African Lakes
| Length in Miles. | Depth in Feet. | Area in sq. m. | Volume in million cub. ft. | ||
| Max. | Mean. | ||||
| Victoria Nyanza | 200 | 240 | .. | 26,200 | 5,800,000 |
| Nyasa | 350 | 2580 | .. | 14,200 | 396,000,000 |
| Tanganyika | 420 | 2100 | .. | 12,700 | 283,000,000 |
Asiatic Lakes
| Length in Miles. | Depth in Feet. | Area in sq. m. | Volume in million cub. ft. | ||
| Max. | Mean. | ||||
| Aral | 265 | 222 | 52 | 24,400 | 43,600,000 |
| Baikal | 330 | 5413 | .. | 11,580 | 274,000,000 |
| Balkash | 323 | 33 | .. | 7,000 | 4,880,000 |
| Urmia | 80 | 50 | 15 | 1,750 | 732,000 |
American Lakes
| Length in Miles. | Depth in Feet. | Area in sq. m. | Volume in million cub. ft. | ||
| Max. | Mean. | ||||
| Superior | 412 | 1008 | 475 | 31,200 | 413,000,000 |
| Huron | 263 | 730 | 250 | 23,800 | 166,000,000 |
| Michigan | 335 | 870 | 325 | 22,450 | 203,000,000 |
| Erie | 240 | 210 | 70 | 9,960 | 19,500,000 |
| Ontario | 190 | 738 | 300 | 7,240 | 61,000,000 |
| Titicaca | 120 | 924 | 347 | 3,200 | 30,900,000 |
New Zealand Lakes
| Length in Miles. | Depth in Feet. | Area in sq. m. | Volume in million cub. ft. | ||
| Max. | Mean. | ||||
| Taupo | 25 | 534 | 367 | 238.0 | 2,435,000 |
| Wakatipu | 49 | 1242 | 707 | 112.3 | 2,205,000 |
| Manapouri | 19 | 1458 | 328 | 56.0 | 512,000 |
| Rotorua | 7.5 | 120 | 39 | 31.6 | 34,000 |
| Waikarimoana | 7.25 | 846 | 397 | 14.7 | 166,000 |
| Wairaumoana | 5.25 | 375 | 175 | 6.1 | 30,000 |
| Rotoiti | 10.7 | 230 | 69 | 14.2 | 27,000 |
Authorities.—F. A. Forel, “Handbuch der Seenkunde: allgemeine Limnologie,” Bibliothek geogr. Handbücher (Stuttgart, 1901), Le Léman, monographie limnologique (3 vols., Lausanne, 1892–1901); A. Delebecque, Les Lacs français, text and plates (Paris, 1898); H. R. Mill, “Bathymetrical Survey of the English Lakes,” Geogr. Journ. vol. vi. pp. 46 and 135 (1895); Jehu, “Bathymetrical and Geological Study of the Lakes of Snowdonia,” Trans. Roy. Soc. Edin. vol. xl. p. 419 (1902); Sir John Murray and Laurence Pullar, “Bathymetrical Survey of the Freshwater Lochs of Scotland,” Geogr. Journ. (1900 to 1908, re-issued in six volumes, Edinburgh, 1910); W. Halbfass, “Die Morphometrie der europäischen Seen,” Zeitschr. Gesell. Erdkunde Berlin (Jahrg. 1903, p. 592; 1904, p. 204); I. C. Russell, Lakes of North America (Boston and London, 1895); O. Zacharias, “Forschungsberichte aus der biologischen Station zu Plön” (Stuttgart); F. E. Bourcart, Les Lacs alpins suisses: étude chimique et physique (Geneva, 1906); G. P. Magrini, Limnologia (Milan, 1907). (J. Mu.)
LAKE CHARLES, a city of Louisiana, U.S.A., capital of
Calcasieu Parish, 30 m. from the Gulf of Mexico and about 218 m.
