TABLE OF DISTANCES.

271

streets are narrow; and the land on the edge of the bluff, instead of being reserved for a promenade, like that of Iowa City, is cut up into small lots, having their rear toward the Mississippi; and certain little, but very useful, buildings present an unpleasant aspect, when viewed from the river.

The religious statistics of the territory are as yet so imperfectly made up that but little can be said, with certainty, respecting the denominational character of the inhabitants. The Episcopalians have a church at St. Paul. The Roman Catholics have seven, in different parts chiefly mission stations. The Methodists and Baptists are supposed to be numerous. On the whole, Minesota is one of the most promising regions of country in the world, and will richly repay the tourist in surveying the beauty of its scenery, and the settler in the productiveness of its soil.

A railroad now connects Chicago with Galena, and the remainder of the distance to St. Paul is by steamboat. The Upper Mississippi generally opens in April, and the boats continue running till about the first of December. The following table will show the distances from Galena, viz:

"From Galena to St. Peter's, the fare varies from five to six dollars, for cabin passage; two dollars and fifty cents for deck passage; freight, per hundred, twenty-five cents; horses and cattle, per head, four dollars. But families, with considerable freight, are taken at a much lower rate."

NORTH AMERICAN LAKES.

273

CHAPTER XVII.

THE SUPERIOR COUNTRY.

Lake Superior — American coast Anchorage Harbors Danger of navigating the lake Curious phenomena of the lake Transparency of its waters -The mirage of Lake Superior Islands Isle Royale - Lakes in Isle Royale - Perennial ice Effect of the extreme cold on the growth of the trees Rock Harbor Streams emptying into Lake Superior Appearance of the shore Iron-works of Carp River - Porcupine Mountains - Table of distances - The La Grande Sables-Pictured Rocks-Onton

agon River Montreal River Sturgeon River - The Iron re

gion - The different beds, etc.— Geologists' opinion of the iron region — Location of good agricultural lands Advantages of a railroad through the iron regions The copper region of the Superior country- Lake Superior reverenced by the Indians - The first Englishman who visited the copper region - Extract from his journal - First mining company- Mining companies of Keweenaw Trap rock-Silver among the copper Cliff mine Copper Falls mine, rich in silver Largest mass of copper Table of the products of foreign mines - Eagle Harbor-Game and speckled trout Fisheries of Lake Superior - Climate, etc.

THE North American lakes, consisting of lakes Superior, Michigan, Huron, Erie, and Ontario, present a watery surface of ninety thousand square miles, of which more than one-third, or thirty-two thousand square miles, is comprised in Lake Superior alone. That vast inland sea lies between the forty-sixth and forty-ninth parallels of latitude, and the eighty-fourth and ninety-second degrees of longitude west of Greenwich. Its greatest length is four hundred miles. Its greatest breadth from Grand Island to Neepigon Bay is one hundred and sixty miles. The surface of the lake is six hundred feet above the

level of the Atlantic Ocean; but its bottom is three hundred feet below; for it has a mean depth of nine hundred feet. The French, who were the first explorers of Lake Superior, fancifully described it as a watery bow, of which the southern shore was the string, and Keweenaw Point, the arrow. The lake discharges through the St. Mary's Strait into lake Huron, which occupies a lower level, by forty-four feet and eight inches. The strait is about seventy miles long; but it is divided into two sections by the Falls of St. Mary, fifteen miles below Lake Superior. The lower section is navigable for small steamboats, and vessels drawing six feet of water. section contains four large islands and several smaller ones but the principal channel-the westerly one-is nearly a mile in width. The Falls of St. Mary, or more properly, rapids, are three-fourths of a mile in length, having a fall, in that distance, of twenty-two feet and ten inches. The two sections are now united by a steamboat and ship canal.

This

Following along the indentations of the southern shore, around the westerly extremity of the lake, to Arrow River, opposite to Isle Royale, will give the extreme length of the American coast, which can not be much less than one thousand miles; a part of which is in Michigan, part in Wisconsin, and part in Minesota. Lake Superior is walled in by rocks, which, in some places, are piled in mountain masses upon the very shore. The waves dash against precipices and beetling crags, that threaten the unfortunate mariner, in a storm upon a lee shore, with almost inevitable destruction. There is tolerable anchorage at the head of St. Mary's Strait. Keweenaw Point has two sheltering bays; viz, Copper Harbor and Eagle Harbor. Protection may be found from the surf, under the lee of the Apostle Islands, at La Pointe. St. Louis