146 Collingwood to Samia. 



The largest island in Lake Superior belongs to the United 

 States, and is called Isle Royal. It is forty miles long, and 

 varies from six to ten in width. The northern side is bold 

 and rocky, but the southern has a number of fine bays and 

 natural harbours, noted for their superior fishing grounds. 

 All along the northern shore at intervals may be seen a line 

 of the smoothest beach, as if for the very purpose of affording 

 protection to the voyaging Indians when exposed to the 

 dangers of sudden storms, to which this lake is very subject. 

 About 100 miles from Sault St. Marie is Michipicoton 

 Island, containing two rich mines — one of copper and the 

 other of silver, — which are being very successfully worked. 

 The formation of this island and the adjacent coast is granite, 

 greenstone, porphyry, and sienite, presenting a beautiful 

 appearance. Near the small harbour of the island the land 

 rises 700 feet perpendicularly from the lake, and in Nipeegon 

 Bay, near by, it attains the height of 1000 feet, frowning 

 perpendicularly on the cold black water at its base. 



The Cascade of La Portaille, on the south shore, is a 

 stream which precipitates itself from a height of 70 feet by 

 a single leap into the lake to such a distance that a boat may 

 pass between the fall and the rock perfectly dry. The sand- 

 stone of the rock has been worn away by the ceaseless action 

 of the water to such a degree that the superincumbent mass 

 rests upon massive arches, and is intersected in every 

 direction by caverns. No wonder that where nature has 

 been so lavish with her handiwork, every headland on Lake 

 Superior, and every river running into it, should be hallowed 

 in Indian story by some wild legend. 



All the hills and mountains surrounding this immense 

 lake abound in valuable minerals, of which copper in every 

 form is the most abundant ; native silver is also found there, 

 but the resources of this section of the country are not yet 

 developed. One fact will strike the traveller at once on 

 nearing the mining districts, viz., that all the men, women, 



