"By those best acquainted with the value of these lands--and who are familiar with that portion of the State--they are estimated at $10 per acre, on the completion of the road. This will give the company the sum of $6,600,000. And if the road when fully equipped costs $30,000 per mile, then the gross cost will be $10,500,000; which by the proceeds of the land grant will be reduced to the sum of $3,900,000, and will reduce the actual cost of the road to $11,142,85 per mile. Anything like fair success in the construction of the road will enable the company to do it, after applying the proceeds of the land grant, for about _eleven thousand dollars per mile_. Such a result will not only give to the country all the advantages of this much-needed work; but when done the capital stock must prove to be a good paying investment."
CHAPTER X.
Mackinaw, the site for a great central city -- The Venice of the lakes -- Early importance as a central position -- Nicolet -- Compared geographically with other points -- Immense chain of coast -- Future prospects -- Temperature -- Testimony of the Jesuit fathers -- Healthfulness of the climate -- Dr. Drake on Mackinaw -- Resort for invalids -- Water currents of commerce -- Surface drained by them -- Soil of the northern and southern peninsulas of Michigan -- Physical resources -- Present proprietors of Mackinaw -- Plan of the city -- Streets -- Avenues -- Park -- Lots and blocks for churches and public purposes -- Inst.i.tutions of learning and objects of benevolence -- Fortifications -- Docks and ferries -- Materials for building -- Harbors -- Natural beauty of the site for a city -- Mountain ranges -- Interior lakes -- Fish -- Game.
Ferris, in his "States and Territories of the Great West," says: "If one were to point out, on the map of North America, a site for a great central city in the lake region, it would be in the immediate vicinity of the Straits of Mackinaw. A city so located would have the command of the mineral trade, the fisheries, the furs, and the lumber, of the entire North. It might become the metropolis of a great commercial empire. It would be the Venice of the Lakes." Mackinaw, both straits and peninsula, was so naturally the key point of the great system of northern lakes and their connection with the Mississippi, that while the New England colonies were yet but infant and feeble settlements, the Indians of the northwest, the Jesuit missionaries, the French voyagers, all made Mackinaw the point from whence they diverged--in all directions. When Philadelphia and Baltimore had not begun, and when the sites of Pittsburg, Cincinnati, and St. Louis were unknown places in the wilderness, Nicolet took his departure from Quebec in search of the mysterious river of the west. In pa.s.sing to meet the Indians at Green Bay, he was the first to notice the Straits of Mackinaw. About thirty years after, James Marquette established, on the northern sh.o.r.e of the straits, the Mission of St. Ignace. Here, amidst the wilds and solitudes of the North American forests, and on the sh.o.r.es of its great inland seas, Marquette and Joliet planned their expedition as we have already described, and it was Mackinaw and not New Orleans or New York that the lines radiated from to the earliest settlements of the west.
Mackinaw presents one of the most remarkable geographical positions on the earth. Constantinople on the Bosphorus, the Straits of Gibraltar, Singapore on the Strait of Malacca, and the Isthmus of Panama, are the only ones which seem to present a parallel. The two former have been for ages renowned as the most important in the commercial world. Singapore has rapidly become the key and centre of Asiatic navigation, at which may be found the shipping and people of all commercial nations, and Panama is now the subject of negotiation among the most powerful nations with a view to the exceeding importance of its commercial position. Geographically, Mackinaw is not inferior to either. From the northwest to the southeast, midland of the North American continent, there stretches a vast chain of lakes and rivers dividing the continent nearly midway. This chain of Lakes and rivers is in the whole nearly three thousand miles long. At the Straits of Mackinaw the whole system of land and water centres. The three greatest lakes of this system, Superior, Huron, and Michigan, are spread around, pointing to the straits, while between them three vast peninsulas of land press down upon the waters until they are compressed into a river of four miles in width. On the north is the peninsula of Canada, on the south that of Michigan, and on the west that of the copper region, all of which are divided only by the narrow Straits of Mackinaw. Here are three inland seas of near eighty thousand square miles and about five thousand miles of coast. From coast to coast and isle to isle of this immense expanse of waters, navigation must be kept up, increasing with the ever-increasing population on their sh.o.r.es till tens of millions are congregated around. Of all this vast navigation and increasing commerce, Mackinaw is the natural centre around which it exists, and toward which it must tend by an inevitable law of necessity. Superior, Huron, and Michigan have no water outlet to each other but that which flows through the Straits of Mackinaw, and its geographical position is unrivaled in America. Whoever lives twenty years from this time will find Mackinaw a populous and wealthy city, the Queen of the Lakes.
