PHYSICAL AND CLIMATIC SETTING 3 



force enduring bonds of unity. Mail and express, 

 freight and passengers transported betAveen upper and 

 lower ]\Iichigan, have the choice of making a long de- 

 tour through three states or traversing the nine-mile 

 ferry-way from St. Ignace to Mackinac City. In ad- 

 dition, there are many leagues of sparsely settled and 

 lightly productive land between the populous extremi- 

 ties of this hyphenated state. The inhabitant of Cold- 

 water or Adrian who may venture as far as Negaunee 

 or Calumet finds himself in quite another world: a 

 land of rock-ribbed rugged barrenness to his casual 

 observation ; of sparkling tonic air, of Alpine streams 

 rushing down over their rocky floors to the great lakes 

 never far away; of vast swamps and forests, or the 

 disreputable remains of vast forests ; of all languages 

 except perhaps his own. The smiling summer land- 

 scape of Clinton County let us say — the succession 

 of diminutive fields, fenced and tilled with care, of 

 orchards and wood-lots, or prosperous-looking farm 

 buildings and neatly kept villages, the oppressive 

 pollen-laden summer atmosphere, the gently undulat- 

 ing surface of the land — convey an equal impression 

 of unreality to the long-time dweller by the shores 

 of Gitchie Garni. At the outset, the student of con- 

 ditions in Michigan must keep in mind the complete 

 disresemblance, or at least of the possibility of it, 

 of the basis of existence in east and west, in north 

 and south, in this or that nook and corner of the 

 State. 



