330 



shed" merits a separate consideration. As before remarked, it is about 

 50 miles in width, and some 150 miles in length, and will, at some future 

 day, assume an importance in the geographical and physical features of 

 the State now but little suspected. It is dotted over with thousands of 

 lakes, from twenty rods to as many miles in diameter, — water clear, 

 shores bold, filled with fine fish, abounding with water-fowl, and match- 

 less in picturesque scenery and beautiful locations. Most of them have 

 inlet and outlet of fine streams, while others have neither. 



Let not the reader be startled with visions of eternal snows and risrors 

 of climate ; for, if correctly considered, the temperature of the Lake 

 Region will be judged more mild than that of the next hundred miles 

 south of it. 



• A mistaken notion seems to have prevailed with regard to climate, 

 which has been too generally referred to latitude, and confounded with 

 it ; just as though the same parallels east and Avest necessarily always 

 had the same degree of cold or heat. This error is now being dissipated, 

 and climate is known to be governed by many other causes than mere 

 latitude. Topography — geological features — go far to modify the tem- 

 perature and affect the seasons ; among all which, it is found that bodies 

 • of water, especially small lakes, have an influence in softening, to an ex- 

 traordinary degree, a climate otherwise rigorous. Such is known to be 

 exactly the eftect in the Lake Region under consideration, and eminently 

 so in the autumnal season. 



The natives, with the sagacity of their race, made these little seas 

 their resting places, having their villages both for summer and winter 

 on their borders, while a large district south of them has only been 

 used for hunting grounds. The early traveler, whether penetrating 

 from Lake Superior, or from the lower Wisconsin and Mississippi, has 

 always found inhabitants in the Lake Region, and been surprised to find 

 there fields of corn, beans, potatoes, &c., which, to use the words 

 of one of them, Avere "better indeed than are usually grown with all 

 the aid of cultivation in the valley of the Ohio." — Atwood's Geological 

 Beport,p. 57. 



Northern Wisconsin, then, as considered with regard to soil, climate, 

 health, accessibility and markets, may be set down, in general terms, as 

 bidding fair to become a farming country, not only "self sustaining," 

 Ijut producing a large surplusage for exportation. Those portions just 



