Embark at the head of the portage at St. Mary's--Entrance into Lake
Superior--Journey and incidents along its coasts--Great Sand
Dunes--Pictured Rocks--Grand Island--Keweena peninsula and
portage--Incidents thence to Ontonagon River.
Having accomplished the object of our visit, at this place, no time was
lost in pushing our way into the basin of Lake Superior. The distance to
it is computed to be fifteen miles above the Sault. It was nine o'clock
of the morning following the day of the treaty, when the men began to
take the canoes up the rapids, and transport the provisions and baggage.
This occupied nearly the whole of the day. Taking leave of Lieutenant
Pierce, who returned with his command, from this point and our
hospitable hostess, we proceeded to the head of the portage, long before
the canoes and stores all arrived. To while away the time, while the men
were thus employed, we tried our skill at rifle shooting. It was six
o'clock in the evening before the work of transportation was finished,
and the canoes loaded, when we embarked. The view from the head of the
portage is imposing. The river spreads out like an arm of the sea. In
the distance appear the mountains of Lake Superior.
We proceeded two leagues, and encamped at Point aux Pins, on the
Canadian shore. At six o'clock the next morning we were again in our
canoes, and crossed the strait, which is here several leagues wide, to
the west, or Point Iroquois Cape. In this traverse we first beheld the
entrance into Lake Superior. The scene is magnificent, and I could fully
subscribe to the remark made by Carver, "that the entrance into Lake
Superior affords one of the most pleasing prospects in the world." The
morning was clear and pleasant, with a favoring breeze, but a tempest of
wind and rain arose, with severe thunder, soon after we had
accomplished the passage, which compelled us hastily to land on the
Point Iroquois shore. This storm detained us five or six hours before
the waters were sufficiently calm to embark. Among the boulders, I
picked up a fine specimen of graphic granite, most perfectly
characterized. About two o'clock, we entered this great inland sea. How
feeble and inadequate are all geographical attempts to describe this
vast body of water, with its imposing headlands, shores, and islands.
The St. Mary's River passes out between two prominent capes, called Gros
Cape and Point Iroquois. The former rises up in elevated barren peaks of
sienite and hornblende rock; the latter consists of nearly equally
elevated masses of horizontal red sandstone, covered with a dense
forest. The line of separation is, perhaps, three leagues, forming a
geological gap, through which, at ancient periods, the drift and boulder
strata has been forced, with an amazing power. For we find these
boulders, of the disrupted sienites, hornblende, trap, and sandstone
rocks of these northern latitudes heaped in profusion along the entire
shores of the river, and cast out, far and wide, into the basin of Lake
Huron.
There is a little island, called Isle des Iroquois, just off the foot of
the American cape, which is a noted stopping-place for boat and canoe
voyagers. On passing this spot, the lake spreads out like a sea. Towards
the north, can be seen on the horizon the blue peaks of distant
mountains. Southerly, the Point Iroquois formation of sandstone appears
skirting the shore, at several miles distance. At the computed distance
of fifteen miles, we passed the mouth of the Taquimenon River. It was
already evening when we came here, but we were far out from shore, and
the guides thought best to keep on their course a league farther, which
brought us, at 11 o'clock at night, into the mouth of the Onzig, or
Shelldrake River. At this spot, we found an encampment of Chippewa
Indians, who were friendly, and quite profuse in their salutation of
_bosho_. At the moment we were ready to embark, the next morning, a
brigade of traders' boats, on the route to Michilimackinac, was
descried, coming in to the same point. This interview detained us till 8
o'clock. Within a league, we met eighteen or twenty Chippewa canoes on
their journey towards the same point; and at the computed distance of
three leagues from the Onzig, we reached, and turned the bleak shores of
White-Fish Point, called Namikong[41] by the Indians. Thus far, we had
been imbayed in an arm of the lake which embraces Parisian Island,
another link of the sandstone formation; but here the lake, stretching
westwardly, displays itself in all its magnificence. On the left,
spreads a long line of sandy coast; on the right, an illimitable expanse
of water, which was bounded only by the horizon. Beyond these features,
there is not a prominent object to catch the eye. The magnificence which
first pleases, at last tires. The change of course brought the wind
ahead, and we were soon compelled to land on these bleak sandy wastes.
