- 6 - 
i8 a talus slope extending in places several hundred meters 
down the side of the valley. This great cliff extends for 
a distance of about 10 km. across T. hi U. R. 43 W. It is 
interesting to note Poster’s impressions on first seeing 
this great outcropping of rock in 1848. He says "Suddenly 
the traveler finds himself on the brink of a precipice five 
hundred feet deep, at the base of which lies a small laice, 
so sheltered and hemmed in by the surrounding mountains that 
the wind rarely ripples its surface. Gloomy evergreens skirt 
its shores, whose long and pendant branches are so faithfully 
reflected on the surface that the eye can with difficulty 
determine where the water ends and the shore begins. Prom 
this lake flows the Carp River, and the beholder occasionally 
catches a glimpse of its waters as they wind through the 
narrow valley towards the great reservoir". 
Geologioally, the mountains form a crescent-shaped 
off-shoot or spur from the main range to the south (fig. 2). 
This latter extends from Keweenaw Point southwest to Wisconsin, 
including the well-known iron and copper ranges of the Keweenaw 
Series. The ranges of the Porcupines consist largely of 
eruptive rocks with interbedded sandstones and conglomerates, 
the strata tilted from 30° - 40°. They represent part of a 
pre-Cambrian upheaval, probably during early Proterozoic time. 
The present system of hills forms a comparatively small 
