Part 4 (1/2)
CHAPTER VI.
Lake Superior -- Scenery -- Transparency of its waters -- Climate -- Isle Royale -- Apostles' Islands -- La Point -- Thunder Cape -- Cariboo Point -- A wonderful lake -- Romantic scenery -- Pictured Rocks -- Rock Castle -- The Grand Portal -- The Chapel -- Fluctuations in the waters of Lake Superior -- Curious phenomena -- Retrocession of the waters -- Mirage -- Iron mountains and mines -- Description of -- Products -- s.h.i.+pments -- Copper -- Immense boulders -- Produce of the mines for 1857 -- s.h.i.+pment of copper from the Lake for 1858 -- Centre of the mining country -- Iron Mountains -- Copper mines of Great Britain -- Coal -- Mackinaw, a great manufacturing point -- Key to the Upper Lakes -- Commerce of Lakes -- Growth of cities.
Lake Superior, though it possesses not all the vastness of the ocean, is yet equal in sublimity. In gazing upon its surface, whether spread out like a vast mirror reflecting the varying tints of the sky, or ruffled by gently curling waves, or lashed into fury by the tempest, one is impressed with the idea of the Infinite. It is known to be the largest body of fresh water on the globe, being nearly four hundred miles long from east to west, and one hundred and thirty wide. It is the grand reservoir from whence proceed the waters of Michigan, Huron, and Erie. It gives birth to Niagara, the wonder of the world, fills the basin of Ontario, and rolls a mighty flood down the St. Lawrence to the Atlantic.
This lake lies in the bosom of a mountainous region, where the Indian yet reigns and roams in his wonted freedom. Except an occasional picketed fort or trading house, it is yet a perfect wilderness. The entire country is rocky and covered with a stunted growth of vegetation such as is usual in high lat.i.tudes. The waters of this lake are marvelously clear, and, even at midsummer, are exceedingly cold.
Mr. Charles Lanman, who has written a most admirable book, ent.i.tled ”Summer in the Wilderness,” says, ”In pa.s.sing along its rocky sh.o.r.es, in my frail canoe, I have often been alarmed at the sight of a sunken boulder, which I fancied must be near the top, and on further investigation have found myself to be upward of twenty feet from the danger of a concussion. I have frequently lowered a white rag to the depth of one hundred feet and been able to discern its every fold or stain. The color of the water near the sh.o.r.e is a deep green; but off soundings it has all the dark blue of the ocean.”
Speaking of the climate, he says: ”In midsummer it is beyond compare, the air is soft and bracing at the same time. A healthier region does not exist on the earth, an a.s.sertion corroborated by the fact, that the inhabitants usually live to an advanced age, notwithstanding the many hards.h.i.+ps. The common diseases of mankind are here comparatively unknown, and I have never seen an individual whose breast did not swell with a new emotion of delight as he inhaled the air of this northern wilderness.”
The largest island in Lake Superior is Isle Royale. It is forty miles in length and from six to ten miles in width. Its hills reach an alt.i.tude of four hundred feet. During the winter season it is entirely uninhabited, but in the summer it is frequently visited, particularly by copper speculators. Near the western extremity of the lake are the Apostles' Islands, which are detachments of a peninsula running out in the same direction with Keweenaw, which is known as La Point. The group consist of three islands, which rise like gems from the water.
There is a dreamy summer about them which make them enticing as the Hesperides of the ancients.
The two most prominent peninsulas are Thunder Cape and Cariboo Point.
Thunder Cape is about fourteen hundred feet high. It looms up against the sky in grandeur, and is a most romantic spot. Cariboo Point is less lofty and grand in its appearance, but is celebrated for its unknown hieroglyphics painted upon its summits by a race which has long since pa.s.sed away. In the vicinity of the bluff are found the most beautiful agates in the world.
