Michigan [pp. 602-605]

1llichigan; Recollections of its Scenery, and Kindred Thoughts.
like that which is felt on first beholding the oceanoverpowering awe. All that the Poet has said
about these "gardens of the desert" is true.
Burr-oak plains. The only difference between
these and the oak openings, is in the character of
the trees and the evenness of their surface. The
soil is a mixture of sand and black loam. They
have the appearance of cultivated orchards, or
English parks; and, on places where the foot of the
white man has never been, a carriage and four
could easily pass through. They produce both
wheat and corn.
The wet prairies have the appearance of submnerged land. In them the grass is often six or
seven feet high. They are the resort of waterfowl, muskrats, pike and pictuel.
A friend of mine, now residing in western Michigan, and who has spent several years in Europe,
thus writes respecting this region:
" O0, such trees as we have here!-Magnificent,
tall, large-leafed, umbrageous. Valambrosa-the
far-famed Valambrosa of Tuscany is nothing to
the thousand valambrosas here! A fig for your
Italian scenery. This is the country where Nature
reigns in her virgin beauty; where trees grow,
where corn grow, where men grow better than they
do any where else in the world. This is the land
to study nature in all her luxuriant charms, under
glorious green branches, among singing birds and
laughing streams; this the land to hear the cooing
of the turtle-dove, in far, deep, cool, sylvan bowers; to feel your soul expand under the mighty
influences of nature in her primitive beauty and
strength."
The principal inland rivers of Michigan, are the
Grand River, the Kalamazoo, the St. Joseph, the
Saginaw, and River Raisin. The first three empty
in Lake Michigan, and are about seventy miles
apart. Their average length is about two hundred
and fifty miles, and about thirty or forty rods in
width. At present, they are navigable nearly haltf
their length for small steam-boats and batteaux.
Their bed is of limestone covered with pebbles. I
was a passenger on board the Matilda Barney on
her first trip-the first steamer that ever ascended
the St. Joseph's. I remember well the many
flocks of wild turkeys, and herds of deer that the
"iron horse" frightened in his winding career.
The Indian canoe is giving way to the more costly
but less beautiful row-boat, and those rivers are
T becoming deeper every day. Instead of the howl
of the wolf, the songs of the husbandman now echo
through their vales, and on their banks are many
comfortable dwellings. The Saginaw runs towards
the north and empties into Lake Huron-that same
Huron which will be immortalized by the young
poet Louis L. Noble. This river is navigable for
t sixty miles. The River Raisin is a winding stream,
emptying into Lake Erie; called so from the quand tity of grapes that cluster on its banks. Its Indian
1840.]
605
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A great proportion of Michigan is covered by
white-oak openings. Standing on a gentle hill, the
eye wanders away for miles over an undulating
surface obstructed only by the trunks of lofty
trees. Above you a green canopy, and beneath a
carpet of velvet-grass, sprinkled with flowers of
every hue and size. O! what a glorious sight it
is to be in one of these open forests, and see the
deer bounding away and the birds flying from tree
to tree. " Earth has nothing, to show more fair."
The soil is a black vegetable mould mixed with