If any serious objection be made to the site of a city at this place, it can only be that the climate is _supposed_ to be cold. But, what is climate? Climate is relative and composed of many elements. The first is temperature, as determined by lat.i.tude. The Straits of Mackinaw are in the _lat.i.tude_ of 45 46". North of this lies a part of Canada, containing at least a million of inhabitants. North of this lat.i.tude lies the city of Quebec in America; London, Paris, Amsterdam, Berlin, Vienna, Warsaw, Copenhagen, Moscow, and St. Petersburg, in Europe; Odessa and Astracan, in Asia. North of it, are in Prussia, Poland, and Russia, dense populations, and a great agricultural production. The lat.i.tude of Mackinaw, therefore, is in the midst of that temperate zone, where commerce, population, cities, and the arts have most flourished. The climate, however, is actually milder than the lat.i.tude represents. The isothermal line, which pa.s.ses through Mackinaw, also pa.s.ses in Wisconsin, nearly as low as 43, and in the east also deflects south. This is the true line of vegetation; and thus it appears that the actual climate of Mackinaw is about that of 43 30".
The same isothermal line, pa.s.ses through Prussia and Poland, the finest grain countries of Europe. The climate of the straits is, therefore, as favorable as that of most civilized States, either for the production of food or the pursuits of commerce.
The Marquette Journal gives some items relative to the winter of that locality. The mercury was not below zero until the evening of January 8th, and then only 2 below. The highest point reached in January, was 20 above, and lowest 16 below zero. In February, the highest point was 55 above, the lowest 20 below zero. The average temperature for the three winter months had been about 15 above zero. In the "Relations of the Jesuits," 3d. volume, 1671, it is stated that the "winter in Mackinaw is short, not commencing until after Christmas and closing the middle of March, at which time spring begins."
The Lake Superior Journal for February 23, 1859, says:--
"We are now within five days of the first spring month, and have scarcely had a brush of winter yet. But very few days has the thermometer been below zero, and but a single day as low as ten degrees below. Most of the time it has been mild. For two weeks past, there has been a blandness and mellowness in the atmosphere, which was enough to cause the moodiest heart to sing for joy. There was a flare-up, however, for a single day (the 20th), when the storm descended, the wind blew, and there was great commotion in the elements, but the next day all was calm and delightful as before. We have quite a depth of snow on the ground, have had fine sleighing since the 10th of November. But our bay has not been closed more than a week at a time this winter, and but a few days in all. It is open now, and "the stern monarch of the year," seems to be melting away into spring.
"In regard to the healthfulness of Mackinaw, it may be remarked that the northern regions of the earth are everywhere the most healthy. Yet there are differences in situation and exposure which make differences in health. Mackinaw has now been known and settled for two hundred years, a period long enough to have both tested its healthiness, and created a permanent reputation. The Jesuit Missionaries, the frontier traders, and the French voyageurs, have lived and died there; yet we have never heard of any prevalent disease, or local miasm. It seems to have been the favorite resort of all the frontiers men, who inhabited or hunted in the region of the Northern Lakes. In recent years, it has been visited by men of science, and accomplished physicians, and their report has been uniformly in favor of its superior healthiness. Dr.
Drake, who visited Mackinaw in 1842, for the express purpose of examining the climate and topography, says, "From this description, it appears, that the conditions which are held to be necessary to the generation of autumnal fever, are at their _minimum_ in this place; and when we consider this fact, with its lat.i.tude nearly 46, and its alt.i.tude above the sea, from six to eight hundred feet, we are prepared to find it almost exempt from that disease; and such from the testimony of its inhabitants is the fact, especially in reference to the intermittent fevers, which, I was a.s.sured by many respectable persons, never originated among the people, and would cease spontaneously in those who returned, or came with it from other places."
