ters of the Indian trade, being the gateway of commerce between the St. Lawrence and the Mississippi, and the rendezvous of trappers, traders, soldiers, missionaries, and Indians. There was a fort and a chapel, and here the Jesuits erected their first college in the Western country. The place passed into English hands from the French, with all the other Western posts, in 1760, by treaty; and in 1762 it was taken by the Indians by stratagem, and most of the garrison massacred; as is well told by Henry, one of the few survivors, who was brought over to the island by a friendly Indian, and hidden in a cave. When the English recovered the post, they removed it, for greater security, to the island, where it has since remained under the English and American Governments, and the old post, which better commands the straits, abandoned. This removal was made about 1780, and "New Mackinaw," as it was called for a long time, became the great centre of the fur-trade. It was ceded to the United States in 1793, was retaken by the English in 1812, was unsuccessfully attacked by the Americans the next year, and was finally restored to them by the treaty of Ghent in 1814.

The island in former times had a bad reputation with the Indians, as being the resort of giants and evil spirits, whose principal abode was in a cave in the high rock upon which the fort stands, the entrance to which was said by the medicine-men to be right under the south gate, or sally-port. After the occupation by the white men, these spirits disappeared, driven away, perhaps, by the more potent spirits of the white medicine-man, known as Red-Eye and Forty-Rod Whiskey.

In the fortification which crowns the bluff, and is called Fort Mackinac, there is a curious mixture of frontier-post and old-world castle. Thick walls of limestone crawl along the cliffs and scale the rocks, leading to sally-ports defended by cannon; while at the angles of the work, blockhouses of logs stand loopholed for musketry, and stockaded against Indian attack. The fort is a

very picturesque object, and a specimen of a mountain fastness, perhaps unique in this country; but as a fort, in the modern meaning of the term, it is probably of little value. A monitor, with a ten-inch gun, would make short work of it; besides which, it is commanded by a hill in the middle of the island, by the possession of which the British took it in 1812, having dragged a couple of guns up in the night, which rendered the fort untenable. They built an earthwork on this hill which they called Fort George, and after the rendition of the island to the Americans, the name was changed to Fort Holmes, in memory of Major Holmes, of the United States Army, who fell in the attack upon it under the command of Colonel Croghan.

Our hotel, the Mission House, has a name which is significant and historical. It was built for a Protestant Mission by the General Association of Connecticut, who established it here in 1802, and sent Mr. Daniel Bacon as a missionary to the Indians in this region. The worthy man did not meet with much success, however, the reply of the redmen to his germon being, "Brother, your religion is very good, but it is only good for white people. It will not do for Indians." The mission was continued until 1837, when it was abandoned, and the mission-house and church were sold.

Protestant missions seem to be valued in proportion to their distance from the parent churches. If in India or Patagonia, the money flows freely in for their support. When Mackinaw was one thousand miles away from the settlements, the mission was worthy of support; but now that it is practically at our own door, and would benefit the white heathen, it is abandoned.

The climate of the island is very salubrious. The air is pure and bracing, so that persons who, in St. Louis or Chicago, hardly find energy to cross the street, are here able to walk over the hills for miles. The temperature is uniform, owing to its insular position : a record of the thermometer kept in

July and August, 1865, gives 78° as the highest figure at noon, and 60° as the lowest. The walks and drives are pleasant, winding through the thick woods which cover the interior of the island, it being a pile of limestone, about three miles in diameter. The variety of trees is great, almost all, in fact, which grow in this latitude being found here, though the cedar is most abundant, covering every rocky eminence, in great size and beauty. Flowers abound in the woods, such as the twin-flower, yellow lady-slipper, Linnea, Louicera, Cyno-glossum; and the Epigea, or Mayflower, supposed by some enthusiasts to be peculiar to Plymouth woods, is here in great beauty.

All the navigation of Lake Michigan passes in sight of this place; the steamers going through the channel between Round Island and Mackinaw, and most of the sail-vessels taking the south channel, between Bois Blanc and the Michigan shore.

What this lake navigation is, few persons have an idea; but before the Rebellion it was equal in amount to half the commerce of the United States, and for the last five years this internal navigation has constantly increased, while the foreign trade has fallen off. The Chicago Tribune for August 26, 1867, records the arrival at that port, on the day previous, of eighteen steamers and one hundred and sixty-five sailvessels; a larger number, it is thought, than will often be found to have arrived even at New York in a single day. A record kept at Mackinaw of vessels passing through the straits for six months, ending September 30, 1859, in the daytime, gives

The village of Mackinaw consists of two streets of old frame-houses, many of them built early in the century; a few stores and old warehouses, the latter representing the palmy days of the fur-trade, now passed away, and the former dealing in the goods needed by a small population of fishermen and half-breeds-with Indian curiosities and New York millinery for the summer visitors.