While thus detained, an express canoe from St. Mary's reached us with
letters. A couple of hours were employed in dispatching this canoe on
its return; meantime the wind lulled, and we went on ten miles and
encamped on the sands.
[41] From _na_, excellent; _amik_, beaver; and _ong_, a place.
The next morning, we were again in motion at five o'clock. Twelve miles
coasting along this unvaried shore, brought us to the mouth of a stream
called Neezhoda, Seepe,[42] or Twin River, which is imprecisely called
Two-Hearted River by the traders. The peculiarity of this stream
consists in the union of two separate rivers, near the point of its
outlet. Seven leagues beyond this spot brought us to the inlet called
Grande Marais. Immediately west of this begins an elevated naked coast
of sand-dunes, called Gitche Nägow,[43] or La Grande Sables. To
comprehend the geology of this coast, it is necessary to state that it
consists of several heavy strata of the drift era, reaching a height of
two or three hundred feet, with a precipitous front on the lake. The
sands driven up by the lake are blown over these heights, forming a
heavy deposit. It is this sandy deposit, falling down the face of the
precipice, that appears to convert the whole formation into dunes,
whereon the sandy coating rests, like a veil, over the pebble and
clay-drift. Their desert and Sahara-like appearance is quite impressive
to the travellers who visit these coasts in boats or canoes. The number
of rapacious birds which are observed about these heights, adds to the
interest of the prospect. Dr. Wolcott, and some other members of the
party who ascended the formation, reported a small lake on this
elevation. The sands were observed, in some places, to be deposited over
its vegetation so as to arrest its growth. The largest trees were often
half buried and destroyed. Not less than nine miles of the coast,
agreeably to _voyageur_ estimates, are thus characterized by dunes.
[42] From _oda_, a heart; _neezh_, two; and _seebe_, a river.
[43] From _nägow_, sand; and _gitche_, great.
I found the sandstone formation of Cape Iroquois to reappear at the
western termination of these heights on the open shores of the lake,
where I noticed imbedded nodules of granular gypsum. At this point,
known to our men as La Pointe des Grandes Sables, we pitched our tents,
at nightfall, under a very threatening state of the atmosphere. The
winds soon blew furiously, followed by a heavy rain-storm--and sharp
thunder and lightning ensued. Our line of tents stood on a gently rising
beach, within fifty yards of the margin of the lake, where they were
prostrated during the night by the violence of the waves. The rain still
continued at early daylight, the waves dashing in long swells upon the
shore. At sunrise the tempest abated, and by eight o'clock the
atmosphere assumed a calm and delightful aspect. It was eleven o'clock,
however, before the waves sufficiently subsided to permit embarkation.
Indeed, a perfect calm now ensued. This calm proved very favorable--as
we discovered on proceeding three leagues--to our passing the elevated
coast of precipitous rock, called Ishpäbecä,[44] and Pictured Rocks.