"Speaking of this region as a place of resort for invalids, the same writer says:
""The three great reservoirs of clear and cold water, Lakes Huron, Michigan, and Superior, with the Island of Mackinac in their hydrographical centre, offer a delightful hot-weather asylum to all invalids who need an escape from the crowded cities, paludal exhalations, sultry climates and officious medication. Lake Erie lies too far south, and is bordered by too many swamps to be included in the salutiferous group."
""On reaching Mackinaw, an agreeable change of climate is at once experienced." "To his jaded sensibilities all around him is fresh and invigorating."" Dr. Drake looked upon Mackinaw as one of the healthiest portions of the whole Northwest, and to which, in time, tens of thousands of persons, even from the furthest south, would resort to be reinvigorated in body, refreshed in mind, and delighted with the contemplation of the sublime and beautiful scenery in that region of expansive waters, of rocky coasts, of forest-bearing lands, and distant islands.
"Here the great currents, which are the natural lines of _movement_ for the people, commerce, and productions of half North America, concentrate around a single point. No other place has the same advantage of _radial lines_. Quebec is relatively on the Atlantic. The upper end of Lake Superior is comparatively on an inhospitable land.
Chicago is at a lateral point on the south end of Lake Michigan,--three hundred miles from the main channel of commerce. At Mackinaw concentrate all the radial lines of water navigation in the upper lakes. Which will be seen, if we take the following distances of direct navigation from this point to the princ.i.p.al points on the upper lakes:
"From Mackinaw to Fon du Lac (west end of Lake Superior), 550 miles; to Chicago, 350; to east end of Georgian Bay, 300; to Detroit, 300; to Buffalo, 700; to Gulf of St. Lawrence, 1,600.
"Here are two important points to be observed. Any city which, by compet.i.tion, or the rivalry of production, or the power of wealth, can be supposed to interfere with the growth of Mackinaw, must arise on Lakes Michigan or Superior; for _there_ only can be any commercial mart to receive and distribute the products around those immense bodies of water. But in consequence of the form and surface of those lakes, no lines of transit to the waters of the St. Lawrence can be made so short or cheap as the water transit through the Straits of Mackinaw. The concentration of products will, therefore, be ultimately made at Mackinaw, for all that immense district of country which lies around the upper lakes. Again, it will be seen that as the water transportation to that point is the best, so the radial line from that point to the Atlantic by water, is much the shortest. A steam propeller, leaving any one of the princ.i.p.al points on the upper lakes for either Buffalo or the Gulf of St. Lawrence, must, as compared with Mackinaw, pa.s.s over the following lines of transit, viz., From Fon du Lac (west end of Lake Superior) to Buffalo, 1,250 miles; Chicago, Ill., 1,000; Mackinaw, Michigan, 700; Fon du Lac to the Gulf of St.
Lawrence, 2,150; Chicago to the Gulf of St. Lawrence, 1,900; Mackinaw to the Gulf of St. Lawrence, 1,600.
"It must be granted, at once, that for any water communication with the ports of the Atlantic, Mackinaw has greatly the advantage over any commercial point in Minnesota, Wisconsin, Northern Illinois, Northern Michigan, or Northwest Canada. How great this advantage is, we shall see from the consideration of the surface drained by the water current of Mackinaw. An inspection of the map will show that from Long Lake, above lat.i.tude 50, to the south end of Lake Michigan, below lat.i.tude, 40, and from the Lake of the Woods, longitude 95, to Saginaw Bay, longitude 83, the country is entirely within the drainage of lakes and river whose currents concentrate at the Straits of Mackinaw. This surface comprehends a square of over six hundred miles on the side, or nearly four hundred thousand square miles.