One of these which we noticed, with smart-looking clerks behind the counter, seemed to be the favorite resort of the young ladies from the hotels, who beguiled the long hours of summer by the purchase of bark canoes and Stuart's candy, by ascertaining by scale their daily increase in weight in this wholesome air, varied by flirtations with the island-beaux, just to keep themselves in practice, probably. These were merely the amusements, the serious business of the day being walks to the Arched Rock or the Lover's Leap, rides to those remoter points, Fort Holmes and the British Landing, or in sailing about the straits,-virtue, in this case, bringing its own reward, in a keener appetite for the trout and white-fish, the strawberries and raspberries, of the Mission House table. We mention these as the indigenous and native viands-all things else eatable being brought from Detroit or Chicago by steamer.

And here let us say a word of those fishes of the great lakes, the white-fish and trout, often eaten by travellers, but seldom in perfection; and to which, consequently, justice has not been done. The first of these is, when fresh and in good condition, a delicious fish, everywhere; similar in delicacy to the Connecticut river shad, but with fewer bones, and a higher flavor. The fish which it most resembles is, we think, a fresh-caught blue-fish-and, like it, the white-fish should be broiled. When kept for a day or two on ice, as is the case with most of those found in the lake-cities, the flavor and delicacy are wholly lost. Even at Mackinaw you seldom get them in perfection at the hotels, as the purveyors for those houses

are apt to buy fish taken in gill-nets, which may have been dead twenty-four hours before they are brought to table. To be really good, the fish should be caught either in a pound-net, where they are kept alive, or in a dip-net, as they are taken at the Sault St. Marie by the Indians. The best white-fish are those of Lake Superior, where they grow to the weight of twelve pounds, and, unlike most fish, the largest are the best. After much experience in fish-eating, we think that the white-fish at the Sault stands at the head of the list of American fishes; for it has this peculiarity, that, owing to the delicacy of its flavor, it never cloys the appetite, as we find the salmon and the brooktrout will do. Hasten, then, ichthyophagous epicures, to Lake Superior, where you will find the happy combination of an appetizing climate, and a fish of which you may eat till you burst.

The Mackinaw trout we cannot praise so highly. There are, we think, several varieties of this salmon in the lakesone of them, when fresh, much resembling in flavor the true salmon, but most of them inferior to it. This fish in Lake Superior is much better than in the other lakes; as is, indeed, the case with all the kinds found there.

The net is

An abundant supply of fish is found in these lakes, and the catching of them employs a great number of men. They are taken in seines in the spring and fall, and in gill-nets and pound-nets all summer. The gill-net is made of fine twine, with a mesh just large enough to admit the head of the fish without letting his body through. about four feet deep and several hundred feet long, and is kept at the bottom of the lake by weights at the lower edge, and floats at the upper. To mark its place in the lake, wooden buoys are attached to it by long lines, and it is set in from fifty to one hundred feet depth of water, and visited, if possible, every day for the purpose of removing the fish. The pound-net is a square enclosure of netting twenty-five feet each way, with a bottom of the same; this is fastened to poles which are

driven into the bottom of the lake in twenty-five feet of water, and reach to the surface. This enclosure of netting has a wing of the same net stretching to the shore, so as to direct the fish towards the opening of the pound, which is on the land-side, made in a sort of intricate or labyrinthian fashion, so that the fishes, once in, cannot find their way out. As they follow the shoreline, they strike the wing-net, and, following this, they are conducted into the opening of the pound.

We visited one of these pounds on Lake Michigan, and entered it in a small boat. All around us were the various fishes found in the lake, swimming about as if in an aquarium. White-fish, pike, black and white bass, the pike-perch, sometimes called the Ohio salmon, great lake-trout three feet long, and huge sturgeon as long as the boat, and so crowded together in their watery prison, that we could seize hold of them by the tails.

Of these, the white-fish-Corregonus Albus-are found in all the lakes, those of Lake Superior being the largest and best, weighing as high as fifteen pounds; while, in the other lakes, five pounds is a good-sized fish. They spawn in the fall, on shoals and reefs, and are vegetable feeders almost exclusively. They are the most numerous as well as the most valuable of all the lakefishes, and command the highest price when salted.

Pike or pickerel-Esox Boreus—are taken in large numbers in the rivers and shallow bays; they rank next in value to the white-fish; usual weight from two to ten pounds; spawn in the spring.

The lake-trout-Salmo Amethystus— are very voracious, and feed upon the white-fish; are caught in nets, and with the hook-by trolling in the summer, and with set lines in spring and fall; weigh from five to fifty pounds; spawn in the autumn.

The siscowit are only found in some parts of Lake Superior; they belong to the salmon family, and are very fat-so much so as only to be eatable when

It is estimated that the annual catch on all the five great lakes will amount to at least one hundred thousand barrels of fish, worth a million of dollars. These fish are consumed in the Western and Southwestern States, among the farmers and planters, Chicago being the headquarters of the trade. They are inferior to mackerel or codfish, but, being sold at a lower price, the demand for them is extensive.

