IV.— THE FISHERIES OF LAKE MICHIGAN. 

 32. GENERAL REVIEW. 



Physical characteristics. — Lake Michigan is the only one of the Great 

 Lakes whose waters are wholly within the limits of the United States. 

 It is about 345 miles long and 84 miles wide, its average depth being 

 about 80 fathoms. Its greatest length is in a northerly and southerly 

 direction. The shores of the southern half are very regular and unin- 

 terrupted by bays or rivers of any importance. The northern portion is 

 more or less irregular, and has several bays of considerable size, by far 

 the largest and most important of which is Green Bay, on the north- 

 west. The latter is separated from the lake proper by a ridge of 

 land, which projects from both the northern and southern ends, this be- 

 ing interrupted in the northern quarter, where it is broken up into a 

 number of islands, with deep and wide passages between them, forming 

 the entrance to the bay. The principal of these is Washington Island. 

 The northern end of the bay is divided by a peninsula forming Big and 

 Little Bay de Noquet. In the northeastern part of the lake, opposite 

 Green Bay, are two bays of less importance, known respectively as Big 

 and Little Traverse Bay, and at the extreme northeast the lake con- 

 nects with Lake Huron by means of the Straits of Mackinac, thus 

 giving free and uninterrupted navigation. 



The only islands of importance are the group known as the Beaver 

 Islands, near the northern end of the lake, the Manitou Islands, a lit- 

 tle farther south, and the islands already mentioned, lying at the en- 

 trance of Green Bay. All of these islands lie in the northern fifth of 

 the lake, the southern four-fifths being entirely open and containing no 

 islands of even insignificant proportions. 



Shore and population. — Along the north and northwest lie immense 

 forests of pine, and the region contains only a scattered population, but 

 southward along either shore the primitive forests have been cut away 

 to a greater or less extent, and a considerable percentage of the clear- 

 ings devoted to agricultural purposes. The population is here con- 

 siderably larger in proportion to the area, and large saw-mills occur 

 at the mouth of nearly every river to utilize the logs, which after being 

 rafted down the streams are cut up and distributed to different points 

 on the southern end of the lake by means of the large merchant fleet, 

 which finds employment in this way during at least' eight months of the 

 year. 



Continuing southward, the shores, which are more or less sandy 



71 



