on the Lake Superior Land District 225 



shore at !he mouth of Carp river, and extends westwardly beyond 

 Teal lake. Its outlines are sharp and well defined, its escarp- 

 ments bold, with fragments of rock strewn along its base. The 

 boundaries of this group are defined in the accompanying maps. 

 2. A trap range starts from the head of Keweenaw Point and 

 I runs west twenty miles; then, curving to the southwest, crosses 



[ , Portage lake near its head, and the Ontonagon river twelve miles 



from its mouth, and is thence prolonged into Wisconsin. Its 

 length is more than one hundred and fifty miles; its width, from 

 one to twelve. Between Iron and Presqu'-Isle rivers, a spur shoots 

 off in the form of a crescent, constituting the Porcupine moun- 

 tains. Another spur branches off from the main chain on the 

 south, and is prolonged nearly parallel with it for twenty miles. 

 This belt is made up of parallel ranges, presenting step-like or 

 scalar declivities on the side opposite the lake, while the other 

 consists of gradual slopes. Mount Houghton, near the head of 

 Keweenaw Point, rises up like a dome, to the height of eight 

 hundred and eighty-four feet; the Bohemian mountain, near Lac 

 la Belle, is little inferior in height. The valley of Eagle river, 

 on the northwest, is bounded by abrupt, overhanging cliffs, some 

 of which rise to a height of five hundred feet above the sur- 

 rounding country. 



In the vicinity of the forks of the Ontonagon, the cliffs are 

 equally bold, and from their summits the eye has an almost un- 

 limited range. To the west, the trap range is distinctly marked 

 for many miles, and the west branch of that stream flows along 

 its base. The highest and most imposing cliffs are north and 

 east of Agogebic lake. Farther west, the ranges are less precip- 

 itous and more irregular, much of tlie country traversed by these 

 rocks consisting of rolling table-lands. 



The highest elevation attained by the Porcupine mountains is 

 one thousand three hundred and eighty feet. A remarkable 

 gorge occurs in township 51, ranges 42 and 43. This gorge lies 

 about two miles south of the lake, and in that distance the ground 

 rises about a thousand feet. ^Suddenly the traveller finds himself 

 on the brink of a precipice five hundred feet deep, at the base of 

 ^hich lies a small lake, so sheltered and hemmed in by the sur- 

 roimding mountains that the winds rarely ruffle its surface. 

 Crlooniy evergreens skirt its shores, whose long and pendent 

 branches are so faithfully reflected on the surface that the eye 

 oan with difficulty determine where the water ends and the shore 



4 



o 



begins. From this lake flows the Carp river, and the beholder 

 occasionally catches a glimpse of its waters as they wind through 

 a narrow valley towards the great reservoir. To the west, and 

 ^xtending for five miles, he sees a perpendicular wall three hun- 

 dred feet in height — occasionally broken through by a transverse 

 gorge — at the base of which are numerous fragments, which 



Skcond Seetes, VoL XII, No. 35.— Sept., 1861. 29 