In the northeastern part of the lake is an island situated about twenty miles from the Canadian sh.o.r.e, which has a wonderful lake in its centre, about one mile in length. It is as beautiful as it is wonderful. It is imbosomed in the fastnesses of perpendicular cliffs, which rise to a height of seven hundred feet. It has but one outlet and is impa.s.sable even to a canoe. At the opening of this narrow chasm stands a column of solid rock which has a base of about one hundred feet in diameter. The column rises, gradually tapering until it reaches a height of eight hundred feet. A solitary pine surmounts the summit of this wonderful column. There it stands like the sentinel of this calm, deep lake, whose silence and solitude are rarely ever broken, and whose tranquil bosom has never been ruffled by the slightest breeze.
[Ill.u.s.tration: Rock Chapel.]
[Ill.u.s.tration: The Castles.]
The scenery on the sh.o.r.es of Lake Superior is in some places of the most romantic character. About one hundred miles west of Saut St.
Mary, a range of cliffs are to be seen, what has been called the ”Pictured Rocks.” They are a series of sandstone bluffs extending along the sh.o.r.e of the lake for about five miles, and rising, in most places vertically from the water, from fifty to two hundred feet in height. These towering cliffs have been worn away by the action of the lake, which for centuries has dashed an ocean-like surf against their base. The surface of these rocks has been, in large portions, strangely colored by bands of brilliant hues, which present to the eye of the voyager a singularly pleasing appearance. One of these cliffs resembles so much the turreted entrance and arched portal of some old feudal castle that it has been called ”Rock Castle.” Beyond this is another architectural curiosity, denominated ”The Grand Portal,” which consists of an arched opening in the rocks. The cliff is composed of a vast ma.s.s, of a rectilinear shape, projecting out into the lake six hundred feet, and presenting a front of three hundred feet, and rising to a height of two hundred feet. An entrance has been excavated from one side to the other, opening out into large vaulted pa.s.sages which communicate with the great dome, some three hundred feet from the front of the cliff. The Grand Portal, which opens out on the lake, is of magnificent dimensions, being one hundred feet high, and one hundred and sixty-eight feet wide at the water level. The distance from the verge of the cliff, over the arch to the water, is one hundred and thirty-three feet, leaving three feet for the thickness of the rock above the arch itself. The extreme height of the cliff is about fifty feet more, making in all one hundred and eighty-three feet. It is impossible, adequately, to describe this wonderful scene.
The vast dimensions of the cavern, the vaulted pa.s.sages, the rare combination of colors, the varied effects of the light as it streams through the great arch and falls on the different objects; the deep, emerald green of the water, the unvarying swell of the lake, keeping up a succession of musical echoes; the reverberation of one's voice coming back with startling effect, must all be seen and heard to be fully appreciated.
Not far from this point is ”The chapel” of the voyagers which nature has cut out of the cliff thirty or forty feet above the lake. The interior consists of a s.p.a.cious vaulted apartment. An arched roof from ten to twenty feet in thickness rests on four gigantic columns of rock. These columns consist of finely stratified rock, and have been worn into curious shapes. At the base of one of these pillars an arched cavity or niche has been cut, access to which is had by a flight of steps formed by the projecting strata. The arrangement of the whole resembles very much the pulpit of a church, while the arched canopy in front, opening out to the voluted interior, with a flat tabular ma.s.s rising to a convenient height for a desk, and an isolated block resembling an altar, all fas.h.i.+oned as appropriately as if formed by the hand of man, constantly impresses one that he is within the walls of a church.
In the Geological Report, made by Foster and Whitney, to Congress, we find the following remark: ”It is a matter of surprise, that so far as we know, none of our artists, have visited this region, and given to the world representations of scenery, so striking and so different from any which can be found elsewhere. We can hardly conceive of any thing more worthy of the artist's pencil, and if the tide of pleasure-travel should once be turned in this direction, it seems not unreasonable to suppose, that a fas.h.i.+onable hotel may yet be built under the shade of the pine groves near the chapel, and a trip thither become as common as one to Niagara now is.”
Beyond the grand portal, the rock, being less exposed to the force of the waves, bears fewer marks of their destructive action. The entrance to Chapel river is at the most easterly extremity of a sandy beach, which extends for a quarter of a mile, and affords a convenient landing place, while the drift terrace elevated about thirty feet above the level of the lake, being an open pine plain, affords excellent camping ground, and is the most central and convenient spot for the traveler to pitch his tent, while he examines the most interesting localities in the series which occur in the vicinity, particularly the Castle and the Chapel.
