to the older residents of Hamtramck and Detroit. He has resided here many years, and gained his living by hunting and farming and acting at times as interpreter. His talk is a perfect case of non sequitur, his delight being at times to get ideas into proximity, having no relation one to the other-producing at times an effect which would defy the gravity of a puritan elder. A few years ago, during the Mexican war, at an independence celebration, M-c, becoming patriotic, volunteered the following as his senti"De peoples on do Mexico-I hope dey all get licked like do d-o! aint it?" The applause which followed had no equal in that days rejoicings.

ment:

A SLEIGH-RIDE IN 1854.

Visions of 2:40 were before me yesterday, as in company with G. D. W-, N. L-, C. E-, and T. W-, I entered W.'s family sleigh for an ice ride to Zilwaukie, Portsmouth, Lower Saginaw, Bangor, and as far as the ice would permit." The river was as glare as a French mirror plate, and the sharp-shod ponies shoved along over it with tight reins and loose traces, at a pace that defies pursuit from anything less than a "quarter horse." There are few sensations more invigorating, especially when the enjoyment is not palled by too frequent habit, than an ice ride of twenty miles; under a clear, bright winter's sun, with a bracing air, a spanking team, and a jovial company. All these I had, and I longed for nothing more than to have had along F. W. B-, Barney C-, M—, B—, and a few more of the fast pony and horse men, who go down the River Rouge to trot, and pretend to call that ice to trot a horse on.

་

THE INDIAN'S WHISKY BOTTLE.

Some of these Saginaw Indians are intense wags in their way. One of them having given a trader some annoyance, was told that in case he was seen again with a bottle, it would be taken from him and thrown in to the fire. A few days after, the Indian appeared with his pint flask in his blanket as usual, but the trader was as good as his word, and demanded the bottle, which the Indian gave up and started for the door. The trader threw the flask into the stove upon which, whang went the stove, and out went the windows, the trader following close behind. The next time that man burns an Indian's whisky bottle, he will examine it, to see that it is not of "Dupont's" make.

CHAPTER VII.

SCIENTIFIC.

GEOLOGICAL.

The geological formations of the Lower Peninsula vary little from those of New York, Western Canada and Wisconsin. The first, the oldest formation, exists in the Upper Peninsula. Its rocks point out to the geologist the fact of its antiquity, and enable him to conclude that, if it is not actually the nucleus of this continent, it is at least coeval with the first formations. It has been stated that the land reaching from Trenton Falls to Saratoga was the first that appeared above the sea on the creation. Here are the trilobites in great variety, all modeled in black marble, so perfectly preserved in form that the multitudinous lenses of their eyes are as apparent under the microscope as are those of a living fly. Millions of years before man walked the earth these creatures lived their life; the limestone took on their forms; they had become everlasting stone millions of years before there was a living man to see them. Of late years, however, the opinions of many men are in favor of locating the first upland north of Lake Huron, extending through Southwestern Canada to New York State. This is known as the Laurentian system, and is characterized by granite, gneiss and Syenite rocks. It existed long years before the drainage of the great sea, and was old even at the beginning of the Silurian era. Approaching nearer to the Valley of the Saginaw is the Huron system-something bearing the same relation to geology that the Iron Age" does to history, from the fact that its mean characteristics are iron ores, quartz, chlorites, and all the rocks peculiar to the northern iron mines. Age may not be said to have aided in the formation of these ores; nor is it within the scope of the geological knowledge of the present time to decide definitely as to the period or manner of their formation.

There are numerous systems and groups of rock connected with the Upper Peninsula, and with the northern portion of the Lower, entirely unknown in Central and Southern Michigan. It is stated by Winchell, Rominger, Hall, and some of their reviewers, that the "group of rocks which form the Lower Peninsula of Michigan, being like so many oblong saucers one within the other, depressed in the center of the State and outcropping at the edges, comprise, first, or lowest, the dolomitic limestones which are regarded as the Helderberg group of New York. These are the oldest strata, whose outcroppings are found in the Lower Peninsula, and the lower portions are regarded as the bottom of some lagoon

in the old Devonian ocean, which in drying up has deposited its saline properties in the form of rock salt. The next two saucers represent the Hamilton and black shale groups. Above or within there is another group whose only outcroppings are found around Saginaw Bay and on the eastern shore of Lake Michigan. This is known as the Waverly group, and is formed of the salt-bearing sand rock, which is the source of the Saginaw brine. It is a seashore rock. Prints of sea weeds are found in it, and sharks' teeth, some of enormous size, and also the remains of enormous reed trees, are found, testifying to the proximity of land. Hence we can infer that the waves of that Devonian sea, whose rocky bottom. was far below, here dashed against the shore and deposited their briny burden for our use.

"Let us understand that the formation which gives the most valuable salt brines in Saginaw Valley is now named the Waverly group by Dr. Rominger, State Geologist, and consists of a series of sandstones and blue and red shales amounting from 1,000 to 1,200 feet in thickness. This formation commences at the bottom of the gypsum formation and extends downward to the black shales as seen at Sulphur Island, Thunder Bay. Indications of solid rock salt have never been found in any of the salt wells of Saginaw Valley; but the outcrop of this Waverly group on the eastern shore of Lake Michigan is composed of sand drift, some 600 feet in thickness, which has long ago been deprived of its salt. Recent borings at Manistee, in the northwestern part of the State, passed through the 600 feet of sand, then into the soft shales of the Huron group, then into the limestones of the Hamilton group, and lastly of the Helderberg group, striking, at the distance of 1,950 feet from the surface, the rock salt of the old Devonian ocean, and corresponding in all probability, to the rock salt of Goderich. In making these borings, brines of various strengths were found at different depths, but all below a depth of 1,400 feet. A well has quite recently been projected at Cheboygan. This point being in the Helderberg formation, there are grounds for supposing that borings will develop the same results that have been obtained at Goderich, Canada, where six strata of rock salt have been found."

