106 LAKE SUPERIOR. 



right angles with each other, while the pole ran up in a point in the 

 middle. The onlj help was to cover ourselves as far as possible 

 with our water-proof cloaks, &c. But these in the pitchy darkness 

 were not so easily found. We then attempted to light a candle, 

 but the matches were damp, and with all our precautions could not 

 be coaxed quite to the igniting point. Finally by the intervention of 

 a flint-and-steel, (let not the traveller be seduced into placing his 

 reliance in any new-fangled substitute for this trusty companion,) 

 we managed to get a light and find our things, and therewith made 

 ourselves tolerably comfortable. 



Aug. Ath. — Weather still unsettled, and we did not start until 

 after breakfast. It was calm at first, but the wind soon rose strong 

 from the N.N.W., obliging us to creep round very near the shore. 



We encamped at night on a point where the very wide and steep 

 beach ascended by terraces to a long regular ridge. This ridge was 

 covered, in one place in an unbroken patch of an acre or more, with 

 a checkerwork of large tufts of yellowish gray and dark pinkish 

 lichens, mingled with deep green juniper (-/. virginiana,') and Vac- 

 cinia. 



The beach was covered with drift-wood, large trunks of trees with 

 the roots often attached, most numerous on the top of the beach 

 close to the trees, although the distance from the water must be a 

 couple of hundred yards, and the elevation not less than thirty or 

 forty feet. We never met with any floating wood. Doubtless the 

 trees are washed away and thrown up in the winter, and cast higher 

 by each successive storm until they are out of the reach of the water. 



The Professor found here, in place, the red porphyry of which we 

 had found erratic blocks at many points to the southward on our way 

 hither ; it was perfectly stratified, and associated with chlorite. 



Aug. bill. — We reached the Pic early this morning. As we ap- 

 proached the wharf we saw our companions whom we had left behind 

 here, waiting to receive us. The sick man had pretty nearly recov- 

 ered, but still looked thin and pale. 



In the low grounds here, as at Fort William, we found partridges, 

 (^Bonasia umhellus ;) in the wettest part of the swamp, directly at 

 the foot of the ridge, I came upon a female with a brood of young 



