2«2 On the Geographj and Geology 



isle or two. There brown and red porphyry form, in the inte- 

 rior, cliffs 350 and 450 feet above the surface of the lake, and 

 also another series, dipping into it from an height only of 25 and 

 50 feet. The sandstone precipices abounding on the north side 

 of this island are only in patches at the summit of steep flanks, 

 and seldom extend downwards more than 50 feet, the rest of the 

 descent being woody. On some of the islands east of St. Igna- 

 tius, these cliffs however reach the water, with fretted crumbling 

 fronts, and the parts accessible to the waves often scooped into 

 small caverns, supported on low arches, like those in Grand 

 Island on the south shore, but on a much smaller scale. This 

 kind of cliff runs in right lines, fissured by water-courses from 

 above, and tufted with coppice. 



From the east end of this large island to Cape Verd there suc- 

 ceed four principal islands, all very much smaller than it, and 

 surrounded by islets and rocks. On their north shores, the sand- 

 stone cliffs show themselves with their characteristic outlines ; but 

 their south shores are chiefly low, shelving, and often naked 

 terraces of amygdaloid, with beaches of black sand. Now and 

 then, especially about the middle of the Pays Plat*, these terraces 

 become precipices 150 and 250 feet high. Near the Detroit be- 

 fore alluded to, and on its west for several miles, the shores are 

 extremely shallow for some way into the lake. The interior is 

 there low, with high beaches of angular debris. The country 

 resting on amygdaloid is very thickly wooded, but the trees, 

 mountain ash, spruce, poplar, birch, pitch-pine, are hide-bound, 

 and, as it were, smothered, under the moss called goat's-beard. 

 Canoes in journeying on this coast, pass on the north of this in- 

 sular group in autumn, entering from the west by the strait from 

 one to two miles broad, and about six long, marked the " Nipigon 

 Route ;" in summer, the outer and shorter, though less sheltered, 

 course is chosen. The Nipigon t River enters the bay at its west 

 end. It is from 80 to 100 yards broad at the mouth, and dis- 

 pharges a muddy grey water, It is 90 miles long, and has seven 



♦ 1 apply thii term to the outside of this belt of islands, 

 t Also called AJempigon, or Red-stone River. 



