146 ELEMENTS OF GENERAL SCIENCE 



162. Some effects of lake climate. The coolness of the sum- 

 mer months attracts thousands of people from the hotter parts 

 of the country to the eastern shore of Lake Michigan and to 

 similar locations on the shores of other lakes and the ocean. 

 Thousands of summer residences have been built and whole 

 summer cities have grown up along shores so barren that 

 otherwise scarcely anyone would live there. During the 

 winter these settlements are often almost wholly deserted. 



Back from the shore, and for many miles inland, the climate 

 is so modified by the lake that it is possible in the lower pen- 

 insula of Michigan to grow fruits which cannot be grown with 

 success away from the lake, excepting some hundreds of miles 

 farther south. For instance, peaches are grown largely on the 

 east side of Lake Michigan, but they do not succeed at all on 

 the west side ; indeed, it is necessary to go as far south as 

 southern Illinois and middle Missouri to find an equally 

 favorable climate. 



The advantages of the climate on the east side of the lake 

 are not only such as might appear from the warmer average 

 in the winter ; it is equally important that the influence of 

 the lake hinders the occurrence of early frosts in autumn and 

 delays the return of warm weather in spring. The peach trees 

 are thus prevented from starting growth during an occasional 

 warm spell in spring and are often preserved from the dangers 

 of late frosts in spring. 



There are other regions besides the lower peninsula of 

 Michigan which are similarly favored by the influence of the 

 lakes. Conspicuous among these may be mentioned the fruit- 

 growing country lying east and southeast of Lake Erie, and 

 the great Canadian peninsula extending down between lakes 

 Huron, Erie, and Ontario. In the same way, the mildness of 

 the climate of the Pacific coast even as far north as Alaska 

 is due to the influence of the ocean, assisted by certain ocean 

 currents. 



