PHYSICAL A^D CLIMATIC SETTIXO 13 



Superior and the headwaters of the same mighty 

 stream. Lake Saginaw drained westwardly through 

 a depression corresponding to that which still bisects 

 the northern and southern portions of the Lower 

 Peninsula, where the height of land remains at no 

 more than seventy-two feet above the level of Lake 

 Huron. These low flat and wet partially submerged 

 lands made infinite trouble for the pioneers of this 

 region, but suggested the feasibility of a trans-state 

 canal in the first years of statehood. These lands 

 have by infinite labor and much drainage and with 

 the removal of the forest, become among the most 

 fertile sections of the State, the home of the culture 

 of the sugar-beet, of dairying, of coal and of salt. 

 The shores of these lakes of ages past may still be 

 traced over the countryside. Their beds of deep 

 clay, sand or gravel determine for some sections the 

 quality of its agriculture. Even thus is the hand 

 of the past still heavy in the affairs of today. 



The Great Lakes of today are maintained at their 

 variable levels by a large number of rivers and 

 rivulets, none of any great length or volume. Lake 

 Erie receives the Raisin and the Huron; Lake St. 

 Clair the Clinton; Lake Huron the Saginaw and 

 Au Sable; Lake Michigan, the St. Joseph, the Kal- 

 amazoo, the Grand, the IMuskegon, the Escanaba, 

 Manistique and the Menominee; Lake Superior, the 

 Taquamenon (of the Hiawatha story), the Ontonagon 

 and the Montreal, and many others not related to 

 Michigan. Of these rivers, the Saginaw, which com- 

 bines the waters of the Cass, the Flint, the Shia- 



