LAKE EXCURSION. — ISLAND OF MACKINAW. 299 



The rustic people with whom we were thrown, this day, 

 were an houest, quiet company. The women rather plainly 

 showed, in their sallow faces and angular forms, the care 

 and hardships of pioneer life and lonii', northern win- 

 ters. The men, although more robust and of healthier 

 countenance, were yet thinner and less buo3^ant in spirit 

 than a similar party in the East. 



A melodeon, placed on board for the occasion, discoursed 

 music at frecjuent intervals, while the people listened in a 

 solemn way. Quiet, neighborly visiting among the older 

 people, and harmless flirtations between the modest j^oung 

 people, were in progress all over the boat. At length, 

 lunch time came, and numerous baskets were produced on 

 deck, which turned out an enormous quantity of toothsome 

 edibles. No basket was more bountiful in good things 

 than that of A. J. Hall, the inn-keeper of Boyne. Our 

 hungry eyes ( tell-tale exponents of something else ) opened 

 his generous heart, and we were feasted as liberally as if 

 we too were from the woods of the Boyne or the Jordan. 



The ^Michigan shore was, all along, plainly visible on our 

 right, but at length, almost imperceptibly rising above the 

 waves on the north, like a summer cloud the Northern 

 Peninsula aj^peared. Our com'se had been, so far, almost 

 north, but now swerving eastward we sough! the passage 

 through the Straits of Mackinaw. Historic jilaces were 

 pointed out to strangers, the narroAving channel brought 

 the wild shores )iear us for insjiection and admiration, and 

 in the distance rose the rocky heights and preci])itf>us 

 shores of the Island of Mackinaw itself, on whose crowning- 

 point stands the fort and where waved the American flag. 



