Notice of the Peninsula of JMichigan. 305 
clay which I found in various places eflervesced with acids, 
indicating calcareous ingredients. 
At the interior termination of this level district, the surface 
becomes undulating, and presents to lake Michigan, an alter- 
nation of moderately elevated hills and plains, ravines formed 
by water courses, openings and thickets, swamps and prai- 
ries, lakes and ponds. 
There are no ranges of hills thatassume a regularity of di- 
rection, but the country gradually rises to the centre of Mi- 
chigan, attaining apparently no very great altitude above the 
level of the greal lakes, 
The north-western part of the peninsulas broken, and has 
been little explored; adjacent to lake Michigan in this sec- 
tion, sand hills conjectured to be 400. feet in height, are lo- 
cated. An undulating suriace, having a meagre ‘sandy soil, 
with a few swamps, a and wet meadows, forms a barren western 
margin to the tervitory of about four miles in breadth, extend- 
ing to the soutbern extremity of the lake. 
Small prairies occur in many parts of the country, but Re 
most extensive are situatedin the southern division. They 
are a continuation of the wide verdant plains divested of tim- 
ber, so frequent in Indiana : some of them extend twenty miles 
into Michigan, with a breadth of five miles, having in places 
sandy bottoms, but generally a rich medium soil. 
A ‘considerable proportion of the interior of Michigan is 
thinly wooded, and assumes in a state of nature, the aspect of 
a partially cleared country. <A traveller may proceed in a 
wagon for days through a track!ess wilderness, with little in- 
terri uption, enjoying diversified views of handsome lakes, hills 
and plains, prairies and meadows, idened by a rich variety 
of annual plants in bloom. 
In the eastern part of the open ro Win interior, yellow oak, 
often of diminutive height and thinly scattered, is almost the 
only tree found ona considerable portion of the hills and dry 
surface; many small meadows and plains are entirely divest- 
ed of trees and shrubs, and, exclusive of groves on wet 
ground, there is scarcely timber sufficient for first division 
fences. “ Oak openings” is the descriptive appellation aflix- 
ed by settlers to this region. In the centre, and on the west- 
ern declivity of the peninsula, hickory and bur oak lands 
are prevalent. 
The scarcity of timber ina considerble part of Michigan, 
“18 doubtless occasioned by annual fires , kindled by the abo. 
Vion X=-No,.2 38 
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