I had passed through this varied and wonder-creating scene of coast views and long-stretching vistas in 1820, when geology, in America, at least, was in its infancy, as a member of the organic government expedition into this quarter of the Union, as detailed in the preceding pages. I had, in 1826, revisited the whole coast from Point Iroquois to Fond du Lac, in the exercise of official duties, connected with the Indian tribes; besides making sectional expeditions into the regions of the Gargontwa and Mishepecotin, and of the Takwymenon sand-rock, interior, and coast lines. But the beauty of the prospects presented in 1831, the serenity of the weather, and the opportunity which it gave of revisiting scenes which had before flitted by, as the fragments of a gorgeous dream, gave to this visit a charm which no length of time can obliterate. And these attractions were enhanced by association with the agreeable men who accompanied me; of whom it may be said that they represented the place of strings in a melodious harp, whose concurrence was at all times necessary to produce harmony. The sainted and scene-loving Woolsey[152]--the self-poised and amiable Houghton, just broke loose from the initial struggles of life to luxuriate on the geological smiles of the face of nature in this scene--ah! where are they? Death has laid his cold hand on them, to open their eyes on other, and to us inscrutable scenes. [152] _Vide_ Letters on Lake Superior, in _Southern Literary Messenger_, 1836.