Deducting the surface of the lakes, it is enough to make eight States as large as Ohio. In that whole surface, there is not a single point which can rival Mackinaw as a point of _distribution for the products of that country_. That the advantage by water lines is in favor of Mackinaw, we have shown. That it will be equally so by railroad, is evident, from the fact that Mackinaw city to Port Huron, and thence to Buffalo, need not exceed four hundred miles, while that from Chicago to Buffalo, in a direct line is five hundred and fifteen miles.
"From any other point of Lakes Michigan or Superior, where a city can be built, it is further. Mackinaw is, therefore, the natural centre of drainage and distribution for a surface equal to that of eight large States, and whose products, whether of field, fruit, or mines, are superabundant in whatever creates commerce, sustains population, or affords the materials of industry.
"We are now considering Mackinaw in a state of nature, and must look to its natural products as the first and greatest elements of success.
We have considered its climate, its water currents, its lines of navigation, and the surface drainage for its support. The latter within a s.p.a.ce where there can be no compet.i.tion, we have found to be but little less than 400,000 square miles. Vast as this is, it could not support a great commercial city, if that were a barren plain.
"Hence, we must now consider how far the products of the earth will sustain the city, which such lines of navigation, such means of commerce, and such an extensive, surface leads us to antic.i.p.ate.
"The soil is the first thing to be examined. The peninsula of Michigan--that of Wisconsin and the Copper region--of Minnesota and Canada, which make up the larger portion of surface drained by the currents of Mackinaw, has been supposed to be cold and wet. But is it more so than northwestern Ohio or northern Illinois, which, but twenty years since, were scarcely inhabited, but now are found to afford some of the richest lands in the country? On this point, we have numerous and competent witnesses, and whatever character they give to the country, we shall adopt as the true criterion of its producing resources.
"First of the Superior Country, the least agricultural portion of this district, we have the concurrent testimony of geologists, miners, settlers, and travelers, that it is one of the richest mining districts in the world. But in the midst of it are found some fertile sections. Of these, Mr. Ferris, in his account of the Great West, says: "The surveyors report some good agricultural lands (of which many townships are specially enumerated), and these tracts of fertile land will become of great value, when the rivers shall have been opened and a mining population introduced, creating a sure and convenient home market for the productions of the farm."
"_Disturnell_, an accurate authority, speaking of the Superior region, says: "The traveler finds the whole district to within a few miles of Lake Superior, abounding in every resource which will make a country wealthy and prosperous. Clear, beautiful lakes are interspersed, and these have plenty of large trout and other fish. Water and water powers are everywhere to be found, and the timber is of the best kind--maple groves, beech, oak, pine, etc. No thing is now wanted but a few roads to open this rich country to the settler, and it will soon teem with villages, schools, mills, farming operations, and every industrial pursuit, which the more southern portion of our State now exhibits."
"Turning to the immense territory north and northwest of Superior and the Straits, now const.i.tuting a portion of the British Dominions, and every part of which must be tributary to Mackinaw, we find that it affords, like Prussia and Poland, a fine agricultural region for all the breadstuffs and vegetables which are raised in the northern part of Europe. A writer in the _Toronto Globe_, exhibiting the value of a ca.n.a.l from Georgian Bay to Toronto--(a ca.n.a.l, the whole commerce of which coming from the northwest, must first have pa.s.sed the Straits of Mackinaw) says: "Westward we possess vast and fertile countries adapted to all the pursuits of agriculture life, countries susceptible to the highest cultivation and improvement. Between Lake Superior and the Lake of the Woods (above 49 of lat.i.tude), we possess a country of this description, in soil and character inferior to no part of Minnesota, and bordering upon this territory lies the valley of the a.s.sinibone, or the Red River, as it is sometimes called. As a wheat growing country, it will rival Canada. It does so now in soil and climate." The writer is here speaking of British possessions north of Lake Superior, and several degrees north of Mackinaw. He says they are as fertile and grain-growing as Canada, and Canada we know already produces not only its own breadstuffs, but large quant.i.ties for exportation. The valley of the a.s.sinibone, referred to, and the whole region west of Superior to the Lake of the Woods and the Red River, can have no market outlet except through Lake Superior, and thence near the Straits of Mackinaw. The writer sees this, and says: "The future products of these immense countries must seek the seaboard, and all the ca.n.a.ls and railroads which can be constructed will scarce suffice to afford facilities for the products of the West."
