M1CHAUX MICHIGAN. 



801 



giwm Geogr. Hebreeortim ; Translations of the Old 

 and New Testaments, with grammatical and lexico- 

 graphical productions. Heyne and Eichhorn have 

 furnished tributes to his memory, and he himself left 

 an autobiography. 



MICHAl'X, ANDRE, a celebrated traveller and 

 botanist, born at Sartory, near Versailles, in 1746, 

 was early led by the example of his father and his 

 own inclinations to devote himself to agricultural 

 pursuits, but at the same time did not neglect to 

 cultivate the sciences and polite literature. The loss 

 of his wife, soon after an early marriage, interrupted 

 his prospects of domestic happiness, and carried him 

 to Paris, where he became acquainted with Lemon- 

 nier, and acquired a taste for botany. He attended 

 the lectures of Jussieu, and, in 1780, visited Auvergne, 

 the Pyrenees and Spain, in company with Delamarck 

 and Thouin, on a botanical excursion. In 1782, 

 Lemonnier obtained for him permission to accompany 

 Rousseau, who was appointed Persian consul, to 

 Persia, and after spending two years in those parts, 

 Michaux returned with a fine collection of plants 

 and seeds. In 1785, he was sent to America for the 

 purpose of sending out trees and shrubs for the es- 

 tablishment at Hambouillet, landed at New York, 

 and visited New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Maryland, 

 &c. In 1787, he formed a new establishment at 

 Charleston for the procuring and preserving plants, 

 and visited Georgia, Florida, the Bahamas, &c. In 



1792, he examined the more northern parts of the 

 continent, to the vicinity of Hudson's bay. The two 

 gardens which he had established at New York and 

 Charleston were now in a flourishing condition, and 

 had done much towards advancing arboriculture in 

 the United States. Soon after his return to Phila- 

 delphia, Miclumx was sent to Louisiana by the 

 French government on a public mission, and in July, 



1793, crossed the Alleghanies, and descended the 

 Ohio. The project in relation to which he had been 

 sent having been abandoned, he returned, in Decem- 

 ber, to Philadelphia, by the way of Virginia. The 

 next year, he again crossed the mountains, and ex- 

 amined the western parts of the United States. The 

 difficulties which he had to encounter in these 

 expeditions may be easily imagined. In 1796, he 

 returned to Europe, was shipwrecked on the coast of 

 Holland, but saved the greater part of his valuable 

 collection, and, on his arrival in Paris, found that out 

 of 60,000 stocks which he had sent out to Rambouil- 

 let, only a very small number had escaped the rav- 

 ages of the revolution. Michaux was unable to 

 obtain the arrears of his salary for seven years, or 

 any employment from the government, and occupied 

 himself in preparing materials for his works on 

 North America. In 1800, however, he was attached 

 to the expedition of Baudin to New Holland ; but, 

 after visiting Teneriffe and the Isle of France, he left 

 the party, and went to Madagascar, where he soon 

 after died of a fever (November, 1802). His works 

 are Histoire des Chenes de t Amerique Septentrionale 

 (Paris, 1801, folio, with thirty-six plates, representing 

 twenty species and sixteen varieties) ; and Flora 

 Boreali- Americana (2 vols., 8vo, 1803, with fifty-two 

 plates, comprising 1700 plants, and about forty new 

 genera). 



MICHAUX, FRANJOIS ANDRE, son of the preced- 

 ing, is the author of the North American Sylva (5 

 vols., 8vo, Philadelphia, 1817, 150 coloured engrav- 

 ings) ; and of Travels in Ohio, Kentucky, and Ten- 

 nessee (London, 1805.) 



MICHEL ANGELO, or MICHELANGELO. See 

 Angela. 



