226 SKETCHES OF CREATION. 



which, till very recently, has been overlooked. It has been 

 well understood that the Atlantic ameliorates the climate 

 of Western Europe, and the Pacific that of Western Amer 

 ica. I have had occasion to ascertain that a similar influ 

 ence is exerted by the great lakes, and to an extent which 

 is far more than proportional to their volume, as compared 

 with one of the oceans. I have investigated the climate 

 and productions of the belt along the eastern side of Lake 

 Michigan, from St. Joseph to Mackinac, and especially in 

 the &quot; Grand Traverse Region,&quot; where the bays penetrate 

 far inland, and thus augment the climatic influence of the 

 water. In the Grand Traverse region the thermometer 

 never sinks more than fourteen degrees below zero, and 

 hence none of the more delicate fruit-trees ever suffer in 

 jury from the severity of the winter. Autumnal frosts are 

 delayed till late in October, and hence the season is suffi 

 ciently long for the ripening of peaches and grapes. Snow 

 falls in November or December, before severe freezing 

 weather arrives, and hence the ground is never frozen, and 

 tender roots stand out through the winter. In extreme 

 winter weather the eastern shore of the lake is from fifteen 

 to twenty degrees warmer than the immediate western 

 shore. But the western shore, as that industrious physi 

 cist and archaeologist, Dr. I. A. Lapham, has shown, is sen 

 sibly milder than the interior of Wisconsin, so that the 

 ameliorating influence of the lake upon the climate of 

 Michigan becomes strikingly manifest. No Northern 

 state can compete with Michigan in the production of 

 fruits. This fact, to a great extent, is owing to its envi 

 ronment by the great lakes. The western slope of the 

 state is most favorably circumstanced in this respect. 



Lake Michigan is a body of water three hundred miles 

 long, sixty miles wide, and eight hundred feet deep. The 

 bottom is warmed by the internal fires of the earth. The 