"Let us next examine the Southern Peninsula of Michigan. If the country far north of it is so productive, it can scarcely happen that this can be very deficient, although not ranked among the most fertile districts. On this point, we need only cite the same accurate authority to which we have referred. He says: "The numerous streams which penetrate every portion of the peninsula, some of which are navigable for steamboats a considerable distance from the lake, being natural outlets for the products of the interior, render this whole region desirable for purposes of settlement and cultivation." Even as far north as the Straits of Mackinaw, the soil and climate, together with the valuable timber, offer great inducements to settlers; and if the proposed railroads under the recent grant of large portion of these lands by Congress, are constructed from and to the different points indicated, this extensive and heavily timbered region will speedily be reclaimed, and become one of the most substantial and prosperous agricultural portions of the West." After speaking of the timber in that country, the same writer adds: "But as the timber is exhausted, the soil is prepared for cultivation, and a large portion of the _northern part_ of the southern peninsula of Michigan will be settled and cultivated, as it is _the most reliable wheat-growing portion of the Union_."
"The Detroit Daily Tribune of 1857, says: "Michigan is greatly undervalued because greatly unknown. The tide of emigration sweeps past us to Illinois, Wisconsin, Iowa and Minnesota, because the public do not know--what is but the sober truth--that Michigan possesses advantages unrivaled by any sister State in the Northwest, and an undeveloped wealth that will far exceed any one of those named. This is not a random statement, originating in State pride or self-interest, but the simple truth which is slowly being found out by the shrewd among men. We propose to speak of some of the advantages which we possess in the northern half of our lower peninsula, as yet almost uninhabited and unknown.
""No other State can boast of such valuable forests of such perfect timber. Already our lumber trade exceeds in value and importance that in any other staple products, not excepting wheat, while if it were to increase in the ratio of the past five years, in five years more it would exceed all the other staples united, excepting only copper. But such a rate of increase would exhaust the pine timber to a great extent within ten years" time. Yet the demand for pine lumber is absolutely unlimited, and cannot be met.
"Look for a moment at the vast region depending upon the pineries of Michigan for its supply of lumber for building purposes of every kind--houses, fence and shelter of every description. The great States of Illinois, Iowa, and Missouri, and the Territory of Minnesota, depend almost solely upon Michigan, and must do so. The present season, lumber has been taken from the forest of southwestern New York and northern Pennsylvania, and sold in the market of St. Louis, so urgent is the demand and so entirely inadequate are the present or prospective rates of supply for that demand. We have before us the statistics of the lumber trade of the different States and the princ.i.p.al markets in the country, but of what use is a parade of figures when a simple fact will show that the value of the pine forest of Michigan _must_ be? Take the State Iowa alone. If every quarter section were to be enclosed with a common post and board fence, it would take every foot of pine on the soil of Michigan! Leave out of sight the great Territory of Minnesota, which can find but a mere drop of supply from the pineries of the Upper Mississippi. Leave out of sight the great State of Illinois, which depends upon us wholly.
Forget entirely that villages are springing up like magic all along the lines of a dozen railroads running from Lake Michigan to the Mississippi; that cities are growing and spreading with unprecedented rapidity--and that every town and village, and city, and farm, must have its dwellings, and that the cheapest and best material for construction is pine. Leave all these out of the calculation, and remember only that one of these States would consume all our vast forests of pine in _fence boards alone_, and the dullest comprehension can perceive, with all these other demands of which we have spoken, in all those other regions, the value of the pine region is as certain as though it were a gold mine. And when we consider the pressing need for material whereof to build over all the western prairies, the wealth of northern Michigan cannot be put at any low amount. It must be immense--untold.
