Canada -- Description and travel; Canada -- History -- To 1763 (New France); Indians of North America -- Canada
[Footnote 121: "The _Pictured_ Rocks (so called from their appearance)
are situated on the south side of the lake, toward the east end, and are
really quite a natural curiosity; they form a perpendicular wall 300
feet high, extending about twelve miles, with numerous projections and
indentations in every variety of form, and vast caverns, in which the
entering waves make a tremendous sound. The Pictured Rocks of Lake
Superior have been described as 'surprising groups of overhanging
precipices, towering walls, caverns, waterfalls, and prostrate ruins,
which are mingled in the most wonderful disorder, and burst upon the
view in ever-varying and pleasing succession.' Among the more remarkable
objects are the Cascade La Portaille and the Doric Arch. The Cascade
consists of a considerable stream precipitated from a height of 70 feet
by a single leap into the lake, and projected to such a distance that a
boat may pass beneath the fall and the rock perfectly dry. The Doric
Arch has all the appearance of a work of art, and consists of an
isolated mass of sandstone, with four pillars supporting an entablature
of stone, covered with soil, and a beautiful grove of pine and spruce
trees, some of which are 60 feet in height."--Montgomery Martin's
_History of Canada_, vol. i., p. 211.]
[Footnote 122: "The Thunder Mountain is one of the most appalling
objects of the kind that I have ever seen, being a bleak rock, about
twelve hundred feet above the level of the lake, with a perpendicular
face of its full height toward the west; the Indians have a
superstition, which one can hardly repeat without becoming giddy, that
any person who may scale the eminence, and turn round on the brink of
its fearful wall, will live forever."--Simpson, vol. i., p. 33.]
[Footnote 123: "The Indian appellation of 'Sacred Isles' first occurs at
Lake Huron, and thence westward is met with in Superior, Michigan, and
the vast and numerous lakes of the interior. Those who have been in
Asia, and have turned their attention to the subject, will recognize the
resemblance in sound between the North American Indian and the Tartar
names."--Montgomery Martin's _History of Canada_, vol. i., p. 117.]
[Footnote 124: "The remarkable post of Michillimackinack is a beautiful
island or great rock, planted in the strait of the same name, which
forms the connection between Lakes Huron and Michigan. The meaning of
the Indian word Michillimackinack is _Great Turtle_. The island is
crowned with a cap 300 feet above the surrounding waters, on the top of
which is a fortification. If Quebec is the Gibraltar of North America,
Mackinaw (the vulgar appellation for this fort) is only second in its
physical character, and in its susceptibilities of improvement as a
military post. It is also a must important position for the facilities
it affords in the fur trade between New York and the Northwest."--Mr.
Colton's _American Lakes_, vol. i., p. 92.
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