348 THE SOUTHERN SHORES OE LAKE SUPERIOR. 



"Whitney's " Eeport on the Geology of Lake Superior," and are 

 there spoken of in general terms as " a series of sand-stone bluffs, 

 extending along the shore of the lake for about five miles, and rising 

 in most places vertically from the water, without any beach at the 

 base, to a height varying from fifty to nearly two hundred feet. 

 Were they simply a line of cliffs, they might not, so far as relates to 

 height or extent, be worthy of a rank among great natural curiosities, 

 although such an assemblage of rocky strata, washed by the waves of 

 the great lake, would not, under any circumstances, be destitute of 

 grandeur. But in the Pictured Rocks there are two features which 

 communicate to the scenery a wonderful and almost unique character. 

 These are, first, the curious manner in which the cliffs have been 

 excavated and worn away by the action of the lake; and second, the 

 equally curious manner in which large portions of the surface have 

 been colored by bands of brilliant hues."* 



The rocks thus referred to have been figured by the authors, as 

 well as by Schoolcraft ; but they have been greatly less successful 

 with their pencils than their pens. The furmer state their intention of 

 supplying the want of a full and accurate description of the extraor- 

 dinary locality, " partly by a series of illustrations, which, however 

 deficient in artistic effect, have the merit of being careful copies from 

 nature." But after having sailed close in shore, along the whole 

 range of these magnificent cliffs, and availed myself of opportunities 

 of sketching some of their most striking features, I must state that 

 while the subjects of these illustrations can. in nearly every case, be 

 recognised, they are altogether deficient in detail, and convey not 

 only a verv imperfect, but in many cases an inaccurate idea of the 

 objects represented. It is not improbable that the original drawings 

 may have been more faithful in their representations than the 

 lithographed copies. Certainly, at least, faith in the fidelity of the 

 latter is not strengthened by such supplementary features as a birch- 

 bark canoe rigged with a high square sail, with one of its crew seated 

 on the front cross- spar, as on the seat of an ordinary boat, and an 

 Indian with flowing scalp-lock standing steering in the stern ! (Plate 

 IX.) Such artistic incongruities are much more suggestive of the 

 Broadway lithographer's than of the surveyor's pencil. 



The Pictured Hocks constitute a succession of bold promontories 



rearing their lofty and fantastic facades of natural architecture directly 



from the water's edge. The Indian name of these cliffs, achkue- 



archibi-kung, or "the end of the rocks," implies their being first 



■ Reports of the Geology <.f the Lake Superior Land District Vol. II., p. I2fi. 