"After the timber shall have been removed in obedience to the pressing demands of a cash market and high prices, the value of northern Michigan will just begin to be developed. The soil possesses riches of which the heavy growth of timber is the outcropping. Rich as any prairie land, even more substantial in the elements of fertility, with a genial climate, southern Michigan, itself a garden, we predict will have to yield the palm of productive wealth to this portion of the State. Any one who will take the trouble to examine a map of this half of the State, projected on an extended scale, cannot fail to be struck with the superabundant water privileges that exist. It is literally covered with navigable rivers, and their tributaries, large streams, like the veins in the human system. These waters reach the remotest part and thread every portion, affording unfailing supplies and thousands of valuable sites for mills of every description and of all magnitudes. The State is divided near its geographical centre by a slight ridge, sufficient to divide the course of its streams. Two of the largest rivers of the State, the Manistee and the Eastern Au Sauble, rise within about three miles of each other, run parallel, southward, for twenty miles or more, approaching then within half a mile of each other, then turning abruptly almost due east and west, emptying into Lakes Michigan and Huron respectively on almost the same parallel of lat.i.tude.
"The Grand Traverse region, embracing the valley of the Manistee, is also one of the finest agricultural regions of the State; lying in the northerly portion, this region still has a mild climate, and the finest grains and fruits are raised at the settlements, as far north as the bay.
"Much might be said of other counties throughout this region. The whole slope of the peninsula embracing the courses of the Muskegon and Manistee Rivers, and from Grand River to Mackinaw, is a region of rich soil, excellent timber of all kinds, good climate, and of easy access.
"The counties in the eastern part of the State, Alpena, Alcona, Iosco, Arrenac, and others north of Saginaw Bay, well situated, having a large extent of coast on Lake Huron, are not so well adapted for agricultural purposes, there is much good farming land in them all; but the forests of pine extending to within a few miles of the coast, render them very desirable. Alcona county, watered by Thunder Bay River, with some smaller streams emptying into Lake Huron, is almost wholly a pine region. Some of the finest specimens of yellow, or Norway pine, in the whole State are found in this country. The white and yellow pine is nearly equally distributed in this region, extending also into the counties south, and reaching Rifle River in Saginaw and Arrenac counties, having an outlet on Saginaw Bay.
"This part of the State, upon whose advantages we have not s.p.a.ce to particularize as we would like, will be very soon penetrated by railroads.
"There are _three_ roads contemplated by the Act of Congress granting lands to this State at its last session. These, if built, will add more to the development of the natural wealth of Michigan than anything heretofore proposed in the way of public improvement.
"The different routes pa.s.s through some of the best counties in the State, and the opening of such thoroughfares will induce a tide of emigration, such as will soon render northern Michigan what it ought to be, one of the most important points in the West.
"The State of Michigan is in all respects more favorably situated than any of the Western States, being surrounded by the lakes and with railroads extending in every direction, affording the most extraordinary opportunities to reach markets of every cla.s.s, great or small.
"With these natural advantages of transportation considered with the immense natural resources of this region (soil and timber) no one will doubt the very great value of Michigan lands.
"Fruit of all kinds is abundant in every part of this State. All our exchanges from the interior are acknowledging presents of luscious peaches, plums, pears, apples, etc., etc. This is as it should be. May they all, each succeeding year, be remembered in like manner.
"What is here said of the northern part of Michigan, is directly applicable to Wisconsin, the northern half of which must contribute directly to Mackinaw. Of the agricultural capacity of this new State, we need say no more, than that it has already attained half a million of inhabitants, and pours forth its surplus products though the ports of Lake Michigan.
"Of Minnesota, and its productiveness, less is known. As three-fourths of that rich and beautiful country, and the regions around the heads of the Mississippi, must contribute to the commercial importance of Mackinaw, let us glance at its agricultural capacity and prospects.
