Vermont watchman and State journal. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1836-1883, 1882-05-17
Upper Michigan.

Mining regions are proverbially barren
and rocky, and the upper peninsula Of Mich
igan-at least that portion of it which is so
productive of iron and copper--forms no ex-
ception TO this rule. IL Is old-older than
most of our hills, for it was the first land
that was attached to the original Laurentian
nucleus about which our continent has been
formed. 1t has, in consequence, always been
favorite field for geological study, and its
novel industrial features make it no less in
teresting to the ordinary traveller. The face
of the country is rugged and scanned and
worn. Were it not for its mineral wealth
it would remain permanently wilderness.
Lumber companies would invade it here and
there, and retire after having robbed the
forest of the pine which is found in few
scattered patches. 1t would be an eddy
where the stream of western migration had
left few Indians and woodsmen to subsist
by the methods Of primitive life. The land
is generally valueless from the farmers
point of view, for the soil is light drift
too light for wheat-and the climate win
ter modified by season of summer weather
too short for Indian corn to ripen. Hay,
oats and potatoes yield fair return, but the
climate is so rigorous that the securing of
shelter and fuel calls for 80 large an amount
of energy that little is left to devote to cul-
tivation. 1t is proof of this that a very
uncomfortable fraction of the population at
tempts to subsist by farming, although the
freight from Chicago is added to the price
OF all the staple articles of production-hay,
for instance, being from twenty to twenty
five dollars ton, and milk ten cents quart.
| Curiously enough strawberries and currants
reach a perfection unknown in more hospita-
BILE latitudes, a Marquette strawberry resem.
bling in size Seckel pear, and in flavor a
wild strawberry. This is owing no doubt to
the fact that in northern atitudes--Marquette
is about as far north as Quebec--.he few sum
mer days have from eighteen to twenty hours
OF sunlight and after-glow, and vegetable
growth is virtually uninterrupted by dark
ness. Light, the botanists tell us, bears the
same relation to aroma that heat does tc
sweetness. Such strawberries as these mus
be seen to be appreciated, and must be Wis
tied to be seen, for they are too large and
too delicate to bear travel themselves.
have spoken of the climate as a winter mod
flied by short summer. The July and
August weather can vouch for as delight
full. Even when the sun is hottest you fee
instinctively that there is no prostratine
power in it, and the nights are invariably
cool. In July the mean daily range wa,
forty-nine degrees, and the monthly rang,
fifty degrees, the lowest recorded tempera
ture being thirty-eight degrees. Near thu
lake the presence Of so large a body O
water, which at Marquette never falls belov
fifty.two degrees, and on the extreme north
ern end Of the peninsula never be forty
eight degrees, acts as an equalizer, AM
restricts the range within comaratively mar
row limits. This low temperature Of tn
lake water, which is higher than any of tn
streams entering it, precludes the idea o
bathing. As consequence few Of the lax
sailors can swim, and it would be of littl
avail to them as means of preserving lif
if they could, for the most robust man if b
falls into Lake Superior chills and dies in
few moments. The numerous trout stream
in the woods are of an icy coldness. Tn
snow which falls to depth Of six or seve
feet, melts and sinks into sandy ground,
reappear from deep-seated springs with
temperature OF thirty-nine degrees, which
equal to the average annual temperature G
the place. The thick forests prevent tn
sun from warming the ground or the wate
And finally the lake is SO deep-its be
reaching several hundred feet below tn
level of the sea-that the summer air ha
little effect on it before it is again covere
with ice. There is no other place on tt
globe where so large body Of cold fres
water lies at an elevation Of six hundre
feet above the sea. The air in contact wit
this deep chilly water seems to acquire
peculiar vivifying and refreshing qualit
quite impossible to describe, but very eas
to appreciate. Here must be the great sun
mer sanitarium or cooling-off place fo
: Chicago and Milwaukee.-F.J Johnson, Jr.,
Harper's Magazine.