Before quitting Lake Superior, whose entire length we have now traversed, one or two generic remarks may be made; and the first respects its aboriginal name. The Algonquins, who, in the Chippewa tribe, were found in possession of it, on the arrival of the French, early in the seventeenth century, applied the same radical word to it which they bestow on the sea, namely, Gum-ee (Collected water), or, as it is sometimes pronounced, Gom-ee, or Go-ma; with this difference, that the adjective big (gitchè) prefixed to this term for Lake Superior, is repeated when it is applied to the sea. The superlative is formed when it is meant to be very emphatic, in this language, by the repetition of the adjective; a principle, indeed, quite common to the Indian grammars generally. The word did not commend itself to French or English ears, so much as to lead to its adoption. By taking the syllable Al from Algonquin, as a prefix, instead of gitchè, we have the more poetic combination of Algoma. Geographers have estimated the depth of this lake at nine hundred feet. By the surveys of the engineers of the New York and Erie Canal, the surface of Lake Erie is shown to be five hundred and sixty feet above tide-water, which, agreeably to estimates kept on the present journey, lies fifty-two feet below the level of Lake Superior. These data would carry the bottom of the lake two hundred and eighty-eight feet below tide water. What is more certain is this, that it has been the theatre of ancient volcanic action, which has thrown its trap-rocks into high precipices around its northern shores and some of its islands, and lifted up vast ranges of sandstone rocks into a vertical position, as is seen at the base of the Porcupine Mountains. Its latest action appears to have been in its western portion, as is proved by the upheaval of the horizontal strata; and it may be inferred that its bed is very rough and unequal. The western termination of the lake, in the great bay of Fond du Lac, denotes a double or masked shore, which appears to have been formed of pebbles and sands, driven up by the tempests, at the distance of a mile or two, outside of the original shore. The result is shown by an elongated piece of water, resembling a lake, which receives at the north, the River St. Louis, and the _Agoche_, or Lefthand River, at its south extremity.