The period of the formation of underlying rocks from ocean sediments may be taken, upon which to base a geological inquiry. As has been stated, the Laurentian system formed the only land upon this continent at that time, and all south of what is now known as the line of the Canadian Pacific railroad, north of the Huron and Georgian waters, formed the interminable ocean. This relation of the land to the sea was maintained until the close of the completion of the corniferous group, when the uplifting of the seabottom formed a broad belt of land in the southern part of the Peninsula, together with a narrow belt, connecting it with a similar formation in Southern Ohio. At this time all central Michigan was submerged; but as years rolled on, the belt of land widened, and continued to expand, until, at the beginning of the formation of the coal rock, the greater portion of the Lower Peninsula rose

above the waters and formed the marshes which ultimately resolved themselves into coal beds, and kindred rocks. By the time the coal formation was established, the Peninsula was all upland. Lakes Michigan, Erie and Huron were not in existence: but, as Prof. Winchell remarks, "A stream flowed along the tracts, which have become the site of these lakes."

A great geological æon passed while such a condition of the surface existed. We know that it was a vast succession of ages marked by mild climates, luxuriant vegetation and active animal populations, progressively advancing in the scale of being. This was the mesozoic æon. The Tertiary age came next and was marked by the growth of the mastodon, elephant and hundreds of large animals, as well as by the diminution of the reptile species. The physical characteristics of Saginaw did not vary much then from those of its pioneer days. There were forests then as vast as those which covered the bosom of the land in 1819. In the course of time one wide glacier sheet buried the country, and the Greenland of the present time was pictured here. This glacier, estimated to be one mile in depth, dissolved before the sun of the geological summer, and left behind its wealth of "boulder drift," Modified drift," and the thousand vestiges of its existence. Subsequently the country was deluged almost throughout its entire area. The barrier at the mouth of the Niagara river had not been then worn down, and the water, set back as one great lake from the bluffs of Lewiston to Detroit and westward still to Chicago. A broad channel continued from the present site of Saginaw Bay up the valley of the Shiawassee into the Grand River valley and westward to Lake Michigan. All the country north of that line was insular, with a channel from 156 to 175 feet in depth, separating it from the main land. Inland from this point, barriers existed which partly dammed, for a time, the waters resulting from the melting of the glacier; the cold water accumulated in large inland lakes over many of the central and southern counties, and were congealed by the severity of the winters to a depth of three or even more feet.

Around the borders of those lakes, and on shoals, the ice became consolidated with the underlying bed materials. Along the southern border, the Hamilton corniferous limestones occupying the surface were thus attached to great ice sheets. The return of spring renewed the dissolution of the glacier, and the water so disengaged rushed to the inland lakes. Those swelling in response to new accessions, burst their icy coatings, and the huge tables of stratified limestone, to which the ice-coats were attached, were raised up and floated with great ice-rafts before the southern breeze to the north, where spring-time dissolved their attachments and permitted them to settle. The era of submergement was not of long duration, as the waters, seeking release from their prisons, wore out the stubborn sand and rocks, reduced Niagara itself, and rushing through their conquered gaps, reduced the flood materially and left the present confines of the great lakes to be almost de

finable. The valleys of the Shiawassee, Raisin, Huron, Saline, Grand and other rivers point directly to the great aqueducts of this period, and leave little room to doubt the conclusions of geologists in this connection. Among all the formations there is not one holding a higher place in economical geology than the Michigan salt group. This consists of beds of clay and shale, with a limestone strata thinly intercalated and a bed of gypsum from 10 to 20 feet in depth. It may be considered the main reservoir, which supplies the wells along the Saginaw river. The brine is remarkably strong, mixed with a few parts of chloride of calcium, bromine and other substances. The bitter waters as they come from the salt blocks, contain chloride of calcium, chloride of magnesium, and a trace of the bromide of magnesium. By proper manipulating these can be separated, and are used in the manufacture of cement, artificial stone, and also in drying houses for the preservation of fruit. Bromine from the bromide of magnesium was manufactured in 1868, by Dr. Garrigues.

Geologists have asserted that the coal measures of the State underlie the counties of Saginaw, Shiawassee, Ingham, Jackson, etc. Experimental researches have been made in the counties of Tuscola east, and Shiawassee south of Saginaw county, but with limited capital, and without developing coal in paying quantities.

THE FLORA OF THE COUNTY

comprises almost all the orders known in the Northern States. Of the 130 orders represented in Michigan, fully 110 are common in the Valley of the Saginaw. The represented genera within this county are estimated at 370, comprising 850 species. New and beautiful flowers are added annually to the pioneer garden beds of the valley; wild flowers appear and fade, many beautiful colors, remembered by the old settlers, have disappeared within the last decade, and thus one of the most beautiful features of nature is undergoing marked changes.

ZOOLOGICAL.

The changes wrought by time have lightened the task of treating the zoological features of the county. All the great animals of the forest known to the pioneers have ceased to inhabit the district; the remains of the pre-historic animals are hidden beneath the formations of ages; the millions of reptiles which preceded the great summer lie buried hundreds of fathoms down. All that is left to remind us of uncultivated nature are the beautiful birds which visit the county periodically or make it their home. Of these feathered denizens, there are about 250 species known within Saginaw county. Of these birds a large number have been seen only at long intervals; others have been seen once and disappeared, such as the summer red bird (Pyranga æstiva). The Connecticut warbler (Oporornis agilis) is one of the most recent settlers and evidently