NORTH SHORE OF LAKE SUPERIOR 339 



soon come to the three rivers and Fort WilHam, already 

 described, and immediately afterward to Thunder Bay 

 only cursorily noticed. Thunder Cape is held in extreme 

 awe by the Indians, and they do not care to paddle too 

 near it. When I mention that it is but a few feet short 

 of fourteen hundred in height, or nearly three times that 

 of Beachy Head, rising a sheer cliff from the water, it 

 will easily be comprehended what an imposing sight it 

 presents to the traveller passing below in his frail 

 bark canoe. The formation of the rock is undoubtedly 

 basaltic, and according to my measurements about here is 

 the deepest part of the lake. It is from this majestic 

 cliff, or rather mountain, that the furious storm-demon 

 hurls his blasts across the lake — so say the Indians ; and 

 they never pass near it without making offerings to pro- 

 pitiate the good-will of this uncertain-tempered, irascible 

 manitou. 



Red is the prevailing tint of the rocks in the neigh- 

 bourhood of Thunder Cape, and many of the cliffs have 

 irregular masses of detached, or semi-detached rocks at 

 their bases. As we proceed, hundreds of cascades are 

 seen leaping over the rocks, many of them dyed, by the 

 soil over which the streams have run, the colour of claret 

 or port-wine ; others looking like muddy, discoloured 

 blood. These cliffs abound in several metals, of which, 

 so far as is yet known, copper and silver are the most 

 valuable. The latter metal has been extensively worked, 

 especially at Silver Island off this coast, which is simply 

 a solid mass of the precious ore, said, by the miners, to 

 be yielding a thousand pounds' worth of silver to every 

 ton. No wonder the island is guarded with jealous care 

 and every precaution taken to prevent waste by the 

 restless waters chafing its shores. 



Of the multitudinous small islands of this lake the 

 greater number have no name, and others only the 

 vernacular names of the Indians and voyageurs. Others 

 again have no certain name ; some have map names not 



