The New International Encyclopædia/Michigan, Lake

MICHIGAN, Lake. The second in size of the great fresh-water lakes of the North American continent, and the only one lying wholly in the United States, bounded on the north and east by Michigan, on the south by Indiana, and on the west by Illinois and Wisconsin (Map: United States, H 2). It contains an area of 22,450 square miles. It is over 300 miles long, and its mean breadth is about 75 miles; the mean depth is about 870 feet. It is 581 feet above the level of the sea, and has been found by accurate observations to have a slight lunar tidal wave. Its banks are low and sandy, containing rocky sections of sandstone and limestone, but few high bluffs. Inland the sand-hills rise to the height of 150 feet. On the Wisconsin side the land is being gradually worn away, while a gain is noticeable on the Michigan side. The lake communicates with Lake Huron through the Straits of Mackinac, and is connected with the Mississippi, supposed to have been its ancient outlet, by the old Illinois and Michigan Canal and the new Chicago Drainage Canal (q.v.) at Chicago. Like all the Great Lakes, it is subject to violent storms, and its shores are guarded by twenty-three light-houses. The best harbors are at the mouths of tributary rivers; the chief ones are Chicago, Milwaukee, Escanaba, and Grand Haven. Its islands are in the northern portion, forming the Manitou group; the largest, Beaver Island, is 50 miles long. It has two large bays—Green Bay, 100 miles long, and Grand Traverse Bay, 30 miles long—and three of lesser dimensions, Little Traverse Bay, Little Bay of Noquet, and Big Bay of Noquet. Ice remains longer in the Straits of Mackinac than elsewhere, and navigation is usually closed for four consecutive months. Lake Michigan has important fisheries; white-fish and lake trout are taken and exported in large quantities, fresh and canned. The largest rivers which empty into it are the Saint Joseph, Muskegon, Grand, Kalamazoo, and Manistee, all in Michigan; the Fox in Wisconsin, emptying into Green Bay; and the Menominee on the borders of Michigan and Wisconsin, also discharging into Green Bay. The lake forms, with the Saint Lawrence and the Lower Lakes, a natural outlet for one of the richest grain-growing regions in the world.