The Colfax chronicle. [volume] (Colfax, Grant Parish, La.) 1877-1981, 1882-07-08

Half way from the great Saginaw salt
wells and MackinAw City we passed
through the upper half of Roscommon
County. The county is too wild and UNI
settled to have county seat, and the
two stations in it are simply two great
lumber camps. The population of the
the county is made up of Woodworking
lumbermen and three or four rich saw
mill owners. Six miles from the station,
after riding through pine wilderness, ]
came to Seth Powell's house-perhaps
the only nice house within ten miles.
81 came over" said to Mr.. Powell,
Ito see if it is true that you are raising
oysters here in Michigan"
Then you've heard about it, have
you? Well, / guess you've struck the
truth this time. l have got an oyster
bed in No-Mouth lake, and they seem to
be doing we'll. I'll take one Of the boys,
if you say SO, and we'll drag out some
oysters and show you"
No-Mouth lake, should say, was 100
rods long and sixty rods wide. 1t is
very deep at one end-I suppose sixty
feet-while at the other it is shallow.
with a gravel and sand bottom. One
regularity about the lake is that it has
no outlet. Two brooks run into it; but
the water either soaks into the sand or
evaporates. Its depth never changes.
The whole county of Roscommon is
situated on divide. From the west side
the waters run west into Lake Michi-
gan; from the south side they run south
erly toward Saginaw Bay; and from
the north side they run toward Grand
Traverse. The county is on the sum-
NIT. Mr.. Powell and the men rowed
out about twenty feet from the shore, at
the mouth of one of the brooks, in
water about five feet deep, and dragged
up some oysters. They were as good
looking oysters as 1 had ever seen in
Oyster Bay or along the Shrewsbury
River. They were fat and healthful.
Noticing the water was salt, was filled
with wonder.
'sHow came the water saltg' asked.
1T is just about as salt as it is at the
mouth of the Shrewsbury River"
"Well, oysters won't live in fresh
water, will they?'' asked Mr.. Powell,
smiling. They say the ocean gets its
salt from the Goldfish; but this lake did
not get its salt from the oysters" :.
Where did it come from p'' asked.
'Well, I'll tell you the history of my
oyster raising in the centre of Michigan.
/ used to live at South Oyster Bay, on
Long Island. We always used to plant
the oysters at the mouths of the fresh
water streams, where they ran into the
bay. An oyster wants half fresh and
half salt water. Now, found ! had a
lake here with no outlet. That is, if
there is an outlet, it is through the sandy
bottom. Now, salt won't run through
sand. l knew this, because we had q
well at South Oyster Bay in the sand
twelve feet from the salt water, but it
was always fresh. So, said, il put
salt into this lake it will stay there. l
can make il just like Oyster Bay, and
keep it SO. My cars, taking lumber to
Saginaw, had to come back empty. Salt
costs nothing but the pumping in Sagi-
nav; so l shipped back fifty carloads
Of salt, and put it in No-Mouth lake.
Then semitic Smith Robinson, at South
Oyster Bay, and had him ship me ten
barrels of small oysters-little fellows
no larger than marbles, and some of
them the size of peas. put them in the
lake, at the mouth of the two fresh
water brooks. They have grown right
along. Now I'm putting in some other
saltwater fish, like CLAIMS and hluefish,
and they'll grow, too. If l keep my
lake Just as salty as Oyster Bay know
that any fish living in Oyster Bay will
live here"
% Then you propose to set up opposi-
ton to the Atlantic Ocean," suggested.
"No; but I'm off here in the woods,
and want little fun, and want to
show the blamed fools in the world who
talk about fish-culture that they can go
to thunder with their theories. They
may talk and write, but will raise and
eat oysters, CLAIMS and soft-shell crabs in
Michigan" 80
"But why can't they raise oysters in
Salt Lake, Utah" l asked. land in other
salt lakes?''
:" They can, but they don't know how
to do it. Salt Lake has been evaporating
for thousands of years. All the salt in
Utah valley has run into Salt Lake. AS
it has no outlet it keeps growing salter.
1t is too salt now-salter than the ocean.
Now they can raise oysters in Salt Lake
if they will plant them at the mouth of
the Wasatch River, the fresh river that
runs into Salt Lake. They want to find
o place where the lakeis diluted by fresh
water; and when they find a place just
as salt as Oyster Bay, oysters will thrive
there, and know it. !"
On arriving ut the house Mr.. Powell
L.