GIBB — ON CANADIAN CAVEP.NS. 



169 



increp.sed by every north wind, has produced a wearing action upon 

 the base of the cliffs, scooping out arches and caverns, with over- 

 hanging precipices, towering walls, diversified by waterfalls, 

 numerous bays and indentations. Among the five great lakes, 

 there is no spot so sublimely picturesque as the Pictured Rocks, 

 which have been eloquently noticed by Schoolcraft. For miles all 

 these wonderful natural effects are seen by the traveller, their 

 character constantly varying as the destructive elements at work 

 throw down the overhanging strata in terrible ruins by the cavernous 

 destruction of their base. At a distance these rocks are said to 

 resemble delapidated battlements and desolate towers. In many 

 places the cliffs are nearly separated from the main land by extensive 

 fissures, or they are almost solely supported by rude pillars, which 

 form the divisions between numerous caverns, extensive enough to 

 allow of boats to sail through them. At the Daric Eock, near the 

 commencement of the pillared precipices, a vast entablature rests on 

 two immense rude pillars, which formed the boundaries of one or 

 more caverns. The action of the waves has completely excavated 

 the rock at La Portail, which permits at this point a series of hea^^y 

 strata of sandstone to rest solely on a single pillar standing in the 

 lake, and is slowly becoming disintegrated by the same destructive 

 action. 



Schoolcraft thus expresses his admiration of the Pictured Rocks : 

 " All that we read of the natural physiognomy of the Hebrides, of 

 Staffa, the Doreholm, and the romantic isles of the Sicilian coast, is 

 forcibly recalled on viewing this scene ; and it may be doubted 

 whether, in the whole range of American scenery, there is to be 

 found such an interesting assemblage of gTand, picturesque, and 

 pleasing objects." 



12. — Saint Ignatius Caverns, Lake Superior. 



The sandstone precipices of the island of St. Ignatius are described 

 as not running down to the water's edge. On some of the islands, 

 however, to the eastward, these cliffs reach the water, with fretted, 

 crumbling fronts, and the parts accessible to the waves are often 

 scooped into small caverns, supported on low arches like those in 

 Grand Island, on the south shore of Lake Superior, but on a much 

 smaller scale.* 



13. — Pilasters of Mammelles, Lake Superior. 



There is a singular rock, named La Grange, upon the south end 

 of a low island, sixteen miles, S.W., from Grand Point, which rises 

 at once perpendicularly for about ninety feet, rent at the top into 

 rude battlements, and marked along its mural sides by deep pilasters. 



* Geography and Geology of Lake Superior, by Dr. Bigshy, Tran. GeoL Soc, 

 ser. 2, vol. i. 



VOL. III. Y 



