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MACKINAC. 
BY A. DRIFT. 
It is a linle late in the season to think 
of Mackinac. Standing ns a breakwater 
between those two great inland sens,—Lakes 
Huron and Michigan,—and near to the bleak 
region of Superior, it is only in midsummer 
that the quaint, place is desirable as a resi¬ 
dence. Hut t lien, when the dog-days are 
scorching everything and one's spirits seem 
to go down as the mercury goes up, a re¬ 
membrance of that breezy location, with its 
clear, bracing atmosphere, is almost an in¬ 
spiration. 
Mackinac (pronounced Mackinaw) is an 
island of some eighteen miles in circumfer¬ 
ence, situated in the narrowest part of the 
straits of the same name, connecting the two 
lakes mentioned. It is, in the main, an ab¬ 
rupt, curious formation, composed largely of 
conglomerate rock, rising boldly from the 
water to the height of from one hundred and 
fifty to three hundred feet, the latter being 
its extreme elevation in the interior. The 
little village of Mackinac stands on the 
southern side of the island, occupying the 
only inhabitable location on that side below 
the bluff. The shore here is crescent-shaped, 
and the one street of the village winds 
around parallel with it, lined with its few 
stores, mostly displaying Indian articles, its 
half a dozen hotels, its two or three churches 
and court-house, and its cottages. 
Directly hack of the village, on the high 
blltlf, rise the whitewashed walls of Fort 
Mackinac, which commands the town and 
harbor. It looks quite threatening, from a 
distance, and gives to the place somewhat 
the same appearance Quebec has, when 
viewed from the steamer’s deck, three or 
four miles away. In reality, it Is a weak af¬ 
fair, of no particular importance, and inter¬ 
esting chiefly on account of its historic asso¬ 
ciations, which date away hack to the old 
French and Indian wars. It is garrisoned 
by a single company of regulars, and is 
vvorth visiting for the view obtained from its 
ramparts. 
The island is generally covered by a low 
grow'th of larches, evergreens, and other 
trees of similar character, and affords many 
delightful rambles. Following the road in¬ 
land, back of the fort, passing by an old fort 
on the highest point, and winding around 
among the thickly-wooded patches, one 
comes to Sugar Loaf, a cone of rock perhaps 
fifty feet iu height, uniform in its general 
outline, but irregular in detail, standing on 
a little open plain not far from the island’s 
backbone. The cone has a cave in it, mid¬ 
way up one side, which is reached by a lad¬ 
der, and which hears every mark of the 
action of water. That the whole island was 
once under water is very evident. 
Hardly a mile away is one of the most 
curious features to be seen—Arched Rock. 
It was formed by the falling out of the 
lower portion of the conglomerate bluff, 
leaving a rough, irregular span of rock 
thirty or forty feet across, and nearly two 
hundred feet high. It is only a few feet in 
width, and looks very insecure. A friend of 
mine clambered oyer it once; iait I regarded 
the proceeding as too dizzy by far. By 
a steep pathway one can pass under the 
arch and down to the water below, but even 
that is not to be thought of by t imid people. 
A sail around the island, of a bright after¬ 
noon, when the Straits are pleasantly rippling 
with a smart breeze, is most exhilarating. 
Tacking here and there, to keep near the 
irregular shore, you have always on the one 
hand a precipitous bluff, but toned down to 
comparative softness much of the way by 
the, verdure creeping up its sides, and on the 
other, a few miles off, the lowlying mainland, 
or sister islands, lowlying at least as seen 
through the distance. Wafted gently along, 
it were easy to imagine yourself floating 
through the atmosphere, so I ranspamit is the 
water beneath. But for the soft music of 
the ripples against your boat’s prow, you 
could readily fancy nothing more material 
under than over you. 
This clearness of the water is truly won¬ 
derful. It adds a continual charm to boat¬ 
ing, here. A continual charm, and a fre¬ 
quent surprise. Far below, thirty or forty 
feet, mayhap, you see the fish sporting about, 
and are content to loll listlessly over the 
boat’s side and watch them. Directly, run¬ 
ning in toward shore, you see but a few feet 
ahead an ugly rock Just covered with water, 
which will upset you in a twinkling. Roused 
suddenly from your listleasncss you jam 
your rudder hard up, and wear around; and 
while felicitating yourself upon your narrow 
escape are chagrined to see, as you pass 
close by the threatening rock, that it is at 
least five feet below the surface and presents 
no danger at all. Such surprises are con¬ 
stantly occurring until one becomes accus¬ 
tomed to the deception. 
The rarest amusement is to jump into a 
little skiff toward sunset, and row around 
underneath Liu; overhanging bluffs. The 
best view of Arched Rock is thus obtained. 
