NARRATIVE OF THE E5:PEDITI0N. 107 



At eleven o'clock, a northeast wind arose, wliich enabled the 

 expedition to hoist sail. Land on the north shore had for 

 some time been in sight, across the bay, and the line of coast 

 soon closed in front, denoting that we had reached the head of 

 the lake. At twelve o'clock, we entered the mouth of the Eiver 

 St. Louis, having been eighteen days in passing this lake, includ- 

 ing the trip to the Ontonagon. 



Before quitting Lake Superior, whose entire length we have 

 now traversed, one or two generic remarks may be made; and 

 the first respects its aboriginal name. The Algonquins, who, in 

 the Chippewa tribe, were found in possession of it, on the arrival 

 of the French, early in the seventeenth century, applied the same 

 radical word to it which they bestow on the sea, namely, Gum-ee 

 (Collected w^ater), or, as it is sometimes pronounced, Gom-ee, or 

 Go-ma; with this difference, that the adjective big (gitche) pre- 

 fixed to this term for Lake Superior, is repeated when it is applied 

 to the sea. The superlative is formed when it is meant to be 

 very emphatic, in this language, by the repetition of the adject- 

 ive; a principle, indeed, quite common to the Lidian grammars 

 generally. The word did not commend itself to French or En- 

 glish ears, so much as to lead to its adoption. By taking the 

 syllable Al-from Algonquin, as a prefix, instead of gitchd, we 

 have the more poetic combination of Algoma. 



Geographers have estimated the depth of this lake at nine hun- 

 dred feet. By the surveys of the engineers of the New York and 

 Erie Canal, the surface of Lake Erie is shown to be five hundred 

 and sixty feet above tide-water, which, agreeably to estimates kept 

 on the present journey, lies fifty-two feet below the level of Lake 

 Superior. These data would carry the bottom of the lake two hun- 

 dred and eighty-eight feet below tide water. What is more cer- 

 tain is this, that it has been the theatre of ancient volcanic action, 

 which has thrown its trap-rocks into high precipices around its 

 northern shores and some of its islands, and lifted up vast ranges 

 of sandstone rocks into a vertical position, as is seen at the base 

 of the Porcupine Mountains. Its latest action appears to have 

 been in its western portion, as is proved by the upheaval of the 

 horizontal strata; and it may be inferred that its bed is very 

 rough and unequal. 



The western termination of the lake, in the great bay of Fond 

 da Lac, denotes a double or masked shore, which appears to have 



