318 THE GREAT NORTH-WEST 



cut to enable boats to come up to the town, tbey were 

 always frozen over again within a few hours, and towards 

 the end of the winter ice to a great thickness was piled up 

 along the coast. All the small rivers were hard frozen, 

 but the number of streams that empty themselves into 

 the lake on this side is very inconsiderable, and they are 

 all of small size, being mere brooks. 



It is singular, or at least worthy of note, that it was 

 late in the history of the United States that large towns 

 began to spring up on the shores of the Great Lakes. 

 Some of those towns promise to rank with the greatest 

 cities of the New World, and perhaps Marquette will one 

 day be a second Chicago. At present it has not come up 

 to expectation. The first settlers established the " city," 

 as they called it, much farther eastward, and gave it an 

 Indian name — Munesing. The mineral wealth of this 

 neisrhbourhood seems to have been the attraction which 

 caused the change of site, and the reason for the change 

 of name I have already given. At this time the country 

 was certainly not opened up to any great extent. I am 

 ignorant of the present state of matters, but of the future 

 I prophesy without hesitation. This is not only one 

 of the most picturesque but also one of the richest, 

 from a mineralogical point of view, districts of North 

 America. Iron, copper, silver, and coal, seem to abound 

 at many points, though I am not prepared to speak 

 of the quality of the latter. The iron is probably 

 responsible for the red, crimson, and purple colour of many 

 of the cliffs on this side of the lake, and also for the re- 

 markable coloured cascades which I found on some parts 

 of the coast. The water in these cascades was coloured 

 a deep vinous shade, so that it seemed to be wine rather 

 than water which was rushing over the rocks. The lake 

 was tinted by the coloured water poured into it, but not 

 to any great distance from the foot of the falls. These 

 claret-coloured cascades are far more numerous on the 

 north side of the lake. 



