22 LAKE SUPERIOR. 



from the straits, gave a kind of grim majesty to this lake, by con- 

 trast to those we had left. Many sea-gulls about. Land in sight 

 on the left all day, except in crossing Saginaw Bay. 



On entering Lake Huron, we began to feel that we were getting 

 into another region. Canoes of Indians about ; the weather cool 

 morning and evening, and the vegetation northerly, the pine family 

 having a decided preponderance in the landscape. We might be 

 said to have left the summer behind at the St. Clair, for thence- 

 forth there was hardly a day during some part of which a fire was 

 not necessary for comfort. 



Just before sunset, when the sun was three or four degrees high, 

 we noticed in the opposite quarter of the heavens, rays of light con- 

 verging towards a point apparently as much below the horizon, as 

 the sun was above. It had the appearance of a cloudy sunrise. 

 We afterwards saw the same thing in the St. Mary's River ; and 

 it may be remarked, in both cases before rain.* 



June, 23cZ. — Arrived at Mackinaw early in the morning, and land- 

 ed on the wharf in a shower. We had been about eighty hours on 

 the way from Buffalo, a distance of 663 miles, and we were vexed 

 to hear that the weekly steamer for the Sault had left the evening 

 before, and that if we had taken the other boat, which started punc- 

 tually a couple of hours before us, we should have been in time. 



We landed on the little wooden wharf in face of a row of shabby 

 cabins and stores, with " Indian curiosities " posted up in large 

 letters to attract the steamboat passengers during the brief stop for 

 fish. Over their roofs appeared the whitewashed buildings of the 

 Fort stretching along the ridge. The inhabitants of the place, look- 

 ing down upon us from all sides, as from the lower benches of a 

 theatre, soon perceived that we had not departed with the steamer, 

 and we were soon plied with invitations to the two principal lodging- 

 houses. From previous experience, I advised the " Mission House," 

 and thither we went. 



On the beach some Indians were leisurely hauling up their canoes, 

 or engaged upon their nets, regardless of the rain. The Professor 

 was soon in the midst of them, and bought white-fish and large pike, 



* See a notice of a similar phenomenon by Bory St. Vincent, in Goethe's Farben- 

 lehre : [Entoptische Farben, cap. XXXI.] 



