Launch'd at length on the broad channel,e

Where La Cloche 21 and Mahnitoolin 20

Eastward crowd their violet turrets,

Where Saint Joseph's 25 blue shore shyly
Peeps above the western mere-brim.

7.

66 in parentis viscera intravit suæ Deterior ætas: eruit ferrum grave."

Brightest blazed the Sun-God's splendour,

Highest soar'd his lamp's effulgence,

When we landed on the drear ridge,22

this one standing on the beach, and heard that there had been another, but it had fallen into the water.

• We passed through the islets called 'The Ducks' at 5 a. m., proceeded along Great Mahnitoolin Island (1. 81 m., a. 1600 sq. m.), and found our way into the North Channel (120 m. from W. to E., and 25 m. from N. to S.) through Missisahging Strait, which divides the tail of that large crawfish-shaped island from Cockburn Island. This island (about 13 m. from W. to E., and 9 m. from N. to S.) is thickly wooded, and only inhabited by the Red Man. On its west, separated by a narrow channel, is Drummond Island (about 19 m. from W. to E., and 11 m. from N. to S.), a low, wooded, and unsettled island, belonging to the State of Michigan. C. (p. 27) speaks of it en passant as "interesting from its fossils." Good lithographic stone is said to have been found in it (see D., p. 114).

Ridge strong-sinew'd limbs are delving,
Tearing treasures, sacrilegious,

From the thews of the Great Mother,f

Rifling wealth throughout the ages 'Neath Earth's solid ribs embedded.

There the dull rock glistens gaud-like
With the peacock's changeful plumage,
With the tints the Day-King's finger
Braids upon the sable rain-cloud.

Bare and parch'd and stern the surface,
Save where struggles forth dwarf herbage,
Stunted raspberry 23, starv'd whortle. 24

8.

· αἰεὶ Ζεφύροιο λιγυπνείοντας ἀήτας Ὠκεανὸς ἀνίησιν, ἀναψύχειν ἀνθρώπους.”

Then thrice welcome waved the wild wood

Of Saint Joseph's 25 teeming island,

Fann'd by mild, mere-temper'd breezes,

Scantly gemm'd with hut and 'clearing,'—
Tawny-arm'd squaws of the savage

* See Lucretius, ii. 598 642.

Paddling by the bowery border,

Answering the plash of paddle

With clear, merry-ringing laughter.

9.

"longos superant flexus, variisque teguntur
Arboribus," -

Welcome the fair groves that tower

O'er the river of Saint Mary-26
Broad stream studded with rock-islets,
Islet bristling with lithe birch-stems,27
Army white-clad and green-crested.

Stem we now a raving torrent,
Struggling through his serried crevass,

Writhing, coiling, plunging, darting,
Likest Lerna's mangled hydra.

Now with clinging slime & we wrestle;
Now ascend a rolling river

Alluding to Mud Lake (1. 10 m., b. 5 m.) and Lake George (L 8 m., b. 5 m.). In Mud Lake "is found a great abundance and variety of fishes, and also the salamander, which the Indians call 'the walking fish' (Menobranchus), and which even to them is a great curiosity" (C. p. 29).

Shaking off his mere-like slumber,—h

Slumber after his wild surges

O'er the rocks that block his journey,

Where, with many a bound and eddy,—2

As the giant of the ice-deep,

Chief of all that swim wide ocean,

Vex'd long while by venturous oarsmen,
Stung by swarms of spears incessant,-
Prone he speeds in furious onset,—
Tossing high his showery foam-spray,

Tossing high frail boat of birch-bark 27
Guided by the dexterous paddle.

28

h For some distance below the Saut Ste. Marie rapids, t river (b. 1 m.) is particularly tranquil.

IV.

SUNSHINE ON KEETCHI GAHMI.

1.

"-juventus

Per medium classi barbara venit Athon."

MORN had flamed forth o'er dun pine-ridge,
Ere our barque had trod the channel 29
Hewn by cunning of the White Man,-
Path meet for his hugest fire-ship
From the Leap 28 of Mary's River, 26
Leap of Keetchi-Gahmi Seebi,-
To the White Man's Lake Superior,31
To the Red Man's Keetchi Gahmi,— 33
To the Red Man's grand Great Water.

2.

"impiæ

Non tangenda rates transiliunt vada."

Dainty tree-clad slopes 30 trip by us,

Till the broad expanse is open'd