8 On the Geography and Geology 



northwest is somewhat faintly seen, a picturesque and elevated 

 country. 



The name of Gros Cap, I understand, includes the rocky hills 

 constituting the north shore of Lake Superior from the River St. 

 Mary for four miles, but which then suddenly sink into a rugged 

 slope, buried under vegetation. Both extremities are well marked, 

 and may be distinguished as the north and south headlands of 

 Gros Cap. This line of hills consists chiefly of rocky knolls and 

 crags, (with the usual ravines and fissures,) piled upon each 

 other to the height of 150 or 200 feet at "the north end, and about 

 the middle ; but to 400 and 450 feet, a mile or more from the 

 south end, where they dip into the lake, from an elevation of 300 

 feet in advanced broken scraps, lowering successively. The great- 

 est height above stated, is partly formed by precipices of porphyry 

 fissured perpendicularly, and terminated below by slopes of ruins, 

 which, at one spot, advance into the lake in a flat four or five acres 

 in extent. Cliffs elsewhere are neither high nor frequent. In 

 patches these hills are quite bare, but ordinarily they are covered 

 with dwarf pine, aspen, and coppice. Near the north headland 

 there is a fine but small cascade, dashing over rocks. A small 

 rocky isle, rather more than a mile and a half from the south 

 headland, should be mentioned. It is separated from the main by 

 a shallow channel 50 yards wide. 



The general course of the east shore of Lake Superior, from 

 the south headland of Gros Cap to the River Michipicoton, (125 

 miles f,) is about a point west of north. The most conspicuous 

 promontories in this interval are Marmoazet, (41 miles from the 

 south headland,) and Gargantua, (93 miles.) They are the outer 

 points of great curvatures, which contain subordinate bays of very 

 large size. The most southern of these, is Batchewine Bay, or 

 Baie Gule, of Canadian voyageurs. The north headland of Gros 



* By canoe route, which, it is to be remembered, varies in length according 

 to the weather, !fc. 



t A Chippewa word, signifying an assemblage, and here referring to islets 

 and reefs. 



