Nothing can present a more refreshing and inspiring landscape. From that moment the voyageurs appeared to disregard the wind. Striking into the water with bolder paddles, and opening one of their animating boat-songs, all thought of past toils was forgotten, and, urged forward with a new impetus, we entered the handsome little crescent-shaped harbor at four o'clock. The expedition was received with a salute from the fort, in command of Capt. B. K. Pierce, U.S. A.,* in compliment to the Governor of the Territory, and we landed amid the congratulations of the citizens, who pressed forward to welcome us.

Thus terminated the first part of our journey, after a tedious voyage of fourteen days, in which we had encountered a series of almost continued head-winds and foul weather. The distance by ship is usually estimated at three hundred miles; by following the indentations of the coast, and entering Saganaw Bay, we found it three hundred and sixty. We found the Huron coast, to the line of which our observations were limited, bearing, in its vegetation, indubitable marks of its exposure to the northern winds. As a section of the lake geology, it is simple and instructive, exhibiting strata of sandstone and non-crystalline and fossiliferous limestone in horizontal positions, without the slightest disturbance in their dip or inclinations. Its mineralogy is scanty, being nearly confined, so far as observed, to some common silicious minerals, and traces of argillaceous and magnetic oxides of iron. The erratic block-stratum or drift, is remarkable, and prepares the mind for the still heavier accumulations of this kind which are perceived to be spread over the northern latitudes.

*Of this officer, who was a brother of Franklin Pierce, President of the United States, Gardner's Army Dictionary gives the following notice: Benjamin K. Pierce (N. H.), First Lieutenant Third Artillery, March, 1812; Adjutant, 1813; Captain, October, 1813; retained May 15, in artillery; in Fourth Artillery, May 21; Major ten years fa. service, Oct. 1, 1823; Major First Artillery, June 11, 1836 (LieutenantColonel Eighth Infantry, July 7, 1838, declined); Brevet Lieutenant-Colonel "for distinguished service in affair at Fort Drane," Aug. 21, 1836 (Oct. 1836), in which he commanded: Colonel Regular Creek Mounted Volunteers, in Florida War, Oct. 1836; Lieutenant-Colonel First Artillery, March 19, 1842. Died April 1, 1850, at New York.

Among the erratic block or drift stratum, I observed on the south Huron coast singularly striking, round fragments of white quartz, imbedding red fragments of coarse jasper; a rock, which I afterwards found in places on the south end of Sugar Island, in St. Mary's Straits, which lies directly north of the general position, and may serve as a proof of the course of the drift.

Vide Geo. Report, Appendix.

CHAPTER III.

Description of Michilimackinac - Prominent scenery-Geology — Arched Rock— Sugarloaf Rock History - Statistics - Mineralogy-Skull Cave― Manners— Its fish, agriculture, moral wants-Ingenious manufactures of the Indians-Fur trade-Etymology of the word-Antique bones disclosed in the interior of the

island.

NOTHING can exceed the beauty of this island. It is a mass of calcareous rock, rising from the bed of Lake Huron, and reaching an elevation of more than three hundred feet above the water. The waters around are purity itself. Some of its cliffs shoot up perpendicularly, and tower in pinnacles like ruinous Gothic steeples. It is cavernous in some places; and in these caverns, the ancient Indians, like those of India, have placed their dead. Portions of the beach are level, and adapted to landing from boats and canoes. The harbor, at its south end, is a little gem. Vessels anchor in it, and find good holding. The little oldfashioned French town nestles around it in a very primitive style. The fort frowns above it, like another Alhambra, its white walls gleaming in the sun. The whole area of the island is one labyrinth of curious little glens and valleys. Old green fields appear, in some spots, which have been formerly cultivated by the Indians. In some of these there are circles of gathered-up stones, as if the Druids themselves had dwelt here. The soil, though rough, is fertile, being the comminuted materials of broken-down limestones. The island was formerly covered with a dense growth of rock-maples, oaks, ironwood, and other hard-wood species, and there are still parts of this ancient forest left, but all the southern limits of it exhibit a young growth. There are walks and winding paths among its little hills, and precipices of the most romantic character. And whenever the visitor gets on eminences overlooking the lake, he is transported with

sublime views of a most illimitable and magnificent water pros pect. If the poetic muses are ever to have a new Parnassus in America, they should inevitably fix on Michilimackinac. Hygeia, too, should place her temple here, for it has one of the purest, driest, clearest, and most healthful atmospheres.

We remained encamped upon this lovely island six days, while awaiting the arrival of supplies and provisions for the journey, or their being prepared for transportation by hand over the northern portages. Meats, bread, Indian corn, and flour, had to be put in kegs, or stout linen bags.

