Chicago, 7099; Buffalo, 3684; Cleveland, 3343; Milwaukee, 3057; Detroit, 2272; and Duluth, 1901. The bulk of the lake traffic is American, only 11 per cent. being Canadian.
There are numerous harbors along the coast line of the lakes. Many of these havens are shallow, and constant dredging is required to keep them accessible. The National Government has expended large sums on harbor improvements. In late years there has been a serious lowering in the level of the lakes' surface, to the great detriment of the harbors. Different plans have been projected for preventing further harm in this respect. Dams have been constructed across the exit channels of the lakes. One of the most serious disadvantages with which the lake commerce has to contend is the winter ice, which stops all traffic. The cessation of general lake traffic begins about the first of December and continues four or five months, about 222 days being the average annual time during which the canals are open. Much has recently been done to continue the period of traffic by the construction of boats with special provisions for ice crushing. A railroad ferryboat has also been constructed which is able to crush its way through three feet of ice.
The problem of the further improvement and increase of lake transportation is one of much significance to the country and has occasioned a great deal of interest and speculation. Schemes have been projected with the view to making the lake ports directly accessible to ocean-going vessels. The interests of Canada as well as those of the United States are involved in the proposed improvements, thus occasioning a rivalry between the two nations. For instance, an all-United States route is proposed, known as the Oswego, Oneida, Mohawk Valley and Hudson Route. An All-Canadian route is also proposed which connects the Georgian Bay with the Ottawa River. A proposed international route includes the Saint Lawrence River, Lake Champlain and Hudson River.
The Great Lakes are valuable for their fisheries. Nearly $4,500,000 of fish is taken from them annually, considerably over half by American fishermen.
GREAT LAKE TROUT. See Namaycush.
GREAT MANITOULIN, măn′ĭ-to͞o′lĭn. See Manitoulin Islands.
GREAT MAR′LOW. See Marlow.
GREAT MAR′QUIS, The. A surname of the famous Portuguese statesman the Marquis de Pombal (1699-1782), and also of the noted Scotch statesman the first Marquis of Montrose (c.1612-50).
GREAT MASTER OF LOVE. A title given by Petrarch to Arnaut Daniel, the troubadour who invented the sestina.
GREAT MOTHER (Lat. Magna Mater). An epithet applied by the Romans to the goddess Cybele, or Rhea, as the representative of the procreative powers of nature.
GREATOREX, grāt′ō̇-rĕks, Eliza (Pratt) (1820-97). An American artist, born at Manor Hamilton, Ireland. She came to New York in 1840, and in 1849 married Henry W. Greatorex, the organist and composer. She studied art in New York in 1854-56, and in Paris in 1862. At first she produced many landscape paintings, but afterwards devoted herself to etching and to pen-and-ink work. In 1868 she was elected an associate of the National Academy. About that time she began a series of sketches of historic buildings and scenes in and around New York. She was in Germany in 1870, and in the following year, where she published The Homes of Oberammergau. Returning to the United States, she published: Summer Etchings in Colorado (1873), and Old New York from the Battery to Bloomingdale (1876).
GREAT PACIF′ICATOR, The. A sobriquet of Henry Clay, based upon his services in harmonizing conflicting interests through the Missouri Compromise.
GREAT PEDEE′ RIVER. The name of the Yadkin River after it enters South Carolina (Map: South Carolina, E 2). The stream rises in the Blue Ridge in northwestern North Carolina, and flows through the State in a south-southeast direction. In South Carolina it receives the tributaries Little Pedee and Waccamaw, and empties into the Winyaw Bay at Georgetown. It is navigable for 150 miles.
GREAT′RAKES, Valentine (c.1628-83). An Irish soldier and ‘healer,’ born at Affane, County Waterford. At the outbreak of the Irish Rebellion in 1641 he fled to England, and for six years lived in the homes of relatives. From 1649 to 1656 he served in Ireland under Cromwell. About 1661 he felt that he had been given divine healing power, and had what seemed to be remarkable success in ‘touching’ for scrofula, ague, and other diseases, though an exhibition before the King proved a failure. Several pamphlets by medical men and other critics were published, attributing his cures to miraculous agencies, and in 1666 Greatrakes published a vindication of himself entitled A Brief Account, accompanied by numerous testimonials. He retired soon afterwards to his estate at Affane, where he died.
GREAT RIFT VALLEY. The name given to a great depression which extends from Palestine in Asia to the southern end of Lake Tanganyika in Central Africa. The depression is formed really by a series of rift valleys which begins in the north with the Jordan and Dead Sea valleys, extending thence through the Red Sea basin to the strait of Bab-el-Mandeb, and across French Somaliland and Abyssinia to Lake Rudolf in British East Africa. Here the depression divides: one branch runs southward to beyond Lake Manyara, and the other takes a westerly course to Albert Nyanza, where it turns southward to the shores of Lake Tanganyika. The Great Rift Valley owes its origin to long parallel fissures or cracks in the earth's crust between which the strata have subsided, forming narrow, elongated troughs. In Central Africa the valley is frequently limited on either side by bare walls of rock which rise precipitously to the level of the adjoining plateau—4000 to 5000 feet above the sea. Elsewhere the evidence of faulting is not so apparent. Most of the great African lakes are situated in this valley. The formation of the fissures was accompanied by enormous volcanic activity, of which there are evidences in great sheets of lava, extinct volcanoes, and a few active cones. See Africa.