This coast, which extends twelve miles, consists of a gray sandstone,
forming a series of perpendicular façades, which have been fretted, by
the action of the waves, into the rude architecture of pillared masses,
and open, cavernous arches. These caverns present their dark mouths to
observation as the voyager passes. At one spot a small stream throws
itself from the cliffs into the lake at one leap. In some instances the
cliffs assume a castellated appearance. At the spot called the Doric
Rock, near the commencement of these picturesque precipices, a vast
entablature rests on two immense rude pillars of the water-worn mass. At
a point called Le Portail, the vast wall of rock had been so completely
excavated and undermined by the lake, that a series of heavy strata of
rock rested solely on a single pillar standing in the lake. The day was
fine as we passed these geological ruins, and we sat silently gazing on
the changing panorama. At one or two points there are small streams
which break the line of rock into quadrangles. A species of dark red
clay overlies this formation, which has been carried by the rains over
the face of the cliffs, where, uniting with the atmospheric sand and
dust, it gives the whole line a pictorial appearance. We almost held our
breath in passing the coast; and when, at night, we compared our
observations around the camp-fire, there was no one who could recall
such a scene of simple novelty and grandeur in any other part of the
world; and all agreed that, if a storm should have arisen while we were
passing, inevitable destruction must have been our lot. We came to Grand
Island at a seasonable hour in the evening, and encamped on the margin
of its deep and land-locked harbor. Our camp was soon filled with
Chippewas from a neighboring village. They honored us in the evening by
a dance. Among these dancers, we were impressed with the bearing of a
young and graceful warrior, who was the survivor of a self-devoted
war-party of thirteen men, who, having marched against their ancient
enemies the Sioux, found themselves surrounded in the plain by superior
numbers, and determined to sell their lives at the dearest rate. To this
end, they dug holes in the earth, each of which thus becoming a
fortification for its inmate, who dared their adversaries till
overpowered by numbers. One person was selected to return with the news
of this heroic sacrifice; this person had but recently returned, and it
was from his lips that we heard the tragic story.
[44] From _iupa_, high; _aubik_, a rock; and the substantive
termination, _a_.
My mineralogical searches along the shores this day rewarded me with
several water-worn fragments of agate, carnelian, zeolite, and prase,
which gave me the first intimation of our approach to the trap and
amygdaloidal strata, known to be so abundant in their mineral affluence
in this quarter.
We left Grand Island the next morning at six o'clock, and passing
through a group of sandstone islands, some of which had had their
horizontality disturbed, we came to the mouth of Laughing-fish River,
where a curious flux and reflux of water is maintained. From this place,
a line of sandstone coast was passed, northwardly, till reaching its
terminus on the bay of Chocolate River. This is a large and deep bay,
which it would have required a day's travel to circumnavigate. To avoid
this, the men held their way directly across it, steering N. 70° W.,
which, at the end of three leagues, brought us to Granite Point. Here
we first struck the old crystalline rocks or primitive formation. This
formation stretches from the north shores of the Gitche Sebeeng,[45] or
Chocolate River, to Huron Bay, and gives the traveller a view of rough
conical peaks. These characterize the coast for a couple of days'
travel. They are noted for immense bodies of iron ore, which is chiefly
in the condition of iron glance.[46] At Presque Isle, it assumes the
form of a chromate of iron in connection with serpentine rock. We
encamped on level ground on a sandstone formation, in the rear of
Granite Point, and had an opportunity of observing the remarkable manner
in which the horizontal sandstone rests upon and against the granitical,
or, more truly, sienitic eminences. These sandstone strata lap on the
shoulders of the primitive or crystalline rocks, preserving their
horizontal aspect, and forming distinct cliffs along parts of the coast.
This sandstone appears, from its texture and position, to be the "old
red sandstone" of geologists.
[45] From _gitche_, great; _sebee_, a river; and the local terminal
_ng_, signifying place.
[46] The extensive iron works of Carp River, which are now yielding
such fine blooms, are seated on the verge of these mountains.
The next morning (23d) we quitted our encampment at an early hour, in a
haze, and urged our way, with some fluctuations of weather, an estimated
distance of eleven leagues. This brought us, at four o'clock in the
afternoon, to Huron River. Sitting in the canoe, in a confined position,
makes one glad at every opportunity to stretch his limbs, and we
embraced the occasion to bathe in the Huron. The shore consists of a
sandy plain, where my attention was called to the Kinnikenik, a plant
much used by the Indians for smoking. It is the _uva ursi_. I had seen
it once before, on the expedition, at Point aux Barques.
We inspected here, with much attention, an Indian grave, as well from
the care with which it was made, as the hieroglyphics cut on the
head-posts. The grave was neatly covered with bark, bent over poles, and
made roof-shaped. A pine stake was placed at the head. Between this and
the head of the grave, there was placed a smooth tablet of cedar wood,
with hieroglyphics. Mr. Riley, our interpreter, explained these. The
figure of a bear denoted the chief or clan. This is the device called a
Totem. Seven red strokes denoted his scalp honors in Indian heraldry, or
that he had been seven times in battle. Other marks were not understood
or interpreted. A paling of saplings inclosed the space.
