(Jini! — ON CANADIAN CAVERNS. 
169 
increased 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 
chai-acter 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 ai'e nearly separated from the main land by extensive 
fissures, or they are almost solely supported by rude pillars, which 
foi'm the divisions between numerous caverns, extensive enough to 
allow of boats to sail through them. At the Daric Rock, 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 heavy 
strata of sandstone to rest solely on a single pillai' 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 grand, 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 SuPEraoR. 
There is a singular rock, named La Grange, upon the south end 
of a low island, sixteen miles, S.W., froin Grand Point, which rises 
at once perpendicularly for about ninety feet, rent at the top into 
rude battlements, and marked along its mui'al sides by deep pilasters. 
* Geography and Geolosry of Lako Superior, by Dr. Bigsby, Tran. Geol. See., 
ser. 2, vol. i. 
VOL. III. Y 