The Canadian and half-breed fishermen about the lakes use the Mackinaw boat, which seems to be built on the model of a bark canoe, flat in the bottom and sharp at the ends, which rise up with a sheer. They were originally intended for navigating the rivers as well as the lakes, for travelling on those great watery highways which extended from Montreal to St. Louis. On the lakes the voyagers use sails and a centre-board; on shallow waters they haul up the centre-board, and use oars or paddles.

The American fishermen who come up from the lower lakes use boats similar to those found on the seaboard, built with a keel, and much broader and deeper than the Mackinaw craft; and they say that their boats can outsail and outcarry the Mackinaw boats, both going free and closehauled.

We were surprised to hear this, as the Mackinaw boats have a great reputation in these regions; but on several occasions, when the two classes of boats contended together, we observed that the salt-water craft was victorious.

The fishermen at the head of Lake Michigan, about Chicago and Milwau

they use a boat the model of which they have brought from their stormy northern seas. It is much like the boat of Narraganset Bay-short and deep, and broad in the beam; with one mast, and a large boom-mainsail, with a jib for light winds.

"What do you find to do at Mackinac?" is a question often asked. First, you walk. It is the most charming place in the country for that exercise. The soil is dry, and never muddy. The island is covered with paths running through the bush, and winding about so pleasantly, that you can choose a new route every day. There is a leafy shade, a bracing air, fine views on every side, and no musquitoes. The few cows on the island are amiable; and except when an excursion-boat arrives, there seem to be no loafers or roughs--so that ladies can walk safely, unattended.

Secondly, you ride, you drive, and you sail. For shooting and fishing, the island affords little opportunity. There is no game, unless you choose to invest the crows with that name. As to fish, the neighboring waters abound with them, but they are not available to the angler. There are trout-streams on the mainland on both sides of the straits, but those who visit them with hopes of bringing home such strings of fish as we read of in Wilkes' Spirit of the Times, will be disappointed. To catch trout in summer, you must be on the ground very early or late in the day; and these streams being from ten to fifteen miles away, the only chance is to camp out overnight in the woods; and few amateur anglers will take that trouble.

Carp River, about fifteen miles to the northwest, is, or was, a good troutstream-indeed, one of the best we ever saw, twenty years ago-swift and clear, full of little falls, rapids, and deep pools, about fifty feet wide and from one to three feet deep, and with a clear margin of shore from which to throw the fly. But a sawmill has been built on its lower waters, which are of course spoiled for fishing; though above the

dam, among the hills, we are told the trout are still to be caught.

Hearing of a stream eight miles away to the southeast, a party was formed to visit it. Three ladies and three men appeared at the wharf at ten o'clock in the morning, out of a dozen who had wished to go the night before; but some were lazy, and some had headaches from too much dancing and icecream, overnight. We ran over in a sail-boat, with a light breeze, in two hours, trolling unsuccessfully for laketrout on the way. Our skipper, a fisherman from Lake Ontario, reckoned it was too late in the season for trolling. This was in August: in July it would have probably been too early.

We landed on a wild and desolate shore, heavily timbered with maple, beech, and pine, and found the natives prepared to resist our invasion, for they attacked us on sight, these tribes of Buzz and Hum. After snatching a hasty repast, one valiant lady and the three men marched, rod in hand, for the trout-brook. What might have been a brook in happier times, was now a thread of water at the bottom of a stony ravine, overgrown with bushes and briers. There was not water enough to float a minnow, except at the mouth of the stream, where there was a shallow pool separated from the lake by the inevitable sandbar, which is found at all the river-mouths, big and little, in these regions. We made our way up the stream about half a mile, where there had formerly been a sawmill, the ruined dam of which still

obstructed the channel. It was evident that no trout with the use of his fins would stay here. There had formerly been a cleared spot of land about the mill, but it was fast growing up into forest again. So, pursued by the triumphant musquitoes, we fled to our ships. We found the ladies encamped at the water's edge to escape the enemy, who, reinforced by all that could sting or bite-sand-flies, punkies, and greenheads-seemed disposed to follow up their victory.

On looking about for the skipper, we found him and his boy wading in the pool at the mouth of the creek, and compelling the trout to be caught: they drove the fish to one end of the pool, and thrust the hook at them with so commanding an air, that they could do nothing but submit. In this rude and ferocious manner they absolutely captured three or four simple-minded little trout, the only ones taken that day. We, the skilled anglers, with rods, reels, and flies, were ignominiously beaten by these rude fishermen.

So we sailed away from the musquito shore, with swollen and discolored faces, resembling a huckleberry pudding.

The run home was delightful, and we were consoled for our defeat by the sight of one of the most magnificent of sunsets-brilliant even for that region, where the sky and clouds are always gorgeous. The heavens were turned to gold, rubies, topaz, and amethyst; and the water reflected them back, so that we seemed to sail through wavelets of purple fire.