sage of these rapids, and the dam above, somewhat impede the navigation of the river, as they are regulated by the local convenience of the managers. Yet their capacity is sufficient to permit the passage of tugs and scows of any size capable of navigating the river. In Black river, below Cheboygan lake, occurs a series of rapids, which extend for three miles, having an aggregate descent of between fifty and sixty feet. This water power has not yet been improved. The country adjacent is somewhat settled by farmers, but it is generally an unbroken wilderness. Black river, above Cheboygan lake, also contains rapids in which there is a perpendicular fall, in some places of four or five feet. These occur from six to ten miles above the lake. At this place the bed of the river consists of limestone rock in situ, but at the rapids below Cheboygan lake, few rocks are visible, except metamorphic boulders.

The soil and timber of the Cheboygan region are such as promise to make it, when cleared, one of great agricultural resources. The soil varies within short intervals, so that a single farm may possess such a diversity of soils as to adapt it to the culture of a large variety of products. The prevailing feature of the soil of the region is a silico-calcareous sand; yet there are places, especially along the branches of the river below Mullett and Cheboygan Lakes, and extending to the site of the village of Cheboygan, where the clayey element is most prominent. The soil in some places is a coppercolored clayey loam; in others it is a black vegetable loam, resembling the prairie soil of Illinois. Where the sandy constituent and the clay or loam become mixed, as they frequently do, a very superior soil for agricultural purposes results. Much of the country is rolling, especially where the clayey soil predominates, while the sandy tracts are generally level. There is occasionally also a patch of marly soil, which when plowed crumbles in the atmosphere. Soil of this kind occurs on the east and north shores of Mullet Lake. Calcareous marl is often found also in the bed of the lakes, sometimes in the form of pebbly reefs or islands. The carbonate of lime is deposited from the water on little fresh water shells, (Planorbis,) and as they are rolled by the ripples they increase in size till they become as large as walnuts. Sometimes they become crushed and form a calcareous sand, or eventually a calcareous marl, which is useful not only as a fertilizer of the soil, and for making lime, but is sometimes mixed directly with sand to form an inferior mortar, or with water to form a whitewash.

The most common trees, off the river margins and the low lands, are beech, maple, pine, and hemlock, with occasional oaks and elms. The white pine occurs principally along the streams, where it is mixed with other timber, most frequently with hemlock or Norway pine. The Norway pine alone often forms extensive orchard-like tracts on the sandy plains. Another common but worthless species of pine, known among the lumber-men as "pitch pine" or "spruce pine," is a scattered, straggling tree, never exceeding ten inches in diameter, properly called Bank's pine, (Pinus Banksiana.) The beech and maple, as well as the elm, sometimes grow to stately dimensions, while the oaks are generally small. Of course, the country furnishes other less noticeable species of timber, as iron-wood, poplar, balm of Gilead, white birch, ash, and bass, while the ever-present cedar, larch, and spruce, of the northern latitudes, fill up the low lands. There is no butternut, hickory, or black-walnut; no whitewood or chestnut.

The settlement of such a region, of course, is not entirely dependent on or controlled by the lumber interest. Although initial impulse may have been due to this interest, yet the settlement of the Cheboygan region has outgrown it, and has developed other and more permanent elements of prosperity.

Permanency in a new settlement must be based upon some lasting and important resource. In the Cheboygan region, strangely enough, that resource is, or will soon become, chiefly agricultural. The country is rapidly filling up with farmers.

The farmers raise oats, potatoes, corn, wheat, in short, almost anything that can be raised in southern Michigan, though not always with the same certainty. Having but recently settled on their farms, their efforts are mainly expended in the improvement of them, and in the production of a winter's subsistence for themselves and their stock. Some of the farmers told the writer that they had raised wheat, even forty bushels to the acre, and that it was always a sure crop. One old settler of sixteen years ago, Mr. E. A. Dodge, on Mullet Lake, raises, together with the products of the farm, garden vegetables for the Cheboygan market. In his garden were strawberries, lettuce, cucumbers, cabbage, onions, etc., and in an adjoining field he had young apple and cherry trees, and several choice varieties of grapes.

Another farmer said he raised from three-fourths of a bushel of winter wheat a crop of forty bushels; and from ten bushels of spring wheat he received two hundred and sixty-three bushels. The cultivation of wheat has not been carried on heretofore, owing to the lack of a flouring-mill; and it was not until the past season that such a mill was supplied.

Cheboygan village contains about 800 inhabitants; stands on a clayey soil; has several stores, two churches, and three hotels. Above the village, fields of wheat, grass, potatoes, oats and peas line the river banks, the land on both sides being well cleared. In the channel of the river are twelve feet of water, but the entrance to the river is choked by a bar of clay and boulders. This obstruction for a number of years impeded the growth of the place, by shutting off communication with passing steamers. The officers of the lake survey have made preliminary examination and estimates for the dredging of a channel through this bar.

Should this improvement be carried out, nothing can prevent the Cheboygan region from becoming one of the most wealthy and important portions of the Lake Huron shore.

NOTE FOR PAGE 87.

After the brief allusion to the Masonic order, it was intended, as a matter of historical courtesy, to mention the Order of Odd-Fellows in connection with Michigan, and we do it in this place. The date of introduction in the State was the year 1844; the first and second lodges having been instituted at Detroit; the third at Pontiac; the fourth at Jackson; and the fifth at Marshall. The various patriarchal branches were also established in the same year. The Order has progressed rapidly in the State, many of its best citizens taking an interest in its success; so that at the present time the total number of lodges is 107; the number of members, 7,207; amount of receipts during the last year, $41,749; and the amount expended for brothers and widows, $7,221.

NOTE FOR PAGE 107.

It is too soon as yet to give the result of the census for 1870, but for purposes of reference the following facts are submitted respecting the nativities of the population of Michigan in 1860: Michigan, 294,828; New York, 191,128; German States, 38,787; British America, 36,482; Ohio, 34,000: Ireland, 30,049; England, 25,743; Pennsylvania, 17,460; Vermont, 13,779; Massachusetts, 9,873; Connecticut, 7,639; New Jersey, 7,531; Holland, 6,335; Scotland, 5,705; Indiana, 4,482; New Hampshire, 3,482; France, 2,446; Maine, 2,214; Virginia, 2,176; Illinois, 2,167; Wisconsin, 1,908; Switzerland, 1,269; Rhode Island, 1,122; and Kentucky, 1,054; the difference between the above figures and the total population of 749,113 having been born in a great variety of States and countries. It is supposed that the census of 1870 will exhibit the same ratio, but a total population nearly twice as large.

SECOND PART.

HISTORY OF

MICHIGAN DURING THE REBELLION,

BY

GENERAL JOHN ROBERTSON.

HISTORY OF

MICHIGAN DURING THE REBELLION.

MILITARY DEPARTMENT OF MICHIGAN-1861 To 1871.

Adj. General, Mar. 15, 1861 In office.

Manchester Q.M. General, April 1, 1861 Mar. 25, 1863