Notice of the Poin: of IMichigan. 309 
It deposits calcareous tufa, and is supposed to issue from a 
limestone bed. 
Bituminous springs containing petroleum indicating coal, 
occur inthe north-west part of f Michigan. 
Small lakes and ponds are numerous in the peninsula, and 
are generally deep. One situated in Oakland county, was. 
found not fathomable by a line more than 200 feet in length. 
Lake Erie has about thirty-five fathoms of water above its 
lowest bed, though it is not often more than twenty-five in 
depth. ae Si. Clair is shallo v,rarely exceeding four fathoms. 
Lakes Huron, Michigan, and Superior are in places 
900 ne deep, sinking about 300 feet or the level of the 
ocean. 
The lakes and ponds of Michigan are filled with pure water, 
abounding 1 e sandy bottoms, and often marl 
on their borders, and originate many of the large rivers of 
the territory. They are the most numerous in the rolling 
oak openings of Wastenaw and Oakland counties, where 
about 200 are located. 
From a moderate elevation in Oakland county, forty miles 
north-west from Detroit, thirty considerable sheets of water 
are in view, after the leaves of the forest have fallen. In 
riding the distance of four anda half miles from Pontiac in 
this vicinity, | passed near the borders of eight lakes and 
ponds. ‘Two of them, lakes Orchard and Cass are more 
than ten miles in circumference, and are handsome, pure 
bodies of water : Wey ee sandy bottoms and borders. 
The banks penerally rise about thirty feet, with a steep 
acclivity. The adjacent ground, whichis table ‘lene or slight- 
ly undulating, was decked with a profusion of gay ‘autumnal 
flowers. Trees of yellow oak are thinly scattered on the 
surface, or associated in groups. 
A pleasant fertile island, containing about fifty acres, on 
which there is an orchard, rises in the centre of Orchard 
Lake, a and is cultivated by Indians, who occupy good bark 
huts in the primitive state, situated adjacent to the lake on the 
table land isthmus, that separates lakes Orchard and Cass, 
and commands a view of these extensive sheets of water. 
An old Indian burial ground is placed near the dwellings. 
Ears of corn mottled with a diversity of colours, and dried 
a were suspended within and around their buts. De Tit 
tle furniture they possess is mostly of their own fabrication— 
blankets spread. on the ground, or on wooden platforms con: 