Minnesota, of which we heard but yesterday, has now two hundred thousand inhabitants, produces this year two millions of bushels of wheat. St. Paul, its princ.i.p.al town has fourteen thousand inhabitants, and far to the northwest from St. Peters to the Red River, and a.s.sinibone, the settlers are crowding in to till farms and create towns, where but recently the wild wolf and the wilder savage, alone possessed the face of the earth. In lat.i.tudes higher than that of Mackinaw, Michigan or Canada West, settlements are forming, and it requires no flight of imagination to see that beautiful land of lakes, rivers, forests, and prairies,--cold as it may be in winter--settled, tilled, and civilized. The fact of its rapid progress in population, is sufficient proof of its agricultural capacity; but we shall again refer to the testimony of actual observers. Turning to Mr. Ferris"s first description of the Northwest, we find his summing of the climate, and agricultural advantages of Upper Minnesota. "Minnesota is destined to become a great agricultural, and grazing region. Its upland and lowland plains would support a dairy that would enrich an empire. All the princ.i.p.al grains, and roots thrive there in great vigor, as high toward the north as Pembina, below the dividing line between the United States and British America. Lat.i.tude does not always indicate the climate as has already been shown. The character of the soil has great influence upon the temperature of the air. A quick warm soil makes a warm atmosphere. The autumns of Minnesota are greatly lengthened out by the Indian summer, that smoky, dreary, balmy season, which protects the surface from frost, like a mantle flung upon the earth. The cold nips the vegetation, about as early along the Ohio, as along the St. Peters. The winters of Minnesota are cold; but then they are still and calm, and the icy air does not penetrate, as it does in a windy climate."
"In the brief review of the agricultural advantages of that great northwestern region, whose centre of commerce must ever be at Mackinaw; we have arrived at the certain fact, that except small portions of the Superior country, where mining and mines absorb all other interests, no country in the northern part of America or Europe, has greater advantages. It is filled with inexhaustible springs, and streams; fertile in soil, rich in production, and only needs the cultivating hand of man, to render it capable of sustaining such dense populations as now inhabit the same isothermal parallel in Prussia and Poland.
"Let us now turn to its forests, mines, fisheries and resources, which though not bread, are those from which the implements, conveniences, and much of the wealth of civilization is derived. Of forests, furnishing almost illimitable quant.i.ties of timber and lumber--this is the very centre. Of this, we have evidence in the wharves of Chicago, Milwaukee, Detroit, and far down the lakes. The testimony of actual observers on this point, is so strong as to seem almost incredible. We shall cite but two or three unquestionable authorities. The peninsula, of Michigan is at the present moment, one of the greatest depositories of lumber in the world. Mr. Ferris says: "On going toward the north, the lumber becomes more and more plentiful. Beeches begin to mingle with the oaks, and in a day or two beeches and maples will predominate over other varieties of timbers; large white-woods and ba.s.s-woods will be seen towering above the forest. The white ash, the s.h.a.g bark, the black cherry, will have become abundant. The woods will seem to have been growing deeper and denser every mile of the way. Soon the traveler will doubt, whether Omnipotence himself could have planted the trees larger, taller, and thicker together, than they are."
"Pressing still forward, the emigrant will enter the great pine woods of the north. For a while, however, before reaching them, he will have been wandering through groves of oak, and along the borders of natural meadows, and through clumps of beech and maple. But soon, as with a single step, the timber has become all pine--yellow pine, moaning overhead, darkening all the ground, shutting out the sun, shutting out the wind." The tall trunks support the dark green canopy full fifty feet above the earth. This belt of pine woods, stretches across the peninsula of Michigan from Saginaw Bay. After a while as you proceed further to the north, the pine grows thinner, and is succeeded by other timber. "The level lands again become covered with beech and maple, of a full and convenient growth, with here and there a gigantic Norway pine, six feet through without limb, till it begins to stretch up half its length above the surrounding trees.
"In northern Wisconsin, we find another great pinery, in which, in one year, was sawed not less than two hundred millions of feet of pine timber. The same authority to which we have frequently referred, says: "Still further north and northwest, is one of the finest tracts of pine land in America, through which the streams tumbling down frequent falls, afford an incalculable amount of water-power, just where it is most needed for the manufacture of lumber. The Wisconsin forest of evergreens is perfectly immense, covering one-third the State. The prairies of the Upper Wisconsin and its tributaries, are at the present most extensive, and those are distinguished still more for the fine quality, than for the inexhaustible quant.i.ties of the timber."