122 RURAL MICHIGAN 



"Oar lakes were well stocked with excellent fish," 



writes L. D. Watkins of Manchester, "bass, pike, 



pickerel, perch, sunfish and blue-gills were the most 



common and were easily taken." ^ Harvey Tower, 



writing of the Oceana County of seventy years ago, 



informs that from ten to fifty barrels "to a haul" 



of whitefish were not unusual; while the Indians 



of the Sault Ste. Marie caught them with their 



hands amid the rocks and rapids. Bela Hubbard 



enjoyed the rare sport of landing with his hands, 



after a vigorous tussle, one of a school of sturgeon 



discovered gamboling in the waves breaking amid the 



bowlders near the "shore. "I do not wish you to lose 



faith in my veracity," Mrs. A. M. Hayes of Hastings 



assures her readers, "but I have seen squaws spear 



sturgeon near-by on the river that would weigh 



all the way from sixty to one hundred pounds." ^ 



under which it lives in the Lake Superior country. His 

 thesis is that the primeval forest yielded less sustenance 

 and poorer cover for l>irds and animals than is now afforded 

 by the vegetation that has replaced this original forest 

 cover, with a resulting increase in animal life in this 

 region. There is historical evidence of the truth of this 

 opinion. David Thompson, the fur-trader, who was fa- 

 miliar with the Lake Superior shore more than a century 

 ago, refers to tlie paucity of gaiue here. Forced canni- 

 balism among the Indians was not unknown. Similarly, it 

 has been pointed out that the northern Michigan cut-over 

 area affords excellent conditions for bee-keeping, since the 

 vegetation it now carries comprises many plants that yield 

 nectar. The State Inspectoi^^of Apiaries in 1021 adverted 

 to the presence of alsike and white clover, wild red rasp- 

 berry, blackberry, fire-weed, basswood, boneset, aster, 

 etc.. on tlie uplands of this resion as favorable to bees. 



' "Mich. Pioneer & Hist. Soc. Collections." v. XXII, p. 265. 



'Ibid., VIII, 225; v. Ill, p. 199; v. XXVI, p. 240, 



