that he who tastes it once, will thenceforth be unable to relish that of any other fish.

The ISLAND of MACKINAC is the last, and of the whole, the most important summer residence to which we can direct the attention of the infirm and the fashionable. True, it has no mineral springs; but living streams of pure water, cooled down to the temperature of 44°, gushing from its lime-rock precipices, and an atmosphere never sultry or malarious, supersede all necessity for nauseating solutions of iron, sulphur and Epsom salts. An ague, contracted below, has been known to cease even before the patient had set his foot on the island, as a bad cold evaporates under the warm sun on a voyage to Cuba. Its rocky, though not infertile surface, presents but few decomposable matters, and its summer heats are never great enough to convert those few into miasms.

Situated in the western extremity of Huron, within view of the straits which connect that lake with Michigan, and almost in sight, if forest did not interpose, of the portals of Lake Superior, this celebrated island has long been, as it must continue to be, the capital of the upper lakes. The steamboats which visit the Rapids of the St. Mary and Green Bay, not less than the daily line from Buffalo to Milwalke and Chicago, are found in its harbor; and the time cannot be remote, when a small packet will ply regularly between it and the first. By these boats the luxuries of the South, brought fresh and succulent as when first gathered, are supplied every day. But the potatoes of the island, rivalling those of the banks of the Shannon, and the white fish and trout of the surrounding waters, yielding only to those of Lake Superior, render all for eign delicacies superfluous. We must caution the gourmand, however, against the excessive use of trout (salmo amethystes), which are said to produce drowsiness; for he who visits Mackinac, should sleep but little, lest some scene of interest may pass away unobserved.

The society of the town and post is every way equal to any reasonable expectation. There are three plain but comforta

ble houses of entertainment for strangers; and an increase in the latter would be followed by an immediate extension of accommodations, perhaps by the erection of a summer boarding house on the high eastern cliff of the island, which would be one of the most attractive in the United States. Several of the old French and mestizoes, are intelligent and courteous; there a number of traders and other gentlemen, whose long and extended intercourse with the natives, has qualified them to impart much curious and interesting information, and the sub-Indian agent, and the officers and chaplain of the army, are hospitable and gentlemanly; while last but not least, the female society is superior to what might be anticipated, in a town so remote as to connect savage and civilized men in their daily business.

gan,

The waters around the island are so narrow and tranquil, that many excursions of pleasure, in skiffs and canoes, may be performed with safety. Several other islands lie in view, and the coasts of the upper and lower peninsulas of Michistretch off in four blue and beautiful curves. In a single hour Point St. Ignace may be reached, and in twice that time the traveller may stand on the site of old Fort Mackinac, already mentioned. These opposing shores constitute the portals of Lake Michigan. Passing through them, the enterprising traveller may perform a voyage on the coast of Michigan, to the Catholic, Ottowa villages of L'Arbre Croche and the Petite Traverse; and continuing it, reach the Chippewas of the Grande Traverse Bay, where he will find a Presbyterian Mission. At both settlements, he will see much of primitive Indian life, in the midst of a half civilized and grotesque population.

But should he remain on Mackinac, he will not be without interesting sights, for those which do not belong to it will come. The chief place of Indian trade for the north, and a stopping port for all who wander from lake to lake, it is the daily resort of Ottowas, Chippewas, and Pottawatomies, the two former, however, by far the most numerous. Here they bring their mokuks of maple sugar, their furs and dressed skins, their flag

mats, embellished moccasins, feather-fans, and white birch boxes, baskets, and miniature canoes, ornamented with dyed por cupine quills. In addition to the few who are at all times visiting the island, a large number from the shores and islands of Lake Michigan and Green Bay, every summer congregate here, on their way to the Great Manitoulin Island, in the northern part of Lake Huron, to receive presents from the British Government for having fought against us in the war of 1812. A hundred conical lodges, on the beach in front of the village, with as many birch canoes drawn out of the water, may be seen at a single stroke of the eye, presenting with the fort above, the churches of the village below, and the steamboats and schooners of the harbor, a contrast of wonderful novelty and interest. But when they depart under a west wind, each having a square sail, and are seen from the eastern summit of the island, at every distance, the fleet of Lilliputian barques, might not inappropriately be likened to a scattered flock of gigantic swans, gracefully moving through the azure

waters.

