214 NAREATIVE OF THE EXPEDITION, 



The formation of this noted promontory consists of an ash- 

 colored, not very closely-compacted sandstone, through original 

 crevices in which the waves have scooped out entrances like vast 

 corridors. In one of these, which has a sandy beach at its ter- 

 minus, we encamped. lie who has travelled along the shores of 

 the lakes, and encamped on their borders, having his ears, while 

 on his couch, close to the formation of sand, is early and very 

 exactly apprised of the varying state of the wind. The deep- 

 sounding roar of the waves, like the deep diapason of a hundred 

 organs, plays over a gamut, whose rising or falling scale tells him, 

 immediately, whether he can put his frail canoe before the wind, 

 or must remain prisoner on the sand, in the sheltering nook 

 where night overtakes him. These notes, sounded between two 

 long lines of cavernous rocks, told us, long before daybreak, of 

 a strong head wind that fixed us to the spot for the day. I 

 amused myself by gathering some small species of the unio and 

 the anadonta. Captain Douglass busied himself with astronomi- 

 cal observations. We all sallied out, during the day, over the 

 sandy ridges of modern drift, in which the pinus resinosa had 

 firmly imbedded its roots, and into sphagnous depressions beyond, 

 where we had, in the June previous, found the sarracenia purpurea, 

 which is the cococo mukazin, or oral's moccasin of the Indians. 

 Here we found, as at more westerly points on the lake, the hum- 

 ble juniperus prostrata, and, in more fav^orable spots, the ribes 

 lacustre.* 



It was stated to us at Michilimackinac, that Lake Huron had 

 fallen one foot during the last year. It was also added that the 

 decrease in the lake waters had been noticed for many years, and 

 that there were, in fact, periodical depressions and refluxes at 

 periods of seven and fourteen years. A little reflection will, 

 however, render it manifest that, in a region of country so exten- 

 sive and thinly populated, observations must be vaguely made, 

 and that many circumstances may operate to produce deception 

 with respect to the permanent diminution or rise of water, as the 

 prevalence of winds, the quantity of rain and snow which influ- 

 ences these basins, and the periodical distribution of solar heat. 

 It has alread}^ been remarked, while at the mouth of Fox Eiver, 



* Am. Journ. ScieBce, vol. iv. 1822. 



