THE SOUTHERN SHORES OF LA.KE SUPERIOR. 351 



be afterwards seeu. Instead of the square rectangular mass, with. 

 perpendicular walls, as there hgured, it is worn away around the 

 base, and to a considerable height, leaving the upper portions, espe- 

 cially on the western side, overhanging like the projecting turrets of 

 the medioeval castle to which it has already been compared. The 

 arch, also, is a flat, segmental, rather than a semi-circular arch, and 

 its side- walls are jagged and under-worn, so as greatly to add to the 

 picturesque outline of the mass, without marring the castellated 

 character which pertains to is as a whole. 



But the most wonderful illusion of all the fantastic sports of nature 

 in this singular scene, is what is called the " Sail Bock." Here a 

 quantity of debris has accumulated in a sloping tail at the base of the 

 cliff, and on this a group of huge detached slabs, dislodged from the 

 rock above, have been thrown together so as to represent the hull, 

 jib, and mainsail of a sloop. These large slabs, one of them measur- 

 ing nearly forty feet in height, rest against the cliff with their faces 

 nearly at right angles to it ; and when I saw the group, about mid- 

 day under a bright summer sun, the whole of the cliff was in shadow, 

 while the sun illuminated these detached blocks, and produced an 

 effect so complete, that had I not examined them closely before seeing 

 them under this aspect, it would have been scarcely possible to doubt 

 that we were looking on a sloop-rigged vessel running in-shore, in 

 full sail, for some inlet or harbor concealed by the rocky coast. 



This remarkable range of rocks lies in the centre of the long in- 

 dentation, which, sweeping from Keweenaw Bay eastward to White 

 Fish Point, forms the bay behind Grand Island, the coast most dis- 

 tant from the northern shores of the Lake. Here they have been 

 exposed through unnumbered ages to the action of the northerly 

 winds, which have materially affected the diverse characters of the 

 northern and southern shores of the Lake, while the process of up- 

 heaval, prolonged probably through vast periods of time, has contri- 

 buted no unimportant share in the operations by which their present 

 forms have been produced.* Lying as they do in the arc of the bay, 



* While the elevation of the land, as the chief cause of the more remarkable 

 changes depeadenl on the relative levels of the Lake and its shore- 1 , is proved by 

 very obvious evidences, it is well known that the level of the Great Lakes is not of 

 that unvarying and constant character which pertains to the ocean ; and as the 

 special attention of the Institute has been directed to the " rise and fill of the 

 Lakes," the following notice, extracted from the Lake Superior Journal of July 23, 

 1851, by the U. S. geologists, may be worth repeating here: — " While at Grand 

 Island, a few days since, Mr. Williams gave us an account of a remarkable instance 

 of the sudden rise and fall of water, at that place in 1345. On a certain day, with 