On the following morning, our camp was astir at the customary early
hour, when we proceeded to Point aux Beignes, a distance of six miles.
Attaining this point, we entered Keweena Bay, coasting up its shores for
an estimated distance of three leagues. We were then opposite the mouth
of Portage River, but separated from it a distance of twelve miles. I
was seated in Lieutenant Mackay's canoe. The whole squadron of five
canoes unhesitatingly put out. The wind was adverse; before much
progress had been made in crossing, three of our flotilla, after
struggling against the billows, put back; but we followed the headmost
one, which bore the Governor's flag, and, seizing hold of the paddles to
relieve the men, we succeeded in gaining the river. The other canoes
came up the next morning, at seven o'clock, when we all proceeded to
cross the Portage Lake, and up an inlet, which soon exhibited a rank
growth of aquatic plants, and terminated, after following a very narrow
channel, in a quagmire. We had, in fact, reached the commencement of the
Keweena Portage.
Before quitting this spot, it may be well to say, that the geology of
the country had again changed. Portage Lake lies, in fact, in the
direction of the great copper-bearing trap dyke. This dyke, estimating
from the end of the peninsula, extends nearly southwest and northeast,
probably seventy miles, with a breadth of ten miles. It is overlaid by
rubblestone and amygdaloid, which latter, by disintegration, yields the
agates, carnelians, and other silicious, and some sparry crystalline
minerals, for which the central shores of Lake Superior are remarkable.
Nearly every part of this broad and extensive dyke which has been
examined, yields veins, and masses of native copper, or copper ores.
The word was, when we had pushed our canoes into the quagmire, that each
of the gentlemen of the party was to carry his own personal baggage
across the portage. This was an awkward business for most of us. The
distance was but two thousand yards, but little over a mile, across
elevated open grounds. I strapped my trunk to my shoulders, and walked
myself out of breath in getting clear of the brushy part of the way,
till reaching the end of the first _pause_, or resting-place. Here I met
the Governor (Cass), who facetiously said: "You see I am carrying _two_
pieces," alluding to his canoe slippers, which he held in his hands. "A
_piece_," in the trade, is the back load of the _engagee_.
On reaching the termination of the second "pause," or rest, we found
ourselves on a very elevated part of the shore of Lake Superior. The
view was limitless, the horizon only bounding the prospect. The waves
rolled in long and furious swells from the west. To embark was
impossible, if we had had our baggage all brought up, which was not the
case. The day was quite spent before the transportation was completed.
This delay gave us an opportunity to ramble about, and examine the
shore. In a boulder of serpentine rock, I found an imbedded mass of
native copper, of two pounds' weight. On breaking the stone, it proved
to be bound together by thin filaments of this metal. Small water-worn
fragments of chalcedony, agate, carnelian, and other species of the
quartz family were found strewn along the beach, together with fragments
of zeolite. Masses of the two former minerals were also found imbedded
in amygdaloid and trap-rock, thus denoting the parent beds of rock. In
the zeal which these little discoveries excited on the subject of
mineralogy, the Chippewa, Ottowa, and Shawnee Indians attached to the
expedition participated, and as soon as they were made acquainted with
the objects sought, they became successful explorers. They had noticed
my devotion to the topic, from the time of our passing the Islands of
Shawangunk, Michilimackinac, and Flat-rock Point, in the basin of Lake
Huron, where organic forms were chiselled from the rock; and bestowed on
me the name of Paguäbëkiegä.[47]
[47] The equivalent of geologist or mineralogist, from _pagua_, a
tabular surface; _aubik_, a rock; and _ëga_, the active voice of the
verb to strike.
It turned out the next morning, that the whole of the baggage and
provisions had not been brought up, nor any of the canoes. This work was
early commenced by the men. About half the day was employed in the
necessary toil. When it was concluded, the wind on the lake had become
too high, blowing in an adverse direction, to permit embarkation.
