116 LAKE SUPERIOR. 



It had all the appearance of a sudden and even depression across 

 a previously unbroken plain. My companion thought it a former 

 bed of the river, and that he could see an opening in the hills to 

 the left (which direction we knew the river took above) through 

 which it might have flowed. I could see nothing of this, nor did 

 the valley seem to me to present the appearance of a river-bed, for 

 it was perfectly level, free from stones, and nowhere less than half 

 a mile wide, varying from this to perhaps three fourths of a mile, at 

 least six times the present width of the river. In our haste nothing 

 very satisfactory could be made out, but my general impression was 

 that it was the bed of a former arm of the lake. 



Crossing the valley and ascending the bluff, by an equally steep 

 path on the other side, we came before long to scattered spruce 

 trees, and at the distance of about three miles from the factory, to 

 the river again. Here, we were made aware that what had seemed 

 to us a horizontal plain, was in truth a gradually ascending level, for 

 we now stood sixty or seventy feet above the stream. A little brook 

 scarcely deep enough to swim a trout came into the river here at 

 the same level, having sawed through the sand to its very base, leav- 

 ing on each side a steep slope of pure sand, excessively fatiguing to 

 ascend. We were now surrounded by a tolerable growth of spruce 

 and birch, occasionally forming thickets. The aspect of the coun- 

 try was not unlike that of the White Mountains at the elevation at 

 which the forest begins to disappear, only more abounding in lichens 

 and small shrubs. 



There was no opportunity in the course of our hasty walk to ob- 

 serve the stratification of the sand. We saw no freshly broken sur- 

 faces, and in the paths the materials were of course displaced. In 

 general terms, however, I may say that it was a coarse, reddish sand, 

 mixed with gravel and with a few stones, which were somewhat 

 rounded but not scratched as far as I observed. The general ap- 

 pearance was much the same as that of the bluff at th factory, 

 which is very distinctly stratified. 



Afterwards we came out into an open space whence we had a 

 very extensive view over woods and barren ground, with occasional 

 glimpses of the river far below, and on the edge of the horizon a 

 peep of the lake. 