MICHIGAN ; a territory of the United States of 

 America. This territory may be viewed in two 

 aspects one, as presented by its political limits. 



established by the acts of congress of Jamiary, 1805, 

 and April, 1818; the other as exhibited by the na- 

 tural boundaries by which it will probably be defined 

 when it enters the confederacy ; and known by the 

 appropriate and more usual designation of Michigan 

 Proper. The whole extent of country called Michi- 

 gan, lies between 41 38' 58" and 48 37' N. lat., 

 and 82 15', and nearly 95 W. Ion. from Greenwich. 

 That portion lying W. of 87 10' Ion., comprises the 

 extensive district attached to Michigan, and contem- 

 plated to be set off and organised as a new territory. 

 This latter region, bordering east on lake Michigan, 

 north on lake Superior (nearly half of which it em- 

 braces), and the chain of small lakes connecting that 

 Mediterranean with the heads of the Mississippi, and 

 west and north-west on the Upper Mississippi, has 

 been little explored. Judging from known portions 

 of it, however, it must gradually assume, as its re- 

 sources are developed by the progress of improve- 

 ment, great interest and importance. The country 

 included between the Fox and Wisconsin rivers, and 

 the western shore of lake Michigan, bears a highly 

 inviting character. The soil is a rich, black alluvial, 

 irrigated by innumerable veins of water. The face 

 of the country is unbroken by hills of any magnitude. 

 From its northern extremity south to the Milwalky 

 and the heads of Rock river, it is covered with a 

 dense forest, opening, as traced farther down to the 

 southern bend of lake Michigan, into fertile and 

 extensive prairies. It is not marked by that steril- 

 ity which usually distinguishes mineral regions. 

 Explorers have noticed, as a feature of geological 

 interest, the entire absence of pebbles upon the sur- 

 face of these prairies, and to a depth of two or three 

 feet. The succeeding stratum is of clay. More 

 than 36,000,000 pounds of lead were yielded, by the 

 mining district, from the autumn of 1824 to that of 

 1829. The southern shore of lake Superior affords 

 strong indication of copper. By the treaty of Prairie 

 du Chien, 1829, the United States purchased of the 

 Winnebagoes, Chippewas, Ottawas, and Potawa- 

 tamies, a tract of about 6,000,000 acres of land, of 

 which 2,300,000 are supposed to be within the limits 

 of the contemplated territory. About 132,000 in 

 the vicinity of Green bay have also been ceded. 

 The former cession comprehends nearly all the min- 

 ing district of the Upper Mississippi. It is occupied 

 principally by the Winnebago, Chippewa, and Sioux 

 tribes of Indians. The white population, confined 

 chiefly to Green bay and the mining district, is esti- 

 mated at 6000. Military posts are established at 

 Green bay, Prairie du Chien, fort Snelling, on the 

 St Peters, and Fort Winnebago, at the portage of 

 the Fox and Wisconsin rivers, Settlements are 

 formed, more or less extensive, at Green bay ; Pem- 

 bina, on Red river of lake Winnepeg ; Prairie du 

 Chien, on the Mississippi, and the lead mine, bound- 

 ing on the Mississippi and Wisconsin. 



Michigan Proper lies between 41 38' 58" and 

 46 50' N. lat., and 82 15' and 87 10' W. Ion., 

 and is bounded N. by lake Superior, E. by St Mary's 

 river, lake Huron, St Clair river, lake St Clair, 

 Detroit river, and lake Erie ; S. by Ohio and In- 

 diana ; and W. by a line dividing lake Michigan N. 

 and S. to Big Beaver island ; and thence running due 

 N., to the national boundary in lake Superior. These 

 limits comprehend about 60,500 square miles, of 

 which a third, perhaps, is covered with water. They 

 comprise two peninsulas : the larger, being the 

 peninsula of Michigan, bounded E. by lakes Erie, 

 St Clair, and Huron, and W. by lake Michigan, 

 containing about 36,000 square miles ; the smaller 

 bounded S. by the straits of Mackinac, E. by the 

 river St Mary, N. by lake Superior; containing 

 about 2000 square miles. The former is about 280 

 3 E 



