Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1885-09-02

are nevertheless number of sections that
have retained many of their virgin charac-
teristics. To description of one of these
districts are devoted the succeeding para
graphs.
The region comprising the Northern por-
tions of Michigan, Wisconsin, and Mime
sofa, which during late years has been
commonly spoken of as the forests of the
Northwest, together with that forming the
Southern portions of the same States, was
explored by Europeans more than $50
years ago. Inspired with the same zeal
that led other members of their order into
the most remote countries of the Orient,
the French Jesuits of the seventeenth CEN
tury established chain of missions reach
ing from the Gulf of St. Lawrence to the
W Western extremity of Lake Superior, and
afterward they descended the Mississippi,
and in the name of the Grand Monarch,
Louis XIV, took possession of half the
continent. Their first station on the upper
lakes was founded upon an island in St.
Mary's River, near its junction with Lake
Huron, as far back as 1915, only seven
years after the settlement of Quebec, and
about twenty-five years before the founding
of Montreal. The settlement here at Sault
Ste. Marie was begun in 1641, the one at
the Straits of Mack1nac in 1910. and the
one at Detroit in 1701. The French and
their Indian allies held undisputed posses
sion of all the territory until the middle of
the following century, when the mastery
of the elder Pitt, aided by
the military genius of Wolfe and Amherst,
made England supreme in the Western
World. At the treaty,of 1888, after pre-
carious occupation of twenty years, during
which the Indians of the Northwest were
more formidable than they had ever been
before, the British relinquished the region
to the American Confederation, and in the
natural course of events it has since been
formed into three large and wealthy States.
In their missionary work the Jesuits
were very successful, Catholicism being to-
day the prevailing religion among the
Northern Indian tribes, but in regard to
the settlement and development of the
country they effected nothing of impor-
tance. Less than score of years ago the
villages of the French were smaller and
more miserable than they had been two
earlier, and within a few rods of
their bark covered huts, unharmed by in
struments Of toll, grew the pines and &C.
dars that had lulled to sleep their swarthy,
indolent ancestors. This regions present
prominence is due to the extensive mining
and numbering operations begun since 1870,
and to the three important railways that
were completed about the year 1882.
Leaving out of consideration, on account
of their vastness, the wooded portions of
Wisconsin and Minnesota, and the Cana
dian forests lying North and East OF Lake
Superior, it will now be in order to give
some details regarding the unsettl ed part
of the State of Michigan. Nearly one
half of the SO, 900 square miles composing
the dominions of this commonwealth are
yet substantially in wild condition.
While railways and steamboat lines, sup
plemented by wagon-roads opened by the
State, render all the counties accessible,
there are in several places unbroken forests
seventy-five miles in length. The North
ern Peninsula, tract very irregular in
shape, about $50 miles long and 200 miles
wide, contains, mainly within its villages
and lumber camps, total population of
only 50, 900; and the Northern half of the
Lower Peninsula, though more densely
peopled than the Lake Superior district, is
still open in most Of it's townships to agrI
cultural settlers. With the exception of
the ranges of high, rocky hills in the GEN.
tral part of the Upper Peninsula, and the
occasional bluffs along the lake shores, this
entire Northern region is as level as an ordi-
nary rolling prairie. Inland lakes sufficiently
large for light navigation are numerous,
and small rivers, many of which afford
good water-power, are to be found in every
county The water of the large lakes is
for its purity. 1t is SO clear
that on any bright day the bottom can be
seen at depth of twenty feet, and in
winter it is visible at depth of fifty feet.
In all of the hardwood and in some of the
pine districts, the soil is fertile, and we'll
adapted to the growth of Northern prod
ucts, but the sandy pine woods and the
cedar swamps, which taken together COM
prise probably one-fourth of this portion
of Michigan, will be worthless after their
timber has been removed. The climate, to
natives of the Middle States, is very severe.
Snow begins to fall about the third week
in November, attaining soon after Christ
mas depth of from two to four feet, and
generally the ground is covered from the
time of the first storm until the latter part
of April. There is no navigation upon the
lakes between the 1st of December and the
Goth of April, the ice in tine Straits of
which is travelled all winter with
wagons, sometimes forming to thickness
Of seven or eight feet. Owing to the infu-
ence of the lakes and woods, however, the
cold is not so intense as that of Iowa and
Minnesota. The mercury sometimes falls
thirty-five degrees below zero, but usually
twenty or twenty-five degrees is the lowest,
and the dryness of the prevailing atmos-
phere modifies materially the effect of the
cold. Though short and somewhat cool,
the summers are bright and pleasant. The
highest temperature is 80 degrees, the
average go, and the lowest about "a. In
healthfulness, Northern Michigan is proba-
bly, unsurpassed by any other section East
Of the Rocky Mountains.
A SOutherner would notice in respect to
this climate some striking peculiarities.
Here in Chippewa county the most indus
trious Augusta farmer, however hardy his
might be, would scarcely be
able to work during summer from dawn
until dusk, nor would he often be likely
even to see sunrise in the field At four
o'clock in the morning there is broad day
light, and in the evening darkness does not
come until after nine o'clock. While straw
hats and white dresses are worn for a short
time, and while the most hearty boys oc-
muster enough fortitude to 90
swimming in the lakes, gentlemen travel
ing carry overcoats during July and Au-
gust, and in hotels, railway stations, and
other public places fires are usually kindled
every evening. At Spectacle Reef Light
house, in the Northern part of Lake HUI
ron, ice half-inch thick was frozen upon
water on the 2Sth of last NAV:
about month later, in Antrim county, a
took place, and several years
ago, in the same neighborhood, black
berries were gathered in the middle of
October.
But the resources of this section greatly
its disadvantages. Its agricultur-
al lands are as rich as those of Southern
Michigan, district certainly not more
than equalled by the proudest counties in
the States upon the Upper Mississippi. Its