The Grand Portal is the doorway or entrance to a splendid cave in the cliff of the Pictured Rocks. It is in the form of an immense vaulted chamber, with a ceiling nearly one hundred feet high, which has been carved out of the yellow limestone by the restless waves as they are driven in and out by the force of the winds. The sides of the cave are fretted and worn into all sorts of fantastic shapes, presenting a remarkable and exceedingly interesting spectacle. The view from the portal, embracing the adjacent cliffs and a vast expanse of rolling waters, is grand and sublime. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [Illustration: THE ICE PALACE AT ST. PAUL IN 1888.—It is hard to believe that this majestic structure, with its frowning battlements, massive walls and wrinkled visage of war, is composed wholly of transparent blocks of ice. It has more the appearance of an impregnable castle, which, outliving the scars and bruises of mediæval battles and the ravages of time, has come on down into our modern and better era as an example of the architectural ability and requirements of the dark and bloody days of former ages. But it is a castle which requires no resounding thump of the battering-ram or crash of cannon-ball to shatter its walls and break its turrets, for they vanish and melt away into imperceptible vapors under the warm kisses of the virgin spring sun. ] ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [Illustration: STORMING THE ST. PAUL ICE PALACE, 1888.—This photograph represents a scene of the grandest and most imposing character. The interior of the palace was brilliantly illuminated, until it shone and sparkled like an immense diamond, while from every tower, turret and battlement many-colored lights blazed and flashed and shot up into the sky until the very heavens seemed to be on fire. On the outside there were batteries of rockets and Roman candles, and flashing meteors that hurled their fiery messengers against the walls of ice, bursting into a thousand brilliant and glowing fragments whose reflection bathed the face of the dark sky in a flood of iridescent light. It was a scene of splendor long to be remembered by those who saw it. ] ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [Illustration: PETER’S PILLAR, LAKE SUPERIOR.]