transparent, and the air which passes
over them exceedingly invigorating to the human system. Their borders
are replete with materials for the exercise of human industry and
skill. The soil is fertile and very productive in grains and grasses.
Coal in exhaustless abundance crops out on or near their waters, to
the extent of nearly one thousand miles of coast. The richest mines of
iron and copper, convenient to water transport, exist, in aggregate
amount, beyond the power of calculation. Stone of lime, granite, sand,
and various other kinds suitable for the architect and the artist, are
found almost everywhere convenient to navigation. Gypsum of the best
quality crops out on the shores of three of the great lakes, and salt
springs of great strength are worked to advantage, near lakes Ontario
and Michigan. Timber trees in great variety and of valuable sorts,
give a rich border to the shores for thousands of miles. Of these, the
white oak, burr oak, white pine, whitewood or tulip tree, white ash,
hickory and black walnut, are the most valuable. They are of noble
dimensions, and clothe millions of acres with their rich foliage.
Nowhere else on the continent are to be seen such abundance of
magnificent oak, and the immense groves of white pine are not
excelled. Heretofore little esteemed, the great tracts of timber
convenient to lake navigation and to the wide treeless prairies of the
plain, are destined soon to take an important place in the commercial
operations of the interior. Already, oak timber, for ship-building and
other purposes, finds a profitable market in New York and Boston. The
great Russian steamship "General Admiral," was built in part from the
timber of the lake border. A great trade is growing up, based on the
products of the forest. Whitewood (Diriodendron tulipifera), oak
staves, black and white walnut plank, and other indigenous timber, are
shipped, not only to the Atlantic cities, but to foreign ports. The
lumber yards of Albany, New York, Philadelphia, as well as those of
Chicago, Milwaukee, Detroit, Toledo, Cleveland and Buffalo, receive
large supplies from the pineries bordering the great lakes. Cincinnati
and other Ohio river cities, receive an increasing proportion of pine
lumber from the same source. These great waters are also, as is well
known, stocked with fish in great variety, whose fine gastronomic
qualities have a world-wide reputation.

As before stated, these lakes penetrate the continent