CHAPTER IV. 



FROM THE SAULT HOMEWARD. 



LAKE SUPERIOR is to be figured to the mind as a vast basin with a 

 high rocky rim, scooped out of the plateau extending from the Alle- 

 ghanies to the Mississippi valley, a little to the south of the height of 

 land. Its dimensions, according to Capt. Bayfield, are three hundred 

 and sixty miles in length, one hundred and forty in breadth, and fifteen 

 hundred in circumference. The mountainous rim is almost unbroken ; 

 its height varies from the average of about three or four hundred 

 feet, to twelve or thirteen hundred ; the slopes are gradual towards 

 the north, and abrupt on the opposite side, so that on the north shore 

 the cliffs rise steeply from the water, whilst on the south it is said 

 the ascent is more gentle ; the abrupt faces being inland. 



This difference of formation, joined to the prevalence of northerly 

 winds, has given very different aspects to the two shores ; the southern 

 showing broad sand-beaches and remarkable hills of sand, whereas 

 on the north shore the beaches are of large angular stones, and sand 

 is hardly to be seen except at the mouths of the rivers. The rivers 

 of the southern shore are often silted up, and almost invariably, it is 

 said, barred across by sand-spits, so that they run sometimes for 

 miles parallel to the lake, and separated from it only by narrow strips 

 of sand projecting from the west. 



The continuity of this rini occasions a great similarity among the 

 little rivers on the north and east shores, and no doubt elsewhere. 

 They all come in with rapids and little falls near the lake, and more 

 considerable ones farther back. These streams are said often to have 

 in their short course a descent of five or six hundred feet. 



