1901 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



653 



the-Beautiful, and was named after F. X. 

 Charlevoix, an early missionary there, from 

 France. The Indians seemed to have recog- 

 nized it as a beautiful spot before the white 

 men ever had a glimpse of it. The station 

 on the Pere Marquette Railway is itself a spot 

 of wonderful beauty. Between the station 

 and Pine Lake there is a fine lawn interspers- 

 ed with flowers ; and just back of the station 

 is the Charlevoix Inn. You go up a broad 

 flight of stone steps that look as if they might 

 be made of marble ; and just before you is a 

 fountain that drops its waters into a large 

 stone basin of this same white marble-like 

 stone, with beautiful speckled trout so tame 

 one can almost touch them, making it seem 

 like a fairy land. All about the place are 

 beautiful residences of the summer resorters 

 as well as magnificent hotels. Electric lights 

 are seen everywhere along the shores of Little 

 Traverse Bay. The current is mostly furnish- 

 ed, I believe, by streams of great coolness and 

 crystal purity that come from springs at the 

 base of the hills. In fact, all along the north- 

 ern part of the shores of Lake Michigan there 

 is almost unlimited water power, and the wa- 

 ter is so clear and pure that the waters along 

 the pebbly beach of Little Traverse Bay look 

 like clear spring water rather than lake water. 

 The water is so clear in Little Traverse Bay 

 that in many places you can see objects plain- 

 ly at a depth of thirty or forty feet. 



Charlevoix is only 16 miles from Petoskey, 

 which is situated just within Little Traverse 

 Bay. Here we have quite a large city on the 

 side of the hill fronting the bay. Beautiful 

 hotels with spacious grounds in front, and 

 princely summer residences, are all along the 

 bay. No matter how hot the weather, cool 

 breezes are almost constantly coming from 

 over the water from the north or northwest. 

 During one of the hottest July days I took a 

 trip off over the hills about seven miles, in 

 the vicinity of Bear Lake, to hunt up a bee- 

 keeper. Well, over among these hills the 

 July weather seemed very much like that in 

 Ohio and Southern Michigan away from the 

 great bodies of water. It was really unpleas- 

 antly sultry. When I got back to the shores 

 of the bay and the great lake, it seemed like 

 a different climate. 



One mile north of Petoskey is Bay View, a 

 place that has been celebrated for years past 

 as the special resort of literary people. The 

 university has a faculty of 42 instructors from 

 the leading colleges ; and then it has what is 

 called the " Bay View Reading Circle," en- 

 rolling thousands of members. 



Although electric lights are everywhere in 

 Bay View, Petoskey, and Charlevoix, they 

 have not yet caught on, if I may use the ex- 

 pression, to electric railways. There is, how- 

 ever, a very pretty arrangement of steam-cars, 

 made much like our best trolly cars, that make 

 trips to the surrounding resorts at a very low 

 rate. For instance, they run every half-hour 

 at the very low rate of 25 cts. for an eight- 

 mile trip and return. Beautiful little steam 

 ferries make a similar price ; and the tickets 

 will carry you either by steam or rail, as you 

 choose. Besides this, there is a beautiful bi- 



cycle track constructed at considerable ex- 

 pense from Bay View to Roaring Brook, and 

 of course I had to try my wheel on the beau- 

 tiful track. I forgot to time myself, but it 

 seemed to me I never rode so many miles be- 

 fore in so short a time. Roaring Brook is six 

 miles from Bay View. A stream of wonder- 

 ful clearness and purity comes tumbling down 

 the hillside through thickets of cedar and 

 other evergreens. Walks have been cut all 

 along through the tangled thicket ; and one 

 can scarcely imagine finer places for a picnic 

 dinner than there are all along here. The 

 ground under our feet is carpeted with the 

 most beautiful moss. The air is perfumed 

 with evergreen cedars — I think the same kind 

 that furnishes the wood for our lead-pencils. 

 Drinking-places are everywhere ; and I can 

 add my testimony to the statement that the 

 water bubbling from these springs is nearer 

 ice water than any other spring waters in the 

 world. I regret I did not carry along a ther- 

 mometer. The statement is made that the 

 gushing springs along the shore are only 12 

 or 15 degrees above the freezing-point all the 

 year round. 



After riding my wheel it seemed as if I could 

 never drink enough of that water, and I real- 

 ly feared several times that so much cold wa- 

 ter might interfere with my digestion, but it 

 did not a bit. The crowds around me seemed 

 to feel as I did. They drank and drank, and 

 evidently decided in their own mind that 

 there was no more delicious drink to be found 

 on the face of the earth than this pure cold 

 spring water. By the way, I do not remem- 

 ber seeing a saloon anywhere along those re- 

 sorts. In fact, if one were to start a saloon I 

 am inclined to think the surroundings would 

 persuade people that the spring water is bet- 

 ter, and more to be desired than any thing to 

 be found in those dens of iniquity. 



Now, I wish to give Harbor Springs a good 

 write-up ; but I am afraid I can not do it jus- 

 tice. I should call it a little island about a 

 mile long and half a mile wide. It would be 

 an island if there were not a little neck of 

 land connecting it with the shore. But clear 

 around this island are summer cottages. They 

 are as close together as they can be placed — 

 that is, and not be too much crowded against 

 their neighbors. They are all around front- 

 ing the water, and close to it, like cottages 

 along a suburban street. These cottages are 

 all different. Each one has some peculiar 

 piece of architecture and fancy painting. In 

 front of each cottage, right out in the crystal 

 water with its pebbly beach and bottom, there 

 is a boat-house covered with canvas or light 

 painted woodwork. Every resident owns a 

 boat of some sort. As the sand is rather soft 

 to walk in, wooden walks curve along with 

 the irregularities of the shore, and narrow 

 walks lead up to the doorway of each resi- 

 dence. Not only does Nature seem to have 

 put on her holiday attire, but all the people — 

 men, women, and children — are dressed in 

 light summer garb. As I gazed in astonish- 

 ment I fell to wondering if all the pretty wo- 

 men congres^ated at Harbor Springs, or was it 

 their attractive and novel attire and the sur- 



