of Lake Superior, 25 



This mountain is several miles long, and of considerable 

 breadth, except at the point ; which is well marked and descends 

 into the lake by three shelves. The west half of its summit is 

 almost tabular ; but the eastern half is irregular and hummocky, 

 dipping suddenly in round masses, into a lower but still elevated 

 country. About the middle of its south side, where the height is 

 greatest, an immense cavity, with steep woody acclivities, is scooped 

 out of the body of the mountain. On the south-west, the upper 

 third of the elevation is occupied by precipices, fissured into ver- 

 tical pilastres, weathered orange red, and advancing occasionally 

 in large buttresses. These precipices are largest on the north- 

 north-west side of this headland ; there extending over two- 

 fifths of the whole height, but in other parts they only reach one- 

 third downwards, or less, and are interrupted by coppice. They 

 everywhere (I continue the description downwards) terminate on 

 naked and steep slopes of debris, from 300 to 500 feet in height, 

 encroached on, greatly and irregularly, by underwood, creeping up- 

 wards from three woody shelves or terraces, which form the base 

 of the mountain, and are washed by the waters of the lake. They 

 appeared to be broadest at the south-east end, and are there 

 about a mile in breadth. I did not perceive them at all on the 

 side looking on Thunder Bay. What are above termed pilasters, 

 are smooth prolonged slabs, perpendicular, and formed by the 

 disappearance at certain intervals, of vertical slips of rock. 



The south face of Thunder JMountain is skirted by islets and 

 reefs. The immediate shore is distributed into sandy beaches, 

 rocky inlets, and straight scarps. 



light canoe at Montreal, through the agency of Messrs. Forsyth and Richard- 

 son, and circumnavigated Lake Superior. He occupied himself in astrono- 

 mical observations, and the admeasurement of heights ; mingling also freely 

 with the Indians. Mr. Thompson furnished me with the above fact respect- 

 ing Thunder Mountain. Lord Selkirk has quoted him in a pamphlet on the 

 late disputes in the north-west territories; but I cannot find either this pam- 

 phlet or any publication of the Count's, although I have examined most of 

 the Italian, French, and British periodical works on science which have ap- 

 l)cared since 1800. 