The traders and old citizens said so much about the difficulties and toils of these northern portages that we did not know but what we, ourselves, were to be put in bags; but we escaped that process. This delay gave us the opportunity of more closely examining the island. It is about three and a half miles long, two in its greatest width, and nine in circumference. The site of Fort Holmes, the apex, is three hundred and twelve feet above the lake. The eastern margin consists of precipitous cliffs, which, in many places, overhang the water, and furnish a picturesque rocky-fringe, as it were, to the elevated plain. The whole rock formation is calcareous. It exhibits the effects of a powerful diluvial action at early periods, as well as the continued influence of elemental action, still at work. Large portions of the cliffs have been precipitated upon the beach, where the process of degradation has been carried on by the waves. A most striking instance of such precipitations is to be witnessed at the eastern cliff, called Robinson's Folly, which fell, by its own gravitation, within the period of tradition. The formation, at this point, formerly overhung the beach, commanding a fine view of the lake and islands in all directions, in consequence of which it was occupied with a summer-house, by the officers of the British garrison, after the abandonment of the old peninsular fort, about 1780.

The mineralogical features of the island are not without interest. I examined the large fragments of debris, which are still prominent, and which exhibit comparatively fresh fractures. The rock contains a portion of sparry matter, which is arranged in reticulæ, filled with white carbonate of lime, in such a state of loose disintegration that the weather soon converts it to the condition of agaric mineral. These reticulæ are commonly

in the slate of calcspar, crystallized in minute crystals. The stratum on which this loose formation rests is compact and firm, and agrees in structure with the encrinal limestone of Drummond Island and the Manitouline chain. But the vesicular stratum, which may be one hundred and ten or twenty feet thick, has been deposited in such a condition that it has not had, in some localities, firmness enough permanently to sustain itself. The consequence is, that the table-land has caved in, and exhibits singular depressions, or grass-covered, cup-shaped cavities, which have no visible outlet for the rain-water that falls in them, unless it percolates through the shelly strata. Portions of it, subject to this structure, have been pressed off, during changing seasons, by frosts, and carried away by rains, creating that castellated appearance of pinnacles, which gives so much peculiarity to the rocky outlines of the island.

The ARCHED ROCK is an isolated mass of self-sustaining rock, on the eastern facade of cliffs; it offers one of those coincidences of geological degradation in which the firmer texture of the silicious and calcareous portions of it have, thus far, resisted decomposition. Its explanation, is, however, simple: The apex of this geological monument is on a level, or nearly so, with the Fort Holmes summit. While the diluvial action, of which the whole island gives striking proofs, carried away the rest of the reticulated or magnesian limestone, this singular point, having a firmer texture, resisted its power, and remains to tell the visitor who gazes at it, that waters have once held dominion over the highest part of the island.

Before dismissing the subject of the geological phenomena of this island, it may be observed that it is covered with the erratic block or drift stratum. Primitive or crystalline pebbles and boulders are found, but not plentifully, on the surface. They are observed, however, on the highest summit, and upon the lower plain; one of the best localities of these boulders, exists on the depressed ground, leading north, in the approach to Dousman's Farm, where there is a remarkable accumulation of blocks of granite and hornblende drift boulders. The principal drift of the island consists of smooth, small, calcareous pebbles, and, at deeper positions, angular fragments of limestone. Sandstone boulders are not rare. Over the plain leading from the fort north by

way of the Skull Rock, are spread extensive beds of finely comminuted calcareous gravel, the particles of which often not exceeding the size of a buck-shot, which makes one of the most solid and compact natural macadamized roads of which it is possible to conceive. Carriage wheels on it run as smoothly, but far more solid, than they could over a plank floor. This formation appears to be the diluvial residuum or ultimate wash, which arranged itself agreeably to the laws of its own gravitation, on the recession of the watery element, to which its comminution is clearly due. It would be worth transportation, in boxes, for gravelling ornamental garden-walks. The soil of the island is highly charged with the calcareous element, and, however barren in appearance, is favorable to vegetation. Potatoes have been known to be raised in pure beds of small limestone pebbles, where the seed potatoes had been merely covered in a slight way, to shield them from the sun, until they had taken root.

The historical reminiscences connected with this island are of an interesting character. It appears from concurrent testimony, that the old town on the peninsula was settled about 1671,* which was seven years before the building of Fort Niagara. In that year, Father Marquette, a French missionary, prevailed on a party of Hurons to locate themselves at that spot, and it was therefore the first point of settlement made northwest of Fort Frontenac, on Lake Ontario. It was probably first garrisoned by La Salle, in 1678, and continued to be the seat of the fur trade, and in many respects, the metropolis of the extreme northwest, during the whole period of French domination in the Canadas. After the fall of Quebec, in 1759, it passed by treaty to the British government, but much against the wishes of the Indian tribes, who retained a strong partiality for their early friends, the French. Pontiac arose at this time, to dispute the English authority in the northwest, and with confederates projected a series of bold attacks upon the forts extending from the Ohio to this post. Most of these were successful, but he was defeated at Detroit, where he commanded in person, after a series of extraordinary

* Neither Fort Niagara nor Fort Ponchartrain (at the present site of Detroit) were then in existence. The foundation of the former was laid by La Salle, in 1678; the latter had not been erected when La Hontan passed through the country, in 1688.— Herriot's Travels through Canada, p. 196.