(by rail) W. of New Orleans. Pop. (1889) 838, (1890) 3442,
(1900) 6680 (2407 negroes); (1910) 11,449. It is served by the
Louisiana & Texas (Southern Pacific System), the St Louis,
Watkins & Gulf, the Louisiana & Pacific and the Kansas City
Southern railways. The city is charmingly situated on the shore
of Lake Charles, and on the Calcasieu river, which with some
dredging can be made navigable for large vessels for 132 m.
from the Gulf. It is a winter resort. Among the principal
buildings are a Carnegie library, the city hall, the Government
building, the court house, St Patrick’s sanatorium, the masonic
temple and the Elks’ club. Lake Charles is in the prairie region of
southern Louisiana, to the N. of which, covering a large part of the
state, are magnificent forests of long-leaf pine, and lesser lowland
growths of oak, ash, magnolia, cypress and other valuable
timber. The Watkins railway extending to the N.E. and the
Kansas City Southern extending to the N.W. have opened up
the very best of the forest. The country to the S. and W. is
largely given over to rice culture. Lake Charles is the chief
centre of lumber manufacture in the state, and has rice mills,
car shops and an important trade in wool. Ten miles W. are
sulphur mines (product in 1907 about 362,000 tons), which with
those of Sicily produce a large part of the total product of the
world. Jennings, about 34 m. to the E., is the centre of oil
fields, once very productive but now of diminishing importance.
Welsh, 23 m. E., is the centre of a newer field; and others lie
to the N. Lake Charles was settled about 1852, largely by
people from Iowa and neighbouring states, was incorporated
as a town in 1857 under the name of Charleston and again in
1867 under its present name, and was chartered as a city in 1886.
The city suffered severely by fire in April 1910.
LAKE CITY, a town and the county-seat of Columbia county, Florida, U.S.A., 59 m. by rail W. by S. of Jacksonville. Pop. (1900) 4013, of whom 2159 were negroes; (1905) 6509; (1910) 5032. Lake City is served by the Atlantic Coast Line, the Seaboard Air Line and the Georgia Southern & Florida railways. There are ten small lakes in the neighbourhood, and the town is a winter and health resort. It is the seat of Columbia College (Baptist, 1907); the Florida Agricultural College was opened here in 1883, became the university of Florida in 1903, and in 1905 was abolished by the Buckman Law. Vegetables and fruits grown for the northern markets, sea-island cotton and tobacco are important products of the surrounding country, and Lake City has some trade in cotton, lumber, phosphates and turpentine. The town was first settled about 1826 as Alligator; it was incorporated in 1854; adopted the present name in 1859; and in 1901, with an enlarged area, was re-incorporated.
LAKE DISTRICT, in England, a district containing all the principal English lakes, and variously termed the Lake Country, Lakeland and “the Lakes.” It falls within the north-western counties of Cumberland, Westmorland and Lancashire (Furness district), about one-half being within the first of these. Although celebrated far outside the confines of Great Britain as a district of remarkable and strongly individual physical beauty, its area is only some 700 sq. m., a circle with radius of 15 m. from the central point covering practically the whole. Within this circle, besides the largest lake, Windermere, is the highest point in England, Scafell Pike; yet Windermere is but 1012 m. in length, and covers an area of 5.69 sq. m., while Scafell Pike is only 3210 ft. in height. But the lakes show a wonderful variety of character, from open expanse and steep rock-bound shores to picturesque island-groups and soft wooded banks; while the mountains have always a remarkable dignity, less from the profile of their summits than from the bold sweeping lines of their flanks, unbroken by vegetation, and often culminating in sheer cliffs or crags. At their feet, the flat green valley floors of the higher elevations give place in the lower parts to lovely woods. The streams are swift and clear, and numerous small waterfalls are characteristic of the district. To the north, west and south, a flat coastal belt, bordering the Irish Sea, with its inlets Morecambe Bay and Solway Firth, and broadest in the north, marks off the Lake District, while to the east the valleys of the Eden and the Lune divide it from the Pennine mountain system. Geologically, too, it is individual. Its centre is of volcanic rocks, complex in character, while the Coal-measures and New Red Sandstone appear round the edges. The district as a whole is grooved by a main depression, running from north to south along the valleys of St John, Thirlmere, Grasmere and Windermere, surmounting a pass (Dunmail Raise) of only 783 ft.; while a secondary depression, in the same direction, runs along Derwentwater, Borrowdale, Wasdale and Wastwater, but here Sty Head Pass, between Borrowdale and Wasdale, rises to 1600 ft. The centre of the 15-m. radius lies on the lesser heights between Langstrath and Dunmail Raise, which may, however, be the crown of an ancient dome of rocks, “the dissected skeleton of which, worn by the warfare of air and rain