One who had resided upon the sh.o.r.es of Lake Superior for several summers says, ”Our attention has been directed to the fluctuations in the level of its waters, and while we have failed to detect any ebb and flow corresponding with the tidal action, we have on the other hand noticed certain extraordinary swells, which appear to be independent of the action of the sun and moon.” The Jesuit Fathers in 1670-1, had their attention called to these extraordinary swells. In their ”Relations,” they say, ”We found at one time the motion of the waters to be regular and at others extremely fluctuating. We have noticed however, that at full moon and new moon, the tides change once a day for eight or ten days, while during the remainder of the time there is hardly any change perceptible. The currents set almost invariably in one direction, namely toward Lake Michigan, and they almost invariably set against the wind, sometimes with great force.”
Mackenzie who wrote in 1789, relates a very curious phenomenon, which occurred at Grand Portage, on Lake Superior, and for which no obvious cause could be a.s.signed. He says, ”the water withdrew, leaving the ground dry, which had never before been visible, the fall being equal to four perpendicular feet, and rus.h.i.+ng back with great velocity above the common mark. It continued thus rising and falling for several hours, gradually increasing until it stopped at its usual height.”
Professor Mather, who observed the barometer at Copper Harbor during the prevalence of one of these fluctuations, remarks, ”As a general thing, fluctuations in the barometer accompanied the fluctuations in the level of the water, but sometimes the water level varied rapidly in the harbor, while no such variations occurred in the barometer at the place of observation. The variations in the level of the water may be caused by varied barometric pressure of the air on the water, either at the place of observation or at some distant points. A local increased pressure of the atmosphere at the place of observation would lower the water level, where there is a wide expanse of water; or a diminished pressure, under the same circ.u.mstances, would cause the water to rise above its usual level.”
In the summer of 1834, according to the report of Foster and Whitney, made to Congress, in 1850, an extraordinary retrocession of the waters took place at Saut St. Mary. The river here is nearly a mile in width, and the depth of the water over the sandstone rapids is about two and a half feet. The phenomenon occurred at noon. The day was calm but cloudy; the water retired suddenly, leaving the bed of the river bare, except for the distance of about twenty rods where the channel is deepest, and remained so for the s.p.a.ce of an hour. Persons went out and caught fish in the pools formed in the rocky cavities. The return of the waters was sudden and presented a sublime spectacle. They came down like an immense surge, roaring and foaming, and those who had incautiously wandered into the river bed, had barely time to escape being overwhelmed. A similar event occurred in 1842, when the current set back from the rapids, and the water rose upward of two feet above the usual mark.
In 1845, Foster and Whitney, while coasting in an open boat between Copper Harbor and Eagle River, observed the water rise up, at a distance of a fourth of a mile to the northwest, to the height of twenty feet. It curled over like an immense surge, crested with foam and swept toward the sh.o.r.e. It was succeeded by two or three swells of less magnitude, when the lake resumed its former tranquillity. At the same time the mirage was beautifully displayed, and imaginary islands were seen along the horizon. In 1849, they witnessed at Rock Harbor, Isle Royale, the ebbing and flowing of the water, recurring at intervals of fifteen or twenty minutes, during the entire afternoon.
The difference between the temperature of the air and the lake, gives rise to a variety of optical illusions known as _mirage_. Mountains are seen with inverted cones, headlands project from the sh.o.r.e where none exist. Islands clothed with verdure or girt with cliffs rise up from the bosom of the lake. On approaching Keweenaw Point, Mount Houghton is the first object to greet the eye of the mariner. In peculiar stages of the atmosphere, its summit is seen inverted in the sky long before the mountain itself is visible. On the north sh.o.r.e the Paps, two elevated mountains near the entrance of Neepigon Bay, at one time appear like hour gla.s.ses, and at another like craters, emitting long columns of smoke, which gradually settles around their cones.
The mines and minerals of the northwest const.i.tute the most striking feature of the country, and at the present time one of the great sources of its wealth.