NORTH SHORE OF LAKE SUPERIOR 341 



observers. So far as I can discover there is very little 

 recorded of Superior, and some of that little does not 

 quite agree with my experience. For instance, an 

 American writer says that the navigation of Superior 

 is not so dangerous as that of the other great lakes, and 

 says that there is more " sea-room " here than in the 

 other lakes. I can say, from my own experience, that 

 this is not correct. Superior is certainly by far the 

 largest of the five great lakes, but its larger islands are 

 so placed that there is less actual sea-room, as under- 

 stood by sailors, than in either Michigan or Hm-on. As 

 to storms, they are as violent, but I think not more so, 

 as in any of the other lakes : that they are more fre- 

 quent I am sure. As I have already said, I do not 

 think that dangerous gales are ever absent, in winter 

 time, from some part of the lake. 



The northern, or British, shore of Superior is more 

 elevated, on the whole, than the southern, and not 

 inferior to it in beauty and grandeur. Thunder Cape is 

 not the only point which rises to an elevation exceeding 

 a thousand feet, while cliffs and hills of several hundred 

 feet in height are very numerous. The bays, or harbours, 

 are not numerous. Nipigon Bay (or Alemipigon, as it 

 should be called), or the Bay of Clear Waters, as the 

 Indians name it, is about 500 square miles in extent, 

 and as it is full of small islands it affords excellent shelter 

 from winds from every quarter. 



The country inland is almost invariably written of as 

 a desert. I know less of the country to the north-west 

 than of other parts of the district — too little to venture 

 on a description of it. I can only say, briefly, that it is 

 not a forest region, has a barren aspect* for many miles in 

 some places ; in others is remarkable for the numbers of 

 shallow reedy ponds, which swarm with swans, geese, and 

 ducks, and on the whole may be described as a rough, 

 broken, and often rocky prairie. I doubt strongly that it 

 is such a desert region as some represent it. On the 