To reach it. by water, you have a pull of a 
mile and a half from the village; but the pull 
is a perpetual pleasure, and it brings a beau¬ 
tiful reward if you reach the Rock just as 
the sun goes down, as 1 did once, and see 
the rare glories of a Northern sunset, through 
the high arch-way. Then you will sit there 
in your softly rocking boat and see one goth¬ 
ic-shaped hit of hcaveu all aflame with crim¬ 
son and gold; and ever after those gorgeously 
colored gothic windows in cathedrals will be 
thought very dull affairs indeed. 
Mackinac is purely French Canadian in 
its characteristics. Settled by the French 
Catholics, in the latter part of the Seven¬ 
teenth Century, it has retained its original 
features in a marked degree. Many of the 
people here are French Catholics, still, and 
cling to their long-established habits. In¬ 
deed, add to these an equal number of Catho¬ 
lic Irish, and a few score Indians, and you 
have fully four-fifths of the eight hundred 
inhabitants the island boasts. Fishing is 
their chief employment. There is little cul¬ 
tivable land on the island, and catching those 
famous Mackinac trout and white fish is 
their only resource. In years agone the pro¬ 
ducts of the fisheries were very extensive, 
and yielded a large income. Of late they 
have fallen off considerably, yet their figures 
are by no means insignificant even now'. 
-♦♦♦- 
THE SHOSHONE FALLS. 
About four miles from the crossing of 
Rock Creek, on the coach-road between 
Salt Lake City and Boise, the capital of 
Idaho, is “the Niagara of tin; West,’’ the 
great cataract of the Shoshone or Snake 
River, of which wo give an admirable il¬ 
lustration above. Snake River is a fork of 
the Columbia, and winds its way through 
a region wiki and wonderful in the extreme. 
The view depicted in our engraving is 
from a high bluff below, and takes in the 
entire cataract, consisting of three distinct 
falls. The first of these is thirty feet in 
height, and is broken into several streams 
by out-jutting rocks. A little further on the 
river makes a leap of sixty feet, in three 
streams; and still a little further below, Us 
waters suddenly narrowed to some four hun¬ 
dred feet in width, it leaps in one unbroken 
plunge down a precipice of tw r o hundred 
and ten feet. 
The sublime grandeur of the great Sho¬ 
shone is said to excel even Niagara, and is 
truly indescribable. A huge volume of mist 
continually arises therefrom; the roar is 
deafening, and can be heard for many miles. 
An old hunter residing fifteen miles away 
says ho never has seen the falls, but often be 
cannot sleep nights because of their noise. 
Below the cataract the angry river rolls sul¬ 
lenly on between bluffs towering fully one 
thousand feet above; and the whole scene is 
one of awful sublimity. In that vast New 
West, which is now being opened up to 
civilized mankind, there is an almost end 
less panorama of scenery grand in the ex¬ 
treme, and to it thousands of travelers will 
henceforth be annually al tracted. Compara¬ 
tively easy of access, the Shoshone Falls will 
he a prominent point of interest to tourists, 
and will compel the admiration of all who 
admire Nature in her wildest, grandest forms, 
there so sublimely shown. 
'tones for il nr;t lists. 
BETWEEN TWO PERILS : 
IS HIK WORTH SAVING? 
BY A. A. HOPKINS. 
CHAPTER I. 
1 have been quite at a loss to know which 
of the characters in my story T ought to first 
dignify with a formal introduction to the 
reader. They arc not numerous, and the 
dignifying process would not occupy long 
were I to range the whole company up in 
single file and let them one by one make 
their courtesies. Would the reader be grat¬ 
ified by a running introductory comment 
such as this?— 
“ Violet Grace; my heroine; blue eyes, 
auburn hair; reads French; possesses every 
charm known to educated womanhood,— 
sings divinely, paints, waltzes, and adores 
Tennyson. 
“ Frrz Adonis ; my hero; an exquisite; 
piercing eyes; athletic frame; talks poetry; 
been abroad ; knows the old masters; drives 
a l'our-in-hand ; is a prince in disguise. 
“ Angelina Dove ; first friend to my 
heroine; hardly less charming; guardian 
angel. 
“ Gerard Hardwick ; first friend to my 
hero; knows what’s what generally; will 
do the wit for us; also guardian angel. 
“So-and-so; evil genius; plotting mis¬ 
chief. 
“ Ho- and- so second; aiding and abetting.” 
1 say would the reader be gratified by such 
a commentary, yet more extended? Pre¬ 
suming the reader sensible, I think not. 
Therefore the comprehensive individual in¬ 
troduction is out of the question. Home one 
of my company of friends must come for¬ 
ward for our personal acquaintance while 
the others for a time remain in the back¬ 
ground. 
I am still in the quandary. For the life of 
me I cannot tell which of the figures 1 have 
seen as in a vision is most worthy the read¬ 
er’s attention. We cannot fathom the deep 
