Chronicles of Notre Dame du Lac
Edward Sorin, CSC -- Translated by John M. Toohey, CSC, 1895

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1842-1843

pg 43             Most of those different little parishes desired very much to 
             have a priest amongst them, but this was an impossibility; and a 
             great deal of activity was necessary to visit them all three or 
             four times a year--and unless they are visited at least one a 
             month, nothing can be done in this country.

                                       4.  Advantages

                  St. Mary's of the Lake was at that time of easy access. In a 
             day it could communicate with Chicago, which is distant forty 
             leagues; in two days with Detroit, eighty leagues; and in four 
             days with New York, four hundred leagues.  Vincennes, one hundred 
             leagues away, required a week.  The St. Joseph's River 
             facilitated importation and exportation, the two lakes were a 
             source of enjoyment and of profit to the community and to a 
             college by their fish and their beds of marl, which could be 
             advantageously bartered; and besides, there were the advantages
             of the baths for the students in summer, and the amusements on 
             the ice in winter.  Finally, although in itself quite ordinary, 
             the soil of the Lake can be kept fertile by means of marl and 
             lime.