NARRATIVE OF TUE EXPEDITION. 59 



CHAPTER III. 



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Description of Mieliilimackinac — Prominent scenery — Geology — Arched Rock — 

 Sugarloaf Rock — History — Statistics — Mineralogy — Skull Cave — Manners — 

 Its fish, agriculture, moral wants — Ingenious manufactures of the Indians— Fur 

 trade — Etymology of the word — Antique bones disclosed in the interior of the 

 island. 



Nothing can exceed the beauty of this islahd. It is a mass of 

 calcareous rock, rising from the bed of Lake Huron, and reaching 

 an elevation of more than three hundred feet above the water. 

 The waters around are purity itself. Some of its cliffs shoot up 

 perpendicularly, and tower in pinnacles like ruinous Gothic 

 steeples. It is cavernous in some places ; and in tliese caverns, 

 the ancient Indians, like those of India, have placed their dead. 

 Portions of the beach are level, and adapted to landing from 

 boats and canoes. The harbor, at its south end, is a little gem. 

 Vessels anchor in it, and find good holding. The little old- 

 fashioned French town nestles around it in a very primitive 

 style. The fort frowns above it, like another Alhambra, its 

 white walls gleaming in the sun. The whole area of the island 

 is one labyrinth of curious little glens and valleys. Old green 

 fields appear, in some spots, which have been formerly cul- 

 tivated by the Indians. In some of these there are circles of 

 gathered-up stones, as if the Druids themselves had dwelt here. 

 The soil, though rough, is fertile, being the comminuted materials 

 of broken-down limestones. The island was formerly covered 

 with a dense growth of rock-maples, oaks, ironwood, and other 

 hard-wood species, and there are still parts of this ancient forest 

 left, but all the southern limits of it exhibit a young growth. 

 There are walks and winding f aths among its little hills, and pre- 

 cipices of the most romantic character. And whenever the visitor 

 gets on eminences overlooking the lake, he is transported with 