In conclusion, we must devote a page to the natural scenery of the island. Its entire circumference does not exceed ten miles. Seen as we approach from the east, it presents a mura] precipice, of grey secondary limestone, rising 150 feet out of the green waters, and decorated on its brow with maples, oaks and evergreens. Over a chasm in the verge of this cliff, is a natural bridge, so narrow and elevated, that one of the exploits of the daring visiter, is to walk upon it. At a short distance in its rear, stands a conical rock, whose pinnacle overtops many of the forest trees, in the midst of which it has stood in solitary and undecaying dignity, while they, generation after generation, have mingled with the soil. On the western slopes of the island, there is an immense number of primitive boulders, from the granitic mountains beyond Lake Superior; lastly, on the very summit of the island, the naturalist may collect organic remains, and the curious peel white birch bark, on which, should they lack paper, they may write their notes, or correspond with their distant friends.

In a recess on the south-eastern side of the island, but a few feet above the surface of the lake, stands the grotesque village of Mackinac; where, side by side, are Canadian, cypress thatched cabins, and modern frames erected by our own people. On the cliff which overhangs it, sits Fort Mackinac, with its bristling cannon, and white-washed battlements. Half a mile in the rear is another plateau 75 feet higher, the site of old Fort Holmes, which we have already visited. From this summit, elevated far above all that surrounds it, the panorama is such as would justify the epithet to Mackinac, of Queen of the Isles. To the west, are the indented shores of the upper peninsula of Michigan; to the south, those of the lower, presenting in the interior, a distant and smoky line of elevated table land; up the straits, green islets may be seen peeping above the waters; directly in front of the harbor, Round Island forms a beautiful foreground; while the larger Bois Blanc, with its lighthouse, stretches off to the cast; to the north are other islands at varying distances, which complete the archipelago.

When the observer directs his eye upon the waters more than the land, and the day is fair with moderate wind, he finds the surface as variable in its tints, as if clothed in a robe of changeable silk. Green and blue are the governing hues, but they flow into each other with such facility and frequency, that while still contemplating a particular spot, it seems, as if by magic, transformed into another.

But these mid-day beauties vanish before those of the setting sun, when the boundless horizon of lake and land seems girt around with a fiery girdle of clouds; and the brilliant drapery of the skies paints itself upon the face of the waters. Brief as they are beautiful, these evening glories, like spirits of the air, quickly pass away; and the grey mantle of night warns the beholder to depart for the village, while he may yet make his way along a narrow and rocky path, beset with tufts of prickly juniper. Having refreshed himself for an hour, he may stroll out upon the beach, and listen to the serenade of the waters. Wave after wave will break at his feet, over the white pebbles, and return as limpid as it came. Up the straits he will see the

evening star dancing on the ruffled surface, and the lagging schooner flapping its loose sails in the fitful land breeze; while the milky way-DEATH'S PATH of the Red Man, will dimly appear in the waters before him. Behind, in the street, a lively group of Canadian French, of every shade of color between white and red, will gossip and shrug their shoulders; on one side, he will hear the uproar of a lodge of drunken Chippewas, with the screams of women and children, and the cackling of frightened hens; on the other will see, the sober and listless Ottowa, sitting in silent vacancy of thought, on the upturned keel of his birch canoe, his wife within the tent spreading cypress bark and flag mats upon the gravel, as lodgings for the night, while half a dozen children loll or play about the door, and as many half starved dogs curl up among them. Surrounded by such scenes, the traveller begins to realize that he is a stranger; when suddenly a new phenomenon appears and fixes the conviction. Every object becomes more visible, and, raising his eyes, he beholds the heavens illuminated with an aurora borealis, where he reads in fantastic characters of light, that he is, indeed, a sojourner in a strange land, and has wandered far from his friends and home in the sunny regions of the South.

Nov. 1842.

ART. II.—Remarks on the Diseases that appeared in Rutherford County, Tennessee, during the year 1841, and the winter of 1841-2; being a Report read before the Medical Society of Tennessee, at its annual meeting in May 1842. By JOHN W. RICHARDSON, M. D.

Amongst the diseases above alluded to, intermitting fever should be first mentioned, because it exists almost continually with us. I have nothing new to communicate on intermit

tents.

Measles prevailed extensively during the early part of 1841, attended with more arterial excitement than I have usually