Nothing remained but to submit to the increased delay, during which we
made ourselves as familiar with the neighboring parts of the lake shore
as possible. During the time the expedition remained encamped at the
portage, I made a short excursion up the peninsula northeastwardly,
accompanied by Captain Douglass, Mr. Trowbridge, and some other persons.
The results of this trip are sufficiently comprehended in what has
already been stated respecting the geology and mineralogy of this
prominent peninsula.
On the following morning (27th) the wind proved fair, and the day was
one of the finest we had yet encountered on this fretful inland sea. We
embarked at half-past four A. M., every heart feeling rejoiced to speed
on our course. The prominent headlands, west of this point, are capped,
as those on its south-eastern border, with red sandstone. The wind
proved full and adequate to bear us on, without endangering our safety,
which enabled the steersmen to hold out boldly, from point to point. We
had not proceeded far beyond the cliffs west of the portage, when the
dim blue outlines of the Okaug or Porcupine Mountains[48] burst on our
view.[49] Their prominent outline seemed to stretch on the line of the
horizon directly across our track. The atmosphere was quite transparent,
and they must have been seen at the distance of sixty miles. Captain
Douglass thought, from the curve of the earth, that they could not be
less than eighteen hundred feet in height. We successively passed the
entrance of Little Salmon-Trout, Graverod, Misery, and Firesteel Rivers,
at the latter of which a landing was made; when we again resumed our
course, and entered the Ontonagon River, at half-past three in the
afternoon. A large body of water enters the lake at the spot, but its
mouth is filled up very much by sands. One of those curious refluxes is
seen here, of which a prior instance has been noticed, in which its
waters, having been impeded and dammed up by gales of wind, react, at
their cessation, with unusual force. The name of the River Ontonagon[50]
is, indeed, due to these refluxes, the prized dish of an Indian female
having, agreeably to tradition, been carried out of the river into the
lake.
[48] From _kaug_, a porcupine.
[49] For the view of this scene, see Information on the History,
Condition, and Prospects of the Indian Tribes, vol. iv. Title iv.
[50] From the expression _nontonagon_, my dish; and _neen_, the
pronoun _my_.
Captain Douglass made observations for the latitude of the place, and
determined it to be in north latitude 46° 52´ 2´´. The stationary
distances of the route are given in the subjoined list, in which it may
be observed that they are probably exaggerated about one-third by the
voyagers and northwest traders, who always pride themselves on going
great distances; but they denote very well, in all cases, the _relative_
distances.
_Stationary Distances between Michilimackinac and the River Ontonagon._
Total
Miles. Miles.
From Michilimackinac to Detour 40
Thence to Sault de St. Marie 45 85
Point aux Pins 6 91
Point Iroquois, at the entrance into Lake
Superior 9 100
Taquamenon River 15 115
Shelldrake River 9 124
White-Fish Point 9 133
Two-Hearted River 24 157
Grande Marrais, and commencement of
Grande Sables 21 178
La Point la Grande Sables 9 187
Pictured Rocks (La Portaille) 12 199
Doric Rock, and Miner's River 6 205
Grande Island 12 217
River aux Trains 9 226
Isle aux Trains 3 229
Laughing-Fish River 6 235
Chocolate River 15 250
Dead River (in Presque Isle Bay) 6 256
Granite Point 6 262
Garlic River 9 271
St. John's River, or Yellow Dog Run 15 286
Salmon-Trout, or Burnt River 12 298
Pine River 6 304
Huron River (Huron Islands lie off this
River) 9 313
Point aux Beignes (east Cape of Keweena Bay) 6 319
Mouth of Portage River 21 340
Head of Portage River (through Keweena
Lake) 24 364
Lake Superior, at the head of the Portage 1 365
Little Salmon-Trout River 9 374
Graverod's River (small, with flat rocks at
its mouth) 6 380
Rivière au Misère 12 392
Firesteel River 18 410
Ontonagon, or Coppermine